Questions about nursing mother cat

I got my foster cat when she was a couple weeks pregnant. Pretty much up until she started labor, she was, for lack of a better word, rather pissy. Sometimes happy to be petted, then she'd bite you all of the sudden, Impossible to give medication to, unless she was securely restrained. I tried to take her temperature one time and barely escaped with my life Now that she's had her kittens, while she's nursing, she's just the sweetest kitty in the world, purrs constantly, lets me clean her and trim the hair on her tummy. But when she steps away from the kittens, she's pretty much back to her old self. i'm not concerned about this behaviour, really just curious if this is typical?

Its not necessarily the most typical, but it sounds fully normal anyway.

Its apparently so the nursing AND the purring has some sort of calming mekanism in it.  Also, surely a hormon surge, making her both more harmonic, more confident, and more friendly.

a little tip.  If you must measure her temp.  I suspect you did it the standard way, into the behind?

The easiest is to use such a modern ear thermometre, - touch and read off.    You must of course know what the normal temp is, as it doesnt show the same as in the butt.

If you dont have such modernities at home, you can measure in the armpit of the foreleg.  Not so invasive and thus not so stressing.  and you can usually pretend its just a new play you are doing, just to amuse her some.

The same problem - armpit isnt the butt.    The diff is about 3 grades Fahrenheit lover, or 1 whole grace Celsius - perhaps a shade more the one grade.

Good luck!

This is after the fact, as my foster cat gave birth on 8/31/14, but she required more help from me than I was expecting and I have some questions. She was an owner surrender turned in to the Humane Society, and the age they listed on her paperwork was 1 year old. She was with me for just over 5 weeks before she delivered so I had plenty of time to research what to expect and what i needed. She only delivered the placenta with the first kitten, with the other four kittens, I waited about 10 minutes, before I removed the placentas myself, on the advice of a gal at the emergency vet clinic (this was around 3:30 am). With the first three kittens, she cleaned them pretty quickly, but she never made any attempt to sever the umbilical cords. I ended up tying them off and cutting them with scissors. I tried to tear the cords with my fingers, but they were so slippery, iI found it impossible. With the last two kittens, she didn't even try to remove the sacs off the kittens, so I did that as well. And the first kitten was the only one she dried thoroughly, the remaining kittens were quite wet until I dried them off. With all the info I had read, I didn't really expect to need to be quite so involved. The delivery of the kittens themselves was pretty easy for her, each kitten came within 45 minutes of the previous one, but I was curious if the delivery of the placentas and her handling of the umbilical cords was due to the fact that she was a fairly young cat? I'm very glad I was able to be there to help her, but I don't know how it would have gone if she would have had them when I wasn't home. She's been an excellent and attentive mother now that the kittens have arrived and all the kittens have been putting on weight steadily, so I consider myself lucky in that respect. 

One year old is no very young.  So the instincts "should" kick in themselves.  That said, first time deliverers may be less knowleable than next time such.

But dont try to look see what happens next time, do spay her when its time for it.

Lets be happy you managed nicely well this difficult situation, and the continuations goes well!

I wonder, WHAT did you do with removing the placentas?  How did you take them out?    Did you draw in the cord still still being connected??

Yes, she will definitely be spayed. The Humane Society here does not adopt out any animals unless they have been spayed or neutered first. As soon as the kittens are eight weeks old, both the mother and kittens will be taken to their vet to be fixed.

Ideally, I would have been able to tie off the umbilical cords near the kittens before messing with the placentas, but the mother was moving around so much it was impossible. After ten minutes it seemed pretty apparent the placenta was not going to come out on it's own and I was concerned the kittens would get injured since they were still attached to the mother and she was moving around so much. I was a little nervous about removing the placentas, but felt a little more confident about after talking to the woman at the emergency veterinary clinic. Basically I just pulled gently on the cord close to mom's end until it came out. Then I tied the cord near the kitten and cut the cord, and gave the placenta to the mother. 

My foster kittens are now 13 days old. They've been in the same room with their mother since birth. It's a carpeted basement room, and I've got a radiant heater in there and I've been keeping it right around 75° F. They've all been nursing just fine and she's had no problem with me handling them, and they've all been putting on weight just fine. Suddenly, just a little while ago, she started meowing frantically and moved one kitten behind my bed. I put him back in the nesting box, and within a few minutes she moved him again. I put him back again, then she moved a different kitten. Thinking there might have been something in the room that suddenly upset her, I moved the entire nesting box to the bathroom. She let them nurse for a few minutes and seemed to calm down, but now she's at it again. I'm going to wait a few minutes to see if she moves all of them. Any ideas on what's going on?

Cat mom do so sometimes.  Often if they got  stressed by something, or the bed got smelly.   So you did quite correctly.

But sometimes there is nothing else to do but just to keep them closed in one place...  Let them have perhaps two beds to choose if they want, but in one room.

Good it is not one and the same kitten who is taken out.  

Holding thumbs!

I change the bedding every day, so I don't think it was that. But I did change it all again anyway, and I put her back in the original room. At least if she moves them out of the box, the entire room is warm and there aren't any sneaky hiding spots for her to stash them. One kitten that hasn't opened his eyes did have some gunk around one eye, so I cleaned it off and he yelled quite a bit when I did it. Perhaps that was what upset her? But I am taking them in to the Humane Society today when they open to have them looked at to make sure the one kitten doesn't have the beginnings of a URI.