Dear Diary - the kittens were born

Read the Introduction, to get the general picture of my interaction with the alley cats, and the Summary, to put the stories on a timeline.

Sooo, Greta gave birth.

At first I put her in the closet in the spare bedroom. Moms with kittens seem to enjoy living in a small space, they feel safer. But Greta wasn't a mom yet so she didn't really enjoy to stay in the closet, especially as my other cats went to that room and to the closet door. So I left Greta roam in that whole room, but by herself. She was very happy and very cuddly. I visited her every hour or two.

And at some point in the afternoon I caught her giving birth... in the litter box. Two kittens were born already, one looked fluffy, the other, probably just born, was wet and FULL of litter. I firstly cleaned the baby a little so mom wouldn't lick him with all the litter on... Then I moved them in the closet. The last born still had the amniotic sac attached so I was extra careful to not pull the baby umbilical cord and get him hernia. Usually the mom eats the amniotic sac and cuts the umbilical cord. But with the litter situation going on, I disinfected a scissor and cut it myself. They already were staring to eat, and while I was there she popped out another one! The first two were black and white, the last one white and black. I closed the closet door and let them be so I would rest my back and knees a little...

I checked on her probably every 15 minutes. In less then an hour she had another one, white and black. The bedding was quite soiled at this point, so after she cut the umbilical cord I changed it, I thought she was done... Nope, here came a back one! I waited for mom to clean him and changed the bedding again. I thought that surely she was done. Nope, here came another black one. This one was very tiny, and all the others were already eating so I went to check on him repeatedly, obsessively. I had to see him eating. I actually had to place him myself on her nipples and hold him so the others won't get him on the side.

Greta ate very well before giving birth, now, during birth she hasn't eaten much. A cat that I helped with giving birth a year before, was eating and drinking water continuously. At some point I changed the bedding and put the dirty ones in the washing machine.  I put two types of canned food and some dry food, and I went to sleep! It was almost midnight.