We all survived our first night together. It went something like this:
After the sleep, play, sleep cycle repeated itself, I began thinking it was time for the puppies to actually sleep in the crate. I abandoned the idea of crating them separately at least for this first night away from mama and the litter. I put them inside, turned off the lights, and had Alexa play thirty minutes of classical music.

I walked upstairs to brush my teeth and the crying began before I even reached the second story. After changing to pjs and washing up to escalating cries from the crate I returned downstairs. I came down to the sofa and watched a Party of Five on my iPad hoping the voices of Bailey and Julia would calm them. Or at least help distract me from their crying. Things did quiet ‪around midnight‬. Three hours later Summer and Koda were awaking and asking to get out. I went over and grabbed Summer first, since she appeared to be the vocal one. I took her out and she peed right away. Then I brought her back inside and stuck her in the octagon pen so I could take Koda out separately (this is when I realized that Koda is also quite vocal). Koda pooped in the grass right away. I could hear Summer yelping loudly from the octagon. Truth be told it is actually not an 8 sided pen, it’s six. But my husband thought octagon sounds cooler because of some Chuck Norris movie.

So at ‪3:20‬ in the morning these pups were full of energy and wanting to play. I did not see them as being even close to falling back asleep in their crate. So I sat and played for about 20 minutes on the rug. Then I again took them both out to pee.
‪By 3:45‬ it was back into the crate, lights off, Alexa playing classical, and me on the sofa saying soothing words every so often. It took about ten minutes for them to settle down.

‪At 6:20‬ I woke to barks from across the family room. Exhausted I took them both out together. They peed and pooped on the grass. They ate gobbled up their breakfast, played inside a little.‪ Then at 6:50‬ I took them outside to pee and romp around. Summer likes to run circles around the built in bbq island. We came back inside and I made my first cup of coffee. They played for maybe two minutes and then fell asleep against my hip and leg ‪around 7:25‬. Thus began the puppy repeat cycle. Play, sleep, play, sleep. It feels like they are sleeping a lot!

It’s rather fitting that this is Father’s Day. Last night was a night just like when my husband became a father of our first baby. He woke every three hours to their cries just as I did. This morning we both had that new parent tired look. I am lucky to have such a great partner raising our expanding family.  His comforting and gentleness for the young pups, his support for me as I mothered them, and his listening to my information I got from reading about baby/puppy care. He is an amazing father to our children and will be just as awesome as Papadoodle!

Quick side note: special thank you to Koda and Summer’s older human siblings. They are helping out a ton already! And made Papadoodle a delicious breakfast for this special day.