Choosing the Puppies over the Ballet

I thought I would see the Saint Petersburg’s ballet performing The Swan Lake.

The Russians know ballet.

I was looking forward to this.

It was the perfect day.

I couldn’t wait to see it.

I loooove everything related to dance.

I loooooove ballet.

The combination of music and human bodies creating art is almost sacred for me.

BUT APPARENTLY I WAS CONFUSED! 😉😅

I FOR SURE WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO SEE THE SWAN LAKE LAST WEEK! 🤣

A fee weeks ago, a friend asked me if I can be “on-call”-backup if she’s in trouble with her pregnant doggie, and I said yes to that.

The friend is an experienced breeder and she’s never ever needed vet-assistance during her bitches’ whelping.

But… this time it was different. The litter was way larger than expected.

The dog-mamma started her second phase of whelping at 01:00 am. By 04:30 no puppy came out and more and more dark green fluids started to come out from her vagina. Even if her contractions seemed strenuous, they weren’t strong enough to push the puppies out into the world.

At 06:30 am we were at the clinic and I helped the first puppy out. Oxytocine, calcium, glucose and helping fingers/hands were involved.

The uterus and belly were so overstretched that it was impossible for the dog-momma to push the puppies out.

At 06:00 pm we had 13 delivered, one being stillborn and underdeveloped. That was the easiest one to expel.

Every single alive puppy needed manual stimulation, drug-cocktails and a helping hand out into the world.

At that point, at 06:00 pm we had two puppies left inside.

I could have gone to see the Russians doing their ballet.

It would have been ok with my friend to “take the chance” with the last two puppies left inside.

The friend would have been ok with losing two puppies.

And she felt sorry for us missing the thing I was talking about for so long.

I could found all the excuses in the world to leave.

Yet I chose to say YES to two more alive puppies, and NO to the long-time planned evening with my husband, experiencing live Russian ballet.

Even my husband wouldn’t have chosen the ballet over the puppies! 🙈💖 I chose wisely when I married him, 24 years ago! 😍❤️‍🔥

At 09:15 pm the last alive and kicking puppy came into the world.

No C-section!, even if at some point we did prepare the OR for it!

Everyone is fine! My body is aching in places that I didn’t know existed.

And I was in close connection with that dog-mamma who totally surrendered her body and puppies into my hands.

You know what was not a concern through the day?

Food!

My friends bought lunch for all of us because everyone was starving.

I wanted a plain grilled chicken salad.🤷🏻‍♀️

They offered to buy dinner or anything else to eat/drink/celebrate after the puppies were out.

And I just wanted to get home, to my husband, and eat with him some leftovers and a salad.

I remember celebrating these kind of work-days with food takeouts.Or with expensive desserts.

I realize now that those were excuses to totally deny what my body needed (water, salad, a bath, a massage, sleep).

Those were excuses to overeat, creating EVEN MORE DISCOMFORT FOR MY BODY!

That is not important for me anymore.

Being in alignment with my authentic self means:

-saying no to the Russian ballet over two alive puppies

-saying no to a whole free day with my husband over 14 alive puppies delivered under 20 h of medically assisted labor

-saying NO to ANY FOOD/DESSERT available in driving distance and YES to a plain grilled chicken salad —> that means saying NO to what my habitual brain would think I want and YES to what my body really wants. THAT TAKES PRACTICE TO EMBRACE!

THIS IS WHO I CURRENTLY AM.

FOOD IS EASY FOR ME NOW.

SAYING YES/ NO TO VET-RELATED STUFF IS ALSO EASY FOR ME! A NO BRAINER!

Are you able to say YES OR NO to food/ vet-questions/ family engagements/ friends requests as if your life depends on it?

Do you know what are your core-values?

Are you living in alignment with them?

HOW TO KNOW if you are NOT aligned with your core-values?