Hi guys, so my girls due to whelp any day now, we’ve had panting, heavy breathing, a little discharge last night that’s it since, no nesting at all, temps have been up and down a little we did get a temp of 36.8 last night but back to 37.6 now, she’s eating as normal. I genuinely thought that this was it she was on her way...sooo that all stopped and she’s now acting normal like nothing happened! Bit sleepy and needy but apart from that she’s fine. We’ve had her at the vets to make sure she’s ok and she said she and pups are doing well...they’re less active today than they were yesterday I’m not really feeling them move as much but from what we say they were fine. She has some milk leakage but not a lot. She’s confused me massively
I’d love to hear some others experiences and see what has been the outcome have they gone on to whelp when you thought or hang on a little more. TIA

Is this your first litter?  Because this sort of thing is par for the course!  

It’s actully not it’s my second litter but to be fair it may aswell be as the last litter I had was years ago now

Deep breath. Aaaaaaand....relax.
She'll be fine, you'll be fine x

The temperature (which I really didn't set much score by) needs to drop significantly, and stay down.   When it does that, whelping should begin within 24 - 48 hours.   I went by the time from the first mating - and yes I know, conception doesn't necessarily happen right then.   And I didn't let mine go over by more than 2 days without involving my vet.

Mine didn't start nesting until labour began - small ripples can be seen.

Puppies with mine tended to go 'quiet' shortly before whelping started and the first time I noticed this, it scared me to death but I assume it was just them getting lined up ready to come into the world - and resting before that too

It's good she doesn't have lashings of milk - newborn puppies don't need much and often can't cope with overloaded teats.

Good luck!   And try to catch up on as much sleep as possible before it all kicks off

Well, there is such a thing as uterine inertia.  Labour doesn't start when it should.  Puppies die in utero and are still born. 

The only way to know if it's 'too late' is to know when ovulation OR when diestrus was.  Without any timing, you're just guessing in the dark about when the litter is due and have no way of knowing if you are overdue and should c-section or whether everything is fine. 

You don't need to progesterone test to get accurate timing like this, learning how to do cytology with a cheapo kid's microscope at home means you will be able to tell when diestrus starts and you will have a 24 hour whelping window, within which the bitch will whelp. 

Hopefully your vet has checked the heart rates of the puppies?  Since, if they start to slow, that is a sure sign you need to get them out ASAP...