mouse paused during labor

Question
my female mouse is on her 20th day of her first pregnancy. Last night when i went to bed, no babies, when i woke up there were two pups in the nest but cheza still had at least 4 more lumps in her belly! She was sleeping in the corner when i found her, and the nanny was with the two pups when i checked the nest. There were no signs of labor continuing, her vagina was back to mousy normality, i'm just worried! I'm wondering what caused her to stop after two, take a nap and then return to the nest?(Shes been in there for about 2 hours now) and will she finish having her litter? (I also have a cat, but she has never been aggressive towards my mice, snakes, or birds. She even gives my mice tongue baths lol. Could my kitty stress cheza out?) Thank You for your help! Cheza is my favorite female, i raised her mother, and her grandmother, I would hate to lose her...

Answer
Dear Ruby,

If Cheza is used to the kitty, and nothing unusual happened, that should not be the problem.

I'm not a mouse obstretician :) so I don't know all of the possibilities; but if she does not continue to give birth, it is possible that the remainder of the pups (perhaps dead already- that could be why this happened) will either be expelled later (which isn't very pretty, but maybe she will spare you the sight), or will be absorbed back into her body.

That's not a guarantee; and if you want to be careful, you can bring her to the vet-- but this is pretty hard to do without stressing her out, which endangers the other pups.

I hope that when you read this, the problem will have already alleviated itself.

The very best of luck to her and her babies.

squeaks,

Natasha