Wednesday Morning Surprise!

 SURPRISE! Two new baby goats!

While we knew that our goat, Bella, was pregnant we thought she was due on July 15th.  So it was a bit of a surprise when this morning she popped out these two little beauties.

 We had a boy and a girl. 

Our boy is Denny...

 and our girl is Dottie. (I think... we may change that)

 They are much smaller than our last batch. Denny is 7 pounds and Dottie is just 4 pounds. So small!

 Bonnie Rose is very in love with them.

A birthing adventure 46/365

keeping the babies warm

This has been a very long week. William and I were looking over the blog today and I was kind of surprised to see that all the babies have been born this week. Monday seems likes weeks ago.

We had two more babies born!
It's really fun how every birth has been so different. I hope you're not getting tired of hearing about them because we still have two more pregnant mothers!

Today started out normal enough. Actually it seemed like it was going to be a slow Friday. Baby and I got up about 9 and stayed in our room for a while reading books and sitting on her potty. Actually Baby Girl told me she wanted to sit on her potty this morning and then she went POO!
I am so proud of her. She's only 16 months and she's already telling me when she wants to go. And that folks is Elimination Communication.

Anyway, when we finally emerged from our room William and my mom were no where to be found. I looked for them and then checked on the goats from the back window with the binoculars my mom keeps by the window (for checking on the goats, not the neighbors).

Then baby and I had breakfast together. We shared fried eggs and teased the dog a little with them. About 10:20am Aunt Mae called and we talked for a couple of minutes and then I wandered over to the window to check on the goats with the binoculars again.

It was so interesting to see her eat the placenta

I had noticed the first time I checked that one of the goats, Tahoe, was keeping her self separate from the others and I wanted to make she wasn't having a baby yet. She didn't seem like she was in active labor yet but I wanted to check.

I am so glad I did.


Tahoe wasn't in labor but when I went to scan the other mamas I saw that Lea, who was not showing signs earlier of being in labor, was bloody on her back end and there was something coming out!

I snatched up the baby and ran to our room. I still had no idea where my mom and William were and some one had to get out there. I dressed both me and baby as fast as I could and ran out the to goat pen. It maybe took us 10 minutes to get out there. if that.

By the time we got out there two baby goats were laying on the ground and Lea was looking MUCH thinner. I could tell that the second baby had JUST been born. He was still in the goo and needed to be cleaned up. I wrapped him in a towel and got him in a more dry place and tried to help him nurse. The other baby was already starting to walk a little so I tired to help her nurse.

Lea with her strong and healthy babies

Both the babies were very big, but then their mother had been HUGE. It was really cold  out and I needed to wrap them up to keep them warm. MY poor baby wasn't sure what was going on. She kissed and patted the girl goat for a while but then didn't like that I was holding these new babies instead of her.

Luckily we were only out there about half an hour before William and my mom came home. They had taken the two babies that were born on Wednesday to the vet.

My mom and I stayed with the babies for another couple of hours and William took Bonita in the house to warm up and play. It was a such sweet time of bonding with the new babies and trying to help them nurse. Lea and I have never been good friends before this but I think she was thankful I was there. She give me a few kisses on my nose and forehead to say thank you.

Her babies are strong and healthy weighing 8 1/2  pounds (3.8kilos) and 9 pounds (4kilos). We named them Charlie and Charlotte.

Dear Charlotte

Sweet Charlie

Happy weekend every one. I'm going to take an aspirin and get some sleep. I hope you can too.

Baby Bonita in the goat pen

Birthing Babies 42/365

 William gets up early.  I do not.  My excuse is that  I still nurse baby much of the night and that doesn't always allow for as much sleep as I might like.

This morning William came into the bed room just in time to see me open my groggy eyes for the first time and announced that Angel was in labor.
"It will be a while still but the babies are coming" he told me and then handed me a cup of coffee.


Thinking in human terms I assumed "in labor" and  "a while" meant that I still had a bit of time. I drank my coffee and checked my email and Facebook and then woke up my Baby Girl to giver her some morning cuddle milk. She was still waking up and nursing when William came bursting in a few minutes later and exclaimed "TWO BABY GOATS!"

"Already?! I thought you said it would be a while?" I couldn't believe how fast they had come.

I got Baby Girl and myself dressed and we went outside as fast as we could. We spent the rest of the morning outside with the goats.
We even ate our breakfast out there and only came in after Baby Girl was tired and ready for her nap.

Meet Coco

Meet Cordelia

 The two baby goats are doing well. The first one born is brown all over and weighs 9 pounds. We are calling her Coco.  The second baby has the most beautiful brown ears and I named her Cordelia. (I'm happy I finally get to name something that.) She weighs about 6 pounds.

My mom is a goat lactation consultant

 Baby Girl had so much fun playing with the goats. She was out there with them for hours giving them kisses and hugging them and patting them. She is such a little farmer baby.

 The other goats were very curious about what was going on. Here's a picture of Bonita telling Bella all about the baby goats. Bella and Bonita get along really well.

So that was our exciting morning. We're waiting now to see who gives birth next. Hopefully I'll actually make it out there to see next time.