'You've Got to Be Kidding!' One More Down and One to Go- Honey Dreame Farms

[HoneyDreameMomma]

My girls took pity on me and gave me a day break when I was feeling my worst with this nasty virus I've got, but they started back up again on Saturday. Jayna, one of our FF, had doe/buck twins. She needed just a bit of help with the buck, because he had a large head , but she popped the doe out like a pro. She was a goat that definitely bonded with me through labor. She had never liked to be petted - not even as a kid, and she generally didn't like people in her space. While she was in labor, she became extremely affectionate, wanted me to pet her, nuzzled me, and for nearly 12 hours before she gave birth, she would bellow and cry every time I had to leave the barn. I thought she might return to her 'can't touch this' self after the babies were born, but apparently she decided that being petted isn't so bad.

This is Jayna nuzzling my hand. I took a picture, because I thought it might never happen again.

Jayna's big-headed blue-eyed buckling. He's got a super cute personality. His sister (below) is pretty sweet too!

 

[HoneyDreameMomma]

Our other girl that kidded over the weekend was Sophie. Sophie is our tease. We thought she would be the first to go based on loose ligaments, puffy vulva and various 'close to kidding' behaviors, but apparently my breeding date on her was actually correct, and she officially went into labor last night. Instead of being the first, she was the sixth of eight - I think she just wanted to take up a birthing stall so she could get waited on.

Sophie's labor was unusual. She was having hard contractions and pushing, and then she'd have a big break - bigger than I'd ever seen for a goat in hard labor. Everyone seems to say intervene after about 30 minutes of hard pushing, but because the pushing was spaced out more than usual, I gave it nearly 2 hours before I sanitized myself and went in. Although I'm far from an expert, I felt what I was pretty sure hooves a little ways down the birth canal. It felt like a good presentation, and it was far enough down the birth canal that pulling would have been tough. Because of my limited experience, I didn't want to do anything drastic, and the only goat vet nearby doesn't do middle of the night calls.

DH gave some sage advice when I went to him with my concerns after nearly 3 hours of this craziness. I would hate to lose any of our does, but Sophie is one of our sweetest girls, and is a personal favorite. It was 1:00am, and when he saw how exhausted and upset I was, he simply said, "Honey, let life surprise you." It struck a chord for me. I set my alarm for 3:00am, and got a few hours of much needed rest. I woke up to two beautiful, strong, nearly-dry bucklings, who only needed a little bit of coaching on how to nurse. Not that I recommend leaving the side of a heavy laboring doe, but in this case, it proved the best medicine.

For those of you asking about the current count - does 8/bucks 4. Two more girls to go...

Both of these boys are blue-eyed too.

 

[OneFineAcre]

Beautiful
Congratulations

 

[Pearce Pastures]

Very cute.

 

[goats&moregoats]

Just catching up. Congrats on all the beautiful babies. Glad the struggles all came out with good endings.

 

[Onyx]

Such adorable little babus. I cannot wait to get mine!

 

[Hens and Roos]

Congrats!

 

[HoneyDreameMomma]

One of our FFs, Snigglefritz, gave birth yesterday afternoon. I had checked on her around 3:00 pm, and she seemed like she had several more hours to go - I was thinking 7 or 8 at the earliest, but when the kids went out to feed animals at 4:30pm, they ran back in to tell me she'd had twins and something was wrong with one of them. Snigglefritz was in a bit of shock and wasn't doing a very good job cleaning things up. DD was trying to help dry off baby #1, but thought baby #2 was stillborn, because when they went out, it was still in the sac and wasn't moving, it's umbilical cord was still connected to mom, and she wasn't acknowledging it, wasn't trying to clean it off or anything.

I lifted the baby and felt it was warm, so I hurriedly cleaned off the sac and other goop and low and behold, the little fighter started to breath! As soon I could see the baby's airways were clear, I went to work tying off and cutting the umbilical cord. Fortunately, Snigglefritz held still through the whole process, and neither she nor the kid were hurt. The first baby was a tri-colored buckling and the little fighter was a tri-colored, blue-eyed doe, which brings our count to 9 does and 5 bucks.

In spite of the few little bumps we've had, I feel like we've been very fortunate this kidding season. We have one more doe to go, and I'm guessing she's a few days out still (she was a little shy with the boys ).

 

[Onyx]

Oh gosh they are just so adorable!!!! My jealousy is mounting by the minute!

 

[samssimonsays]

Beautiful! so glad all turned out ok!