March 11, 2011

We Have the Season's FIRST Babies!

Babies asleep


Last night, I had prepared dinner and was getting ready to go to an important leadership meeting for our church's Women's Ministry, which I was running.  My husband comes in from the barn, and he tells us that we were probably going to have babies tonight.  He said Sophie had some wet stuff on her bottom (one of the things I told him to watch for).  So I scarfed my dinner and went down to the barn, within probably 5 minutes.  When I got down there, she had two "bubbles" from the sac coming out already!

I RAN up to the house, because the boys REALLY wanted to see the babies being born.  I ran in and told them the babies were coming NOW!  And I ran back down (and you KNOW this was important, cuz I DON'T RUN...), and found she was pushing.  The boys got down there in time.

They were in time to see the little front hooves of that fist little baby sticking out.  I was there ready to remove the sack off the babies faces.  The boys were excited but slightly scared for the situation, so I was able to explain about what was happening, and what would happen next.

We ended up on the THIRD baby, yes third, having a little scare.  His head came through and she kept pushing, but just couldn't get him out.  She stopped him while his head was out but his body was still in.  I got worried pretty quickly that this might cause some damage.  So I grabbed him and gently started to pull when she contracted.  The big boy slowly started to come out so I stopped pulling.  He stopped at his back legs.  And she wasn't pushing anymore, so I pulled him the rest of the way out.  He ended up being big!

As I was taking care if THAT big guy, she was cleaning him up, and I saw what I believed to be the placenta coming out.  I didn't pay much attention to it, because I was focused on her NOT stepping on her babies.  Then my son said, "MOM!  It's another baby!"  In shock, I looked back and sure enough there layed baby number 4!!!

As soon as I gave some instruction to my husband who wasn't prepared for all of this, I ran to the house and changed my clothes.  Then left for my meeting, smelling like a goat.  And still in shock that our Sophie had 4 babies!

Charlie and Koen

Right now, all of the babies are doing well.  The one little "big" guy that had gotten stuck, he doesn't have his land legs yet.  I think it is from being stuck for a little while.  So we brought him in the house, and are bottle feeding him his mommy's milk.  He is a little sweetheart.  Boys have already named him Charlie.

We ended up having 2 boys and 2 girls.  The first boy paved the way for the rest of them.  Check out his markings:


Sophie decided to have her babies on the coldest, windiest night of the week.  So we woke several times in the night, and hubby even mad them a little "nest" so they could stay warmer.  That was about 3:30 in the morning. 

This morning the babies in the barn, all seem to be happy. I got in the pen and pet them, and they didn't get all upset like they wanted to eat or anything.  Little Charlie that is in the house was starving at 6:30 am when my boys started waking up.  So I went down and collected some milk from mommy, and brought it up, giving it all to that hungry little fella.

It's going to be a busy couple of weeks bottle feeding all of these babies, but it makes you smile to see those little tails flicking back and forth when they are happy...

10 comments:

Kim said...

Wow, 4! How exciting. Those little tails are adorable.

Kim said...

I'm sorry, I just had to comment again. The thought of your husband coming in from the "bar" and not being prepared to take care of the baby goats has me laughing! ;)

Sarah said...

Kim- Thanks for pointing that out to me! DEFINITELY a type-O! I fixed it- Before everyone thinks my hubby is a drunkard! :D

I didn't proof-read like I should have, my computer needs some major work to it, and has been running so slow. I worked on this post ALL DAY, and FINALLY got it up!

I better get it fixed before something else crazy (and funny!) comes out of my keyboard! :)

Megan said...

WOW!! So exciting!!! Still can't believe there was 4!!

Granni's lil Corner said...

Wow, this is so neat, I grew up on a farm, and among all the animals that we had, we also had goats. That heart on it's back is so sweet.

Missouri Gal said...

4??? Is that normal? That poor goat but my goodness they are adorable! I bet your little guys thought that was something, huh?

Curbstone Homestead said...

So cute! Happy Spring!

Genesa said...

That is awesome! What a great adventure for your boys, (and you!!)

Bovee Family said...

No birthing pictures? Oh bummer, I was hoping for some! But you painted a good picture with words. Sounded like an exciting evening!

Sarah said...

Bovee Family- I was hoping to have birthing pictures too, BUT it happened so fast! And I kept so busy during the process! With our sheep last year, I was able to video the birth, and I was hoping to do the same or at LEAST pictures... but not this time... :S Maybe if I can catch my last goat having hers or maybe the sheep babies...

If there were pics, you would have seen me doing a new thing! I was trying to play it cool so the kids wouldn't be scared of the process, but it was so exciting! :)