A while back I posted about our goats and how we were waiting for our three females to have their kids! If you missed that entry (Goat Adventures) you might want to check it out. 🙂 Well, they are all FINALLY here and I am excited to share with you our experience, as well as share many of the photos taken along the way. Just so you are not taken off guard, I want to be sure you know there are a few photos of the goats in labor and the kids entering this world. One female had a very unique thing happen while delivering and I am glad I caught it on film.
This is close to how Lucy looked before she had her kids.
We were headed indoors one afternoon and decided we would check on the goats “one more time” before doing so. Upon looking at each of them, we noticed Lucy acting differently. She was doing many of the things I had read would indicate labor: pawing the ground, getting up and down, looking toward her backside, etc… Needless to say, we did not go indoors. We wanted to watch the whole process – especially since this would be our first time to see a goat born! Yes, we stayed.
Before long she laid down and started pushing. I found it interesting that when pushing she would raise her upper lip and show her teeth, obviously working hard!
Soon, out came a little kid! Lucy went right to work cleaning and talking to her firstborn.
Being new at this whole “kidding” thing, we relied a great deal upon advice given and information read. One of the things we understood, was how important it was for the kid to nurse and get all the colostrum it could. So, this is something we made sure the kid was doing pretty quickly! No problem there, he took right to it! All too soon, Lucy started pushing again! Twins? Yea! Yet, as we held her first little one out of the way, we were surprised by what happened! One sack appeared but did not break. She kept pushing and pushing
and out came another sack! This means she had two kids in the birth canal at the same time! If you look closely, you will see a hoof in the yellow sack (kid coming back legs first) and in the white sack is the head and front legs of another kid! My goodness, thinking of all the in the birth canal makes me cringe! Yet, Lucy was a trooper!
After taking a few moments to catch her breath, Lucy pushed again. Surprisingly, it was not the first (yellow) sack that broke, it was the second (white) one! My husband was nearby and gently pulled the kid during Lucy’s contraction to help her out. After quickly rubbing this second born down, Lucy went to licking away!
When the remaining sack broke, my husband also helped with that one. Especially since it was backwards…getting the sack off it’s face and making sure it did not inhale fluids was important.
Lucy did an amazing job, especially under the circumstances! She was given a well-deserved treat and some much needed water. She was thirsty after all that work!
The kids were pretty thirsty too…all three of them! Wow! TRIPLETS…and they are all BOYS!
Let me take a minute and add that watching a live birth was quite an event for all of us, especially our children. Having such a remarkable delivery be our very first was also quite something! We are thankful that Lucy had her kids first. She let us “in her space”, let us “help” and enabled us to feel involved. She tolerated the kid’s excited voices, their extra hands touching things, and their closeness better than our other two goats ever would have! Again, thankful she was the first to deliver!
Just a few pictures of Lucy with her kids once she was up and around:
As you can see, the competition for nursing began early!
And it has only gotten “worse” as they have grown! Someone always gets the “short end of the stick”.
As a result, we are supplementing one of them, the oldest but the smallest. We all enjoy feeding him but our daughter would do so every time if she could!
When the three boys are not fighting over who gets to eat from Lucy, they get along very well. It was sweet to catch them resting together like this the other day:
By the way, our children have named these three: Hercules (white), Todd (brown in back) and Puss In Boots (brown in front).
OKAY, that was a long-winded tale of how these three came into this world, how hard their Mom worked, and our small part in the process! Without cutting the other two Mothers short, I hope to cover their stories more quickly since they did not have as many kids nor did such unique things happen. 🙂
Here is a picture of Sally before she gave birth:
Sally did not show the same signs Lucy did before giving birth. In fact, a friend had just come to the house to see the triplets and after we parted ways I headed out to do chores. Upon returning to Sally’s pen (a mere 30 minutes after last seeng her) this first time Mama already had a kid on the ground and was starting to push again! I was so surprised! I called the rest of the family over so they could see too and we were able to watch her second one enter this world!
Talk about work…wow! She cleaned them up well, let them nurse and did not seem to mind us being so close either!
She also got a special hydrating treat for all her hard work!
Sally’s twins also enjoyed eating, the boy took to it sooner than the girl but both did great!
These two are so much fun! They are full of life and energy, jumping and romping around! Very entertaining to watch! Yet, they also look adorable when they snuggle down near each other to rest!
The white male is “Luke Skywalker” and the brown female is “Snowflake”.
Sally is a very good Mom to both of them!
With the triplets arriving on a Friday and the twins coming the next day, we just knew Connie would be going into labor any day! Yet, after two weeks, with many late nights and getting up to check on her throughout the night, she STILL had not delivered her kids! The main reason we kept thinking she would go into labor any time is because she was the largest of all three goats. When we saw what Lucy and Sally looked like (and they had triplets and twins) we had no idea how many Connie would have! We really wanted to “be around” for her delivery since we were concerned about triplets (or more) with her! Take a look, see how big she was.
This was the week the other goats delivered: (I know it is not a very becoming photo but it shows her very extended sides!)
These two were taken around the 1 week out and then 2 weeks out from when the others delivered:
Well, this past Sunday marked 15 days since Sally’s twins arrived. Monday morning, I just happened to wake up at 3:00am and thought I would go out and check on Connie, not really expecting anything to have happened. When I turned the corner and could see into her pen, I was pleasantly surprised to see she already had two kids on the ground, cleaned up, they were nursing and she had already passed some afterbirth – no more kids were coming.
When I got into her pen to start working on the kid’s umbilical cords I soon discovered what a protective mother Connie is. She did NOT want me to come too close – as you can tell by her glare in the next photo!
This is not a bad thing, just very different from our other two Mamas! Again, it makes me glad we experienced the “friendly births” first. Connie’s attitude also makes me thankful she did NOT have more than two! I cannot imagine trying to help her with more than two, stressing her all the while because she would not want the help! Whew! She is a very good Mama to this little boy and girl – not yet named. 🙂
Although I have many more photos to share, I will wait to do so until another post. If you took the time to read this far, I commend you! I realize it was a lot. But really, I have been waiting and waiting, wanting so much to post about the kids who arrived over two weeks ago..so glad to finally get to share about all three deliveries and their stories! I am also glad to be getting a full nights sleep now. 🙂
Have a wonderful Tuesday, everyone!
