Forget the full moon

Tuesday evening when I was visiting with Larry and Janene, I got a call from Lilly. Let me back up. The day had just been a little weird and off. We usually help Grandma and Grandpa that night but I had stopped by on my way home from Evelyn’s to visit and say we’d do better next week because that day wasn’t working out. They were fine with that. I am so thankful they are flexible. I was chatting with them about how things were going when I got the call from Lilly. 

It was something like this-

Lilly- Mom, I just got home and Nugget(her goat) was back in the hexagon and I went to check on her and SHE JUST HAD BABIES. MOM, NIGGET JUST HAD BABIES! WHAT DO I DO? 

Me-Oh, okay. That’s cool. Is the sack off their nose and mouth? Can they breathe? 

Lilly- Yeah, they can breathe. Do I need to get towels for them or do anything? 

Me- If Nugget is cleaning them off and they are breathing, they should be fine. I’ll head home. 

Lilly- Okay,  it’s so cool! Nugget just had her babies!

Me- That is cool! I’ll hurry home. Love you. Bye. 

All this excitement made for a late dinner and getting children to bed. I had mixed up bread that morning and was suppose to bake it but didn’t get to that. I was taking care of it by putting it in the patio where it is cooler so I could bake it the next morning.  While I was doing that I heard noises from the goats that weren’t regular goat noises. 

I was going to check on the babies one more time before going to bed and decided to check on the other two goats as well. They hadn’t come to eat dinner like normal when we fed them that night.  

Sure enough when I looked in Chip (the brown and white one) was having contractions and about to deliver the first of her babies. I called the house phone and Lucy answered. I ask her to bring some towels out because more babies were coming. She was shocked, but did as she was asked. She also went and got Glen out of bed and brought Lilly with her. 

Chip delivered her other baby and  the. I looked over at Winkie the white and black goat and she was having big contractions about to deliver too.  It was a bit crazy. The space they were in was not well suited for all that to happen. Winkie had her first baby and then her labor stalled a bit.it was 5-10 minutes later when she had her last baby who was breech. 

We helped rub the babies to dry them off because it was a cold night and made sure their airways were clear. We also decided to throw together another shelter so each doe would have a place of her own to be with her babies.

  It was a crazy night. In the span of 20 minutes we had four baby goats born and in a span of 5 hours  seven born. Nugget had a third baby but it was underdeveloped and stillborn. 

I feel like I have been around animals a bunch but I was not prepared for this. I have never really been around the birthing and babies just all the other parts of animal life. It’s quite the adventure and the babies are so dang cute.