I finally went to bed last night just after midnight. I set the alarm for 2:00 am. At 2:00 I wobbled my way out to the barn. Nothing.
Set the alarm for 4:00 am. At 4:00 Jim wobbled his way out to the barn. Nothing.
Jim set the alarm for 5:00 am (he didn’t realize I was going for every other hour and thought it was every hour). At 5:00 Jim wobbled his way out to the barn again (isn’t he a good husband?) Nothing.
Set the alarm for 6:00 am. At 6:00 Jim wobbled his way out to the bar again (isn’t he a REALLY good husband?) Nothing.
Jim, Brett, Cole, and Emery left to go sell soap at 10:00 (ok, it was more like 10:15).
I went out to the barn faithfully every hour. At about 1:30 I was exhausted and laid down on the couch. Jade was taking a nap and the other four children were quietly playing upstairs. I thought to myself, “Aaahh, just a short rest.”
And then I thought, “Time to make the donuts.” (Remember that commercial?)
I knew I couldn’t rest if I didn’t go and check. So I trudged out to the barn and thought to myself, “Hmmm… why is she doing that?” So I watched for a while and thought, “Hmmmm… I think this might be it.” So I went back inside and took an excedrin, got myself a chair and sat in the goat stall. It took me about half an hour to become convinced this was labor (it’s very difficult to tell with a goat).
Half an hour after that I helped to deliver this:
It’s a girl!!! Yeah! I was very surprised that there was only one, so I “went in” and checked – but she was all alone.
Molly delivered her placenta about an hour later and is doing well.
As I type this, Malone is sleeping peacefully in the bathtub. I’ll get one more bottle into her before I go to sleep, then wake up and feed her again around 6 am.
She’s a real sweetie. She was jumping around the kitchen and playing with everybody. We’re planning to keep her, so we’re just so excited. A great start to our kidding season!
