We were sitting outside after the snow stopped and the sun came out just enjoying the day when our very pregnant doe started to act odd. She laid down in weird positions, was nervous, did NOT want to go to pasture, and just wasn't herself. I told my husband, "bet she's going to have those babies". He replied, "nah. she just has gas today." We have a running joke that she just had gas and wasn't pregnant because she's shown us so many signs of being ready that we honestly stopped watching.
He no sooner got that out than I looked over to see something happening. I hopped off my chair, got down low, and sure enough here came a sack.
Let me stop here. If you have never seen a goat go into labor, it is a site to behold. They look like they are all but dying and it is so loud. No, loud is not even a good word for it. It is beyond loud.
A minute later we saw hooves. Then about 45 seconds later we saw a nose. It wasn't long before we had a little head sticking out. We kept letting her work on her own naturally, staying close by in case she got into trouble. A few minutes later we had our first little kid.
She surprised us with her second. She stopped cleaning baby up but was totally silent for his delivery. Yes, we had a little boy on our hands.
We helped her clean them up a bit, let her do what she needed to deal with the umbilical cord and after birth, and then started to help her get her babies up and standing. Once they were up a little bit we moved them over to the udder. The little girl figured it out fast. She is a nursing machine. The little boy was having troubles, but we got that little tail wag which means he was getting mama milk.
She is such a good mama. She is calm and confident. She allows us to help her and to handle her babies. She's very attentive. Poor thing. We walked out late last night to check on them and she was passed smooth out! She didn't even hear us walk up.
I would like to introduce to you, Macabee (boy) and Maggie (girl) born 1/7/17 at about 4:30pm.
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