The trials and tribulations of kidding ...

  So as you know we had been trying to breed our goats. And it was successful! We began to watch the soon to be mamas for any early signs of labor. We had one mama that looked like she would kid in the next 48 hours, so we decided to bring them all up to the birthing pens so we could keep a better eye on them and have them contained enough to help if needed. So lucky for us my Grandma kept a close watch on our goats and all of a sudden I got the call. My Dad and I rushed over and there was our first sweet little baby goat. He was up and cleaned off (for the most part) and then I saw the nose of another out of the mama. My Dad quickly assisted but it was too late. The baby was already gone. I was heartbroken. We had several options for an explanation, one being since we have first time mamas she may have just quit trying after the first one came out and the baby was suffocated in the birthing canal. Another possible explanation was still born? We don't know. But mama and the one baby are healthy. Quade named him Gun. The funny thing about it was this mama was not the one we pinned up and thought was going to have her kid first. So the next day we went on with our business trying to decide when the initial mama goat was going to have her kid. And lo and behold we got another phone call from my Grandma saying we had another baby! Jordan and I rushed down and checked the mom to see if there was another baby inside (trying to take every precaution to keep both alive) and there was, so Jordan pulled the last baby out. Twins!!! A boy and a girl, Gauge and Judy. Complements of Austyn this time. We were so excited but still this was not the goat we had originally anticipated having her kids first. Nevertheless the mom and babies are both happy and healthy and everything was perfect. So we begin to wonder what the heck was going on with this mama that looks so incredibly close to having her kids. And again the next day I went down and thought I would just hang out and sit and watch them for a little while and all of a sudden the last two mamas started going into labor at the SAME time. They were laying down, pushing, standing up, laying down, walking around, they were very uncomfortable. All things that indicated labor. So I called Jordan to come down so he could witness the birth and we started watching and the goat that was in more active labor just never could advance in the birthing process. So we decided to assist and we were unsuccessful. So at this point we decided to call my dad since he had a little more experience than we did at pulling a baby out. He came right over and we all quickly decided that since my hands are the smallest I had to try and manipulate the kids to the proper birthing position so we could pull them out. We struggled with this process for quite a while and finally decided to call a good friend for his help. He came right over and determine that both babies have been dead for quite a while and slipped right in and pulled them both out. Shortly after the mama passed away as well. So before he left I had him check the original goat we had thought was going to kid first and he checked her and decided immediately that he needed to pull her kids out as well or all three of them wouldn't make it either. Jordan and my Dad were pulling on the mama goat forward and our friend and I were pulling on the kid goat backwards and it was all all four of us could do to get that baby goat out. And of course she had another one in there so our friend quickly pulled the last baby out and we immediately went to work on them to clean them up and keep their hearts going. Unfortunately the mama refused her babies and we ended up giving the little boy a feeding tube with colostrum and the little girl was strong enough to eat off of the mama if we contained her. As the day went on both kids got stronger and stronger and were both able to eat off of the mama only if we contained her. So we got up every four hours throughout the night and went down and caught the mama and let the two babies eat. As morning approached the little girl got less interested in eating and the mama got weaker. I continued watching her and she began to prolapse. So after lengthy conversations with the vet and my dad we decided the best thing to do would be to put her down. At this point I am mentally exhausted I feel like I have failed at our kidding experience only at the expense of the goats. In our defense we had a few things working against us. All the goats are first-time mamas which makes a huge difference during the birthing process. And the way the kids were positioned to come out was something out of our control as well. So in the last three days we kidded out all of our goats. We do however have five adorable healthy little baby goats. Unfortunately we have to bottlefeed one set of twins but that's a small price to pay to have them survive. At this point I'm not even considering another season of kidding. As for the fact I feel like it was a complete failure. But from what I am told we did pretty well for our first time mama and our first time kidding. The bottle babies are thriving and doing perfect. And our own human kids are absolutely head over heels about these baby goats. Austyn thinks that she is Gemmas mommy. She carries her all over and talks to her and loves on her. Both the kids love bottle feeding them. It is so amazing watching our kids experience this adventure with us. Austyn is very understanding and accepting of the death process. She talks about the goats that have passed away frequently and asks questions. She is an amazing little girl. Quade is so gentle and sweet with the baby goats. He pets them and just squeals with delight. 

Gun, Gus, and Gemma

Gauge and Gudy, with their Mom Frankie

Austyn likes to dress up to go to the goat barn

My Grandma trying to help the babies eat

Country fun!

Pied Piper. Taking after his Mommy. 

  This was quite the fast learning curve. I've learned so so so much in the last few days. After both mamas and babies died I could barely function. I felt like I had lost part of our family. I was pretty emotional and scatter brained. But I'm feeling much better now as I'm enjoying the new babies. We take the two bottle babies home at night so we don't have to drive down to my Grandmas in the middle of the night. So that's been a little more convenient. We are feeding them every 6 hours and in a week we will lengthen it out to every 8 hours. And in about a week we will let the whole herd back out in the field. I feel so fortunate to have all the help (as usual) we did during this experience. My Grandma had Quade and Austyn the whole time we dealt with the goats and my Dad was always ready and willing to get down and dirty and do whatever was needed. Although I think I get the prize for dirtiest goat farmer of the day. As I worked to manipulate the babies inside the mama I managed to get head to toe dirt, poop, and bloody. 

  This country life that we live is hard and trying at times. It is comical to me when I pick Austyn up from school after events like this and the other Moms ask "how are you?", I think to myself you have no clue what I've just been doing. Even though some days suck really bad I would never ever ever want to live any other way. As I'm learning the hard way that the whole animal thing is much different from an adult aspect rather than the memories I have of it when I was a kid. I am learning the hard way on a lot of things and trying not to have it negatively effect the animals as Im doing it. I keep asking my family is this or that normal as I don't remember that part from when I was a kid. But knowing what I know now, I know that I was kept sheltered from certain things as I keep our kids sheltered from things too. This being all grown up is hard stuff. I have such a great support group with all the different animals we have. A million thanks to everyone that I rely on.