Baby Number 3!

We did it!

Diamond's baby arrived early this evening!

While helping unload bales with the brother-in-law into the shed I noticed of my goats sounded off. 3 of the girls were sitting by the fence gate, and Diamond was off somewhere in the small section of the corral sounding kind of funny.

Went to check it out and saw her laying on the ground pushing with all her might.

Baby time!

Had a funny feeling today was gonna be the day by the way she was looking and acting this morning.

Also been keeping a very close eye on her since the loss of emeralds tiny. I really didn't want to lose another goat this year if I could help it.

Anyway, it was a quick and fairly easy birth. 3 pushes and that baby flew out of her. Brother-in-law showed me how to handle a newborn with cleaning off the face, holding the baby properly, etc. (He grew up with cattle so this is just the typical for him.) Got a towel ad everything else went fantastic.
Postpartum unfortunately is proving to be a little bit more difficult than I was hoping however I was aware and ready for this.

Well. As ready as one could possibly be anyway.



Currently I have mama and baby sleeping in my front porch. While the birth went perfectly fine I was nervous she was going to reject the baby being a younger goat & this being her first baby. Thankfully after coaxing her to look after her baby once I had brought her inside and got her dried off, she did take to her little one. Not exactly ideal as I would have preferred she do the job herself however she was nervous and didn't know how to handle what was going on. She did end up licking her baby and stayed with her baby when I put the rest of the girls away.

A VERY good sign.


However nursing is proving to be difficult. This newborn goat is petite. As in like, she's almost half the size of Sadie's babies. This is proving to be a challenge because not only is baby goatie quite small and wobbly, mom is not sitting still right now either and being patient so baby can nurse.

I fully anticipated this being a possibility so thankfully I had some bottles ready from when I had my own babies. Apparently baby goats need to have colostrum in the first 1 - 2 1/2 hours. It had already been hour 1 1/2 starting to approach number 2 so as much as Diamond didn't like it, had to milk her colostrum and get it into that baby.



Baby goatie was not a fan of the bottle. She much prefers mom and is trying so hard to figure out where the teets are but at least for now she's topped up.

Every 2 hours or so I try to hold Diamond as still as I can to allow baby goatie to explore and attempt to find the nipples to nurse. Ideally it would be nice to get Diamond taught how to sit still for her baby here by the end of the week - end of next week tops since she'll be big enough to bounce around on her own all over the place. It will be much easier by then.

But for now if it's an unsuccessful attempt, I milk Diamond then bottle feed and try again in 2 hours.

I am truly hoping that we can get this dynamic duo going sooner than later because let me tell you...
Having straw in my porch is KILLING my nose right now.
I'm actually a little surprised at how allergic I am with this straw in the house right now. But it is what it is.

I have a happy baby and a happy mama and that's what matters.



Welcome to the world Sunflower!

Samantha, congratulations! It's always a relief to know it went well and the kids are on the ground. It's always a relief for first timers to accept their kids and for the kids to learn how to nurse! Some seem to know what to do from the get-go, and others need some time to figure it out. Good idea to separate them together from the others for the first few days. And good for you for being diligent. I've had a few I had to start on the bottle, but like you, I kept helping them learn to nurse from their mother and eventually they both catch on.

Thank you!

I was so nervous I was going to have to intervene in the birth but the birth went fine. Then I was nervous she was going to reject the baby being a young first time mom. But putting her in the porch fixed that. The I was nervous baby wasn't gonna make it being so tiny but she's doing fantastic so far.

And as an added bonus she learned how to nurse with some help now on her own and it's going really well at almost 48 hours.

This is exciting. I'm so proud of these girls!

Good afternoon folks!

Amazing news.



If you missed my last blog post regarding our newest baby, find it Here: Baby Number 3!
TL;DR

We had a new baby that was very petite born to a new first time mom.



The birth went well however the nursing was not quite going so well. Sunflower (baby) was having trouble nursing from being so small and fragile and Diamond (mom) didn't know how to sit still.

First feed was done by milking and throwing the colostrum in a bottle. Every time after this I would attempt to have Sunflower nurse from Diamond while holding Diamonds legs to get her to sit still. If that didn't work I would milk and bottle feed Sunflower.

But guess what!

Persistence paid off.

After the 3rd attempt to feed Diamond was becoming more accepting to having her baby nurse AND I was able to get Sunflower to latch on. Granted it wasn't a very good latch and I had to hold her head on because she was a bit weak to hold her head on herself while holding the teet so that it was still.

After a mere 24 hours she was NURSING ON HER OWN!

Having been almost 48 hours now she is doing absolutely incredible.



Today I kicked my goats out to the shed where it's warm and snuggly now that Sunflower is up, moving on her own and nursing on her own. Diamond screams pretty loud if her baby is not near by so I have full confidence she will be able to look after her baby without needing my constant eye.



Here's to a happy Sunday!

Now to clean up my porch from head to toe!

Your such a great person!! Goats have a good mommy! Thank you for taking care of them❤️

Thanks for the support everyone!