After a sad delivery with Bailey (we lost the baby - he was tangled up, and large, esp for a first-timer) last Sunday we were hoping for good deliveries with the other two. They have kept me waiting all week with their heavy breathing, restless behavior, and acting like they would deliver any minute. I kept popping up every hour or two to check on them for the last few days. Mink was the worst, so i thought she was going to deliver first, so I put her in the kidding stall. I checked at 1:30 am and set my timer for an hour, it went off, i thought 'I'll just lay here another minute' and next time i woke up it was 4:30. Went out to the barn, and when i was halfway there I heard what sounded like kittens. Went in, and Chara had one baby out by her head, semi-cleaned, another one just out that she was trying to clean off, so i grabbed it and toweled it off, wrapped both babies in a towel by her head, and went to call my daughter since i promised - but she wouldn't get up. (she was having a sleepover with a couple friends and they were up way too late.) Went back to the barn, and thought both babies felt chilled so i got the heat lamp out and put them on a towel underneath. Chara still looked huge and the babies were so tiny (like half the size of Bailey's baby) and then she pushed out another one, much bigger than the first two. Dried that one off and it was struggling to get up and nurse within a few minutes. She tried to let it, but then started pushing again, and another baby was out (yes, 4 is alot - twins or triplets is common, I was hoping she didn't have 6 like one goat i know) So i'm trying to get the babies dry, Chara is helping, and Mink starts making all sorts of groaning noises, and I thought she was going into labor too - started getting nervous b/c i knew the babies all had to nurse soon. The last two popped right up and started nursing w/o any problems. The second baby warmed up a bit, started walking around, and came over to nurse briefly. The only one that wasn't nursing was the first baby. I gave her some colostrum from Bailey with a bit of corn syrup mixed in, some nutri-drench, and a vit E capsule and she finally started nursing (briefly) on her own. I am going to keep a close eye on her though.
The pic is terrible, but we moved them into the smaller kidding stall, so it is harder to get good pics. Once they are walking around more it should be easier, but everyone seems really tired, and i didn't want to bother them too much.
Baby number one is invisible. She is mostly white, with brown markings
Baby number two is the smaller one on the far right. He is dark brown, with darker brown on his legs, and a big white blotch on his head
Baby number three is the one that's standing, he is more of a grey brown, and one of the biggest.
Baby number four is identical in color to number 2 and is the biggest one. She was the first to stand and nurse.
Two boys, two girls, not bad.
One down, one to go. I'll keep everyone updated.