it’s a girl! and a boy!

Lucy had her babies! Oh so exciting!

She was acting weird all day, pawing the ground, getting up laying down getting up, not eating…so we knew it was soon. Finally, around 6pm, she started really pushing. Nothing to do but talk sweetly to her and comfort her as she did her work….

But it went on and on and she started to get tired, eyes and ears drooping—and nothing was coming out, no goop, no membrane bubble, and certainly no baby. I started to get scared for her. She was working so hard with so little to show for it, and for so long. I’ve been there—nearly three days of labor when I had Sophie, holy cow, I was ready to lie down and die. So—time for some intervention. I broke the membrane and tried to feel what was going on, but the baby I could feel was a tangled mess, presenting sideways. No wonder labor was going nowhere. I tried and tried and couldn’t get hold of anything to help straighten that baby out. Time to call the vet.

But before the vet could get here, she was just suffering so badly that I thought I would try one more time. And maybe the kids had shifted inside her, because this time I got hold of a rear leg and pulled. Poor Lucy hated this part, but she was hugely improved by that black baby goat slithering out of her. What a relief! The high that comes at a birth is just the best! And I was feeling pretty damn proud of myself—not a bad showing for a city girl!

Here is Sophie, tenderly drying off the new kid.

Just so you know, Sophie is not covered in goat goop—it’s tempera paint. Just when Lucy’s labor really got going, Sophie and Luc were in the middle of doing some body art. Luc was purple with blue spots, and Sophie was red with green spots. I think they were monsters. When I called her that things were going, she threw her overalls on over the paint. Time for bathing later.

Meanwhile, Lucy was pawing the ground and groaning—another kid on the way.

The vet arrived then—I was so relieved—and quickly delivered the second kid.

Lucy was like a new goat, she was so happy to be free of this confusing and painful problem! She finally started licking the second kid, and we got the first one on to nurse. Woo hoo!

A few pictures later, we head inside for baths and a nice big pomegranate martini for me, courtesy of Paul. Hallelujah, praise the Goat Goddess! Sophie fell asleep as her head hit the pillow.

This morning, mother and babies are well, if still quite confused about what their new roles are. The babies try to nurse from everything, Lucy’s knees, her fur, our clothes, and Lucy keeps sniffing them, puzzled, and then running away, as if to say, ‘You remind me of something…but what the hell do you want? Why do you keep bothering me?’ But she lets the nurse a little and I think they’ll figure it all out by the end of the day.

The thing that stands out the most in all of this is how amazing Sophie is. She stayed with me and Lucy through it all, brave and helpful, getting things, offering ideas, tirelessly rubbing down the new babies and helping them to nurse, unfailingly kind.

A totally valuable part of the team. She is so awesome.

It makes me think that five year old’s have a ton of ability and skills that they don’t usually get much credit for.

And look where Mochi the Barn Cat was sleeping when we went out this morning.

She’s been trying to play with the baby goats all morning. I wonder how that will turn out?