Half-way There!

This week marked the half-way point for Bri, Piper, and Baerli in their pregnancies. Bri is due February 24 and Baerli and Piper are due the 26th, but of course like people those dates are just estimates. but As you can see, goats are also a lot like people in that they all "show" differently.

Baerli with 74 days to go.

Bri with 72 days to go.

Piper with 74 days to go.

 

Usually goats don't start to get really wide till about a month before their estimated due date, Baerli is apparently trying to pack on her baby weight early. She did have triplets last year (one of which was Miss Kay), so maybe she's got more than one or two in there. I dunno, what do you think? Here she is, with about 80 days left in her pregnancy with the triplets, so at about the same time as she is now in her gestation.

The Husband and I were pretty shocked when a third kid started appearing during Baerli's labor. I have no idea where she was hiding that third kid. Bri also had triplets last year, so it'll be interesting to see what the girls are hiding in those bellies. We could wind up having 6-8 kids in a span of 3 days! Or, the girls could keep me on my toes and drive me nuts like Baerli and Annie did last year. Annie was 6 days late and Baerli went 3 days late. I spent the majority of 3 weeks in the barn checking on them to look for signs of an impending labor. . . This will be my 4th year of kidding seasons and I feel like I've got enough knowledge under my belt to gauge when labor will start better.

There is no "tried and true" method of predicting when labor will start (again, just like in humans), but my favorite way to checking to see if labor is going to be coming in the next few days (or sometimes hours) is to check the doe's ligaments. There are two ligaments that run alongside the goat's spine in their rump.  

photo courtesy of fiascofarm.com. LOTS of great goat info there!

To "check her ligs" means to run your hand down her spine with your fingers along one side of her spine and your thumb along the other, feeling for those ligaments. Normally, they feel like pencils, they're pretty hard and round. As a doe gets closer to kidding, those ligaments get softer and they start to feel like rubber bands. Just before she goes into labor - or sometimes not until she's in labor - those ligaments will seem to "disappear" altogether and you can nearly wrap your hand around the doe's spine so that your thumb and fingers are touching. That usually means that kidding is within hours. 

Sometimes, ligaments "come and go", meaning that you may go out and check a doe's ligs and they seem nearly "gone", but then the next time you go out there, they feel harder. This can happen over the course of a day, or even days before kidding actually happens and is very frustrating. Annie did this to me last year and she nearly drove me crazy with anticipation. Baerli is the one you have to watch. She'll act a little "funny" the morning before she kids. And by "funny" I mean that you'll only notice it if you know her well. And her ligs will feel a little squishy. She'll usually kid within about 5 hours of breakfast. The first year she kidded, I missed it because I thought I had longer. When I went to check on her, she had twins up and dried off and running around. So the rule to catching Baerli in action is to watch her like a hawk.

Now for Bri and Piper, I'll be watching them like a hawk as well since this is my first kidding with them. The breeder that I got them off of told me that Piper had twin girls just fine. Bri on the other hand had a difficult delivery with triplet boys. I'll give her credit, she bounced back quickly and the boys were all healthy, they just got tangled up in there. Each labor is different, and things may go much easier for Bri this time, but I'm still going to give it my every effort to be present when she goes into labor in case she has problems again.

So, for the next 10 weeks or so, the girls get to hang out and grow those babies. I, on the other hand, will be impatiently awaiting their impending labors. . .