It's Go Time. . .

Well, this is it. Time to start my (very) short kidding season. This is my FAVORITE time of year. Well, really any time of year is my favorite when babies are being born, but this is typically the time of year that my goats kid. What it is not, is my favorite season. Especially this year.

Like any mommy-in-waiting, my nesting instinct has been going full-speed, and these aren't even really my kids! I've got the barn cleaned up (well, as clean as a barn can be, anyway), kidding supplies ready, baby monitor set up, and the alarms on my phone set to go off every 2 hours during the night to listen on the baby monitor for any funny sounds. The Husband does not appreciate the lull of Buck barking at random wildlife through the night over the monitor. I can't really say that I disagree since it sits right next to my head on the bedside dresser.

I'm ready.

Girls look like they're close to ready.

Yep. . . just waitin'. . .

Ok, so this period of kidding is not my favorite part. The waiting period. The up all night checking for sounds of pawing or low groaning. The sitting in the barn staring at goat butts and feeling around on rumps for any sign that labor may be within a few hours while the girls lazily munch on hay or lay around chewing their cud. The jumping up and running to the barn any time I hear noises that sound like some action is about to take place.

Tonight I was fixing dinner, listening to the monitor in the kitchen. I'm in the middle of peeling potatoes when I hear some low "maa"'s. I look at the clock, it's been an hour since I checked on the girls. I figure that I'll finish getting the potatoes ready and then go see what's up - what could happen in another 5 minutes, right? So I continue on, cutting up taters. . . I hear more "maa's". And they quickly get louder, and they're getting closer together . . . Oh shoot, sounds like someone is REALLY uncomfortable! I realize that I'm practically chopping the potatoes, trying to hurry up. I get the last of them done, throw on my coat and dash out the back door. I ran into the barn, "Who's doing what?". Piper and Bri who were already put in their kidding pens looked at me like, "What?". I still hear the moaning, so I head out of the barn into the pasture area and there's Annie, just talking to herself and enjoying the last bits of sunshine of the day. She's not even due 'till mid-March, but she's moaning like she's starting active labor. I walk over to her to see what's up and she suddenly awakens from her mantra and scuddles (make that waddles. . .) off all miffed that I interrupted her.

Stupidgrumblegrumble. . . whydoigrumblegrumble. . . messsingwithmegrumblegrumble. . .

I swear she does it on purpose. Cranky old goat. . .

I noticed last night that Piper had started to lose her mucous plug. This can happen hours, days, weeks, or even months (and then regrow) before a doe actually kids. I wasn't sure if this was a sign that she was closer than her due date on Wednesday, so I penned her up just to be sure. She still wasn't showing any signs of being close this evening so I let her back out with the others. No sense in dirtying up her kidding pen anymore than necessary and she doesn't care for being penned anyway.
Bri on the other hand is perfectly content in her pen. I think she's realized that she gets her own private feed and water buckets and doesn't have to be crowded around the hay bunk. I hope she doesn't decide to milk this for all it's worth. (no pun intended) She's due tomorrow and I really hope that she doesn't mess around about it. Mondays are grocery day and speech therapy day for Kindergartener. The groceries I can put off if I think that she's going into labor soon, but we can't miss speech. Wednesday is also going to be crazy. That's when Piper and Baerli are both due. We have speech for Bo in the morning and then speech again for Kindergartener in the afternoon. Luckily the morning speech is only 1/2 an hour and it's just a few miles away so I don't have to be gone for long. It's the afternoon speech sessions that have me worried.

And really worried isn't the right word I guess. . . I know my girls will be fine without me. Occassionally complications occur, but they're usually pretty rare. My girls are in good health and should be able to kid just fine without any assistance.

But still. . . I just like to be there. For one: I like to attend births in the case that something doesn't go to plan, but mostly I just like to watch. I love to be there the moment that a new little life comes into the world. I love to be there so that the first creature that a newborn kid sees besides it's mom is me. In my college equine classes we learned about imprinting. Most people are familiar with the term imprinting when they hear stories about newborn geese or ducks that imprint on the first creature that they see when they hatch. While that's not entirely true - they don't automatically think that they're humans if they see one as soon as they pop out of the egg - it's the same concept that an animal becomes familiar and bonds to other animals that are present near the time of birth. I think that it's a training process that can be applied to goats to make them friendlier and easier to work with as they get older. It doesn't guarantee that you'll have an easy animal - Penelope is still very standoffish and I was there at her birth just like I was for Miss Kay - some animals just have an easier temperament than others. But imprinting can liken your odds for success.

Well, I ought to be off to the land of nod. I have to try to get as much sleep as I can in-between barn checks and I still have to be able to function tomorrow.
It's Go Time ladies, I'm ready when you are. . .