On the 17th, she was starting to act uncomfortable. Her udder was beginning to fill with milk. I had some friends over, who were hoping to witness the birth, but when the time came that they had to leave, she still had not given birth.
One of my friends, Michelle, spent the night, hoping that she would give birth in the morning. Grommette had always given birth in the morning, but this time she seemed to want to prove me wrong. :)
Michelle had to leave to do her piano lesson, and Grommette still hadn't given birth. Her udder was completely full and her ligiments had disappeared and she was very, very uncomfortable, but still no baby.
I was beginning to wonder if the baby was not postioned correctly. Then the Arndts dropped by to see her. Just as they were getting ready to leave, Grommette had a hard contraction. They decided to stay awhile longer, as she always gave birth in the past within 20 minutes of those hard contractions. 45 minutes went by, then she began having contractions that were getting closer and harder. Still no baby. Mom went in to call the vet and get Olive Oil, while I donned on some gloves. I decided to go in then and see what was up. I felt a rump-it was a breech baby. No wonder it took so long for her to have it!!! The baby was quite large and I feared that it would get stuck as it was barely fitting. I reached up further, grabbed a back hoof and pulled it out. Then I pulled the next back hoof out and the baby slipped out. He was HUGE!!!! He is perfectly fine and healthy. I named him Valor.
Then a little while later, I saw two hoofs. I looked closer and saw that it was the back feet and that the baby was upside down! I was a little nervous. My friend had a goat that was born this way and it was all deformed, so I was thinking that possibly this one was too. Grommette began to think about having it, but every time that she would lay down, Valor would baa and she would go lick him. Finally, she laid down and had a contraction. Just as the baby was born up to it's umbilical cord, the electricty went out!!! Dad slipped a headlamp on my head, so I could see what I was doing, while he went out and tripped the switch. That brought the light back on. Victor was born soon after as healthy and normal as you could get! :) He was slightly larger then Valor!!
I was very happy with these two and didn't want to have to go through the "pulling babies out" process. But, I felt Grommette and there was another one waiting to be born. I wasn't too excited about it. Then about 45 minutes later, she began pushing again. I reached inside right away, so I would know what to expect with this one. What I found was something that was soft and yet hard at the same time. I began to think of what it could be, but couldn't decide. Then a few contractions later the "baby bag" began to show. Duh!!! The sac hadn't broken, so I should have known. That was so silly of me, yet I had never felt the amniotic sac before when it was still inside the mom, so I suppose that I wouldn't have known. Anyways, this baby was so big that I had to break the sac just to let him be born. Yes, it was another boy. He was healthy, strong and was even larger then Victor!!! I named him Vincent, just to confuse everyone! :P
I figured out that if they were 8 lbs each, which I think would be the minumum, that would have been about 30-35 lbs of babies!!
They are all doing well. They are a dark chocolate brown with the white markings of a Toggenburg. Vincent has waddles, which are little balls of skin covered in hair which hang from their jaw bone near their throat.
