Gloria kidded!

My mom, Gloria, had her babies on Saturday. Gloria being 9 years old and on her 6^th pregnancy had the farmer in a tizzy. On Tuesday the farmer came home early from work to watch the goat. The farmer was absolutely sure that perhaps it was possible that she might kid that day. Well, Tuesday came and went and no babies came at all.

The farmer looked at her notes from breeding season and saw that Gloria was bred on two different days, 4 days apart. The buck came in on Tuesday and Gloria let him breed her that day. Then the buck left on Saturday but not before Gloria let him breed her again. So the farmer didn’t know if Gloria was due on Tuesday or Friday! The farmer did the math and saw that Gloria has kidded 4 times in a row on her 153^rd day of gestation, in the afternoon. Thus the farmer was sure that Gloria would kid on Friday afternoon since she didn’t kid on Tuesday (which would have been 153 days from the first time she was bred in the fall).

The farmer went to work on Friday morning and worked as fast as she could so she could go home early to watch Gloria kid. At 11am the farmer got home and started watching for babies. Gloria decided to take full advantage of the audience and did all the things that would signal that labor was starting. She yawned and stretched and pawed the ground. She lay down and breathed heavy with her head down while staring off in space. She rolled around and acted uncomfortable. She even gave a little jiggle to her sides now and then which looked like contractions. By 1pm the farmer had called her friend to come and watch the babies be born. The farmer and her friend stood at the stall door eagerly awaiting the birth. They stood and watched and stood and watched and stood and watched…… FOR 6 HOURS!!!

Finally the farmer’s legs had started to ache and the weather had gotten colder and it was dinner time, so she told her friend to go home and the farmer would call her if anything happened. The farmer then spent the entire night getting up every two hours to watch Gloria. Gloria did all she could to keep up the suspense the whole night. By Saturday morning the farmer was exhausted and still not seeing any babies. Of course, surely, those babies had to come out some time so the farmer kept up the two-hour vigil throughout the day.

By 1pm Gloria added crying to her routine of pawing, laying down, getting up, yawning, and stretching. This worried the farmer so she ran in to call her friend to tell her to come out to the farm because the babies had to be coming soon. By the time she got back to the barn, Gloria’s water had broken! The farmer felt around inside to make sure that the kid was presented properly. She could feel two hooves and a nose. The kid started to come out and the farmer saw that what she thought was two hooves was only one massive hoof! The farmer helped pull the giant buck kid out to give Gloria a break. He was a beautiful Oberhasli-type buck. After a couple of minutes of licking her new kid, Gloria started to work on getting the second kid out. The farmer went in and felt for the next one. All she could feel was a weird blob with some unidentifiable parts in it. When the kid finally started to come out the blob was the sack of fluid. The sack was really tough and the farmer had to use her fingernail to cut through it to release the kid. The second kid was a gorgeous Alpine-type doeling. The farmer got both new kids cleaned up. By this time the farmer’s husband had come back with a load of hay. The farmer stopped birthing kids and unloaded the hay. She thought Gloria was done having kids. Just as she was ready to take the two new kids into the house, Gloria lay down and started pushing again. The third kid was another pretty Oberhasli-type buck. Gloria had two bucks and a doe. Shortly after the third kid came out, Gloria started pushing out the afterbirth so the farmer knew that triplets were all that was there.

All three kids and Gloria are doing well. The farmer has started to catch up on her sleep but still feels a little zombie-fied.