Now 6 kids, still waiting for a few more

Yesterday was the most difficult birth that we have yet experienced, and I got to experience most of it all by myself. Lucille gave us one little girl, and I am very surprised (and now much relieved) that she only had one. Lucille is our oldest goat, the black Saanen that we first purchased with 2 white kids (Helen and Jack). Goats can have 2 or 3 kids, especially after their first year, but last year and this she only had one in there. She looked as large or larger than the rest of the mamas, but one day later...I am sure she is done. :)

When I checked on her, she had just a little baby nose sticking out the business end. A little black baby nose with the tongue sticking out. She was struggling to push out the whole kid, but it was not in the right position. They are supposed to come out feet first with the head right after. This one had the feet and legs tucked back under its little body.

The good news is that new little girl and mom survived my help. The not so good news is that I was out there for almost 2 hours pulling on the kid's head as hard as I could until I could finally grab it by the shoulders. Not easy. Not fun for any of us. Calls to 3 different vets for help provided me with the info I needed—large quantity of baby oil! I won't share any more of the gory details with you other than to say I did 2 loads of laundry when all was said and done. And took 2 showers.

Poor Lucille! And poor little girl with the longest neck ever (sorry!!!!). Both are doing very well, as far as I can tell.

In the large pic above, little Roger Ramjet (brown one) brother of Bowie Jr (black one) is still struggling to stay alive. He was born on Friday and is still not feeding from Beatrice. We have had him in the house in our laps a few times, he made a trip to the vet, and he spent last night in the bathtub (much to the delight of Woody and Cyrus!). Even with all of our attempts to revive him, he still just won't turn it around and perk up. But he must have a strong will to live because he is still hanging in there. Say a little prayer for Roger.

The second photo is Rosie with her 2 kids who were born on Sunday. The larger light-colored boy had a little difficulty making his way into the world. Only now in this photo can I see that he is missing the hair on one whole side. Ouch, must have been uncomfortable being stuffed in mom's belly all that time! The second Bowie look-alike is actually a girl! Yay! Much smaller than her brother, but still very cute.

We decided to name only the Bowie look-alikes with David Bowie-related names. The first kid born was Ziggy Stardust. He does not look like his dad, but we couldn't help it, he was the first.

So Rosie's girl and Lucille's girl will probably be Angie, and Jean Jeannie. Still working on a name for light boy. And, if we get another Bowie boy—Major Tom!