Whimsey's Babies are Here!!

Whimsey with her boys a few hours after giving birth

 

Whimsey was due on January 19th and she ended up having her babies on the 22nd.  I was able to be present during the births last year and wanted to be again this year so once her due date arrived I made sure to check on her every few hours even through the night.

 

The night of January 21st she did fine through the middle of the night.  I did notice that she had some discharge but she wasn't doing any of the usual things goats do before giving birth, like "digging" or "nesting" on the ground or stretching.

 

So the morning of January 22nd, I checked her at 6:15am and saw no changes in her so off I went to drive the kids to school.  Once I came back I went down to do the morning chores of feeding all the animals.

 

I always look in the window to see where everyone is before I open the door and there she was with both babies on the barn floor and her being a great mama cleaning them up.

 

I was in SHOCK, LOL.

 

I helped her clean the off and moved mama and babies into the birthing pen so she could be alone with them to learn how to be a mother, since this was her first time, and to bond with her babies.

 

This was when I found out what she had,  2 BOYS.

 

Whimsey's boys only a few hours old

 

Whimsey is a natural at being a mother and loves her babies and takes very good care of them.  The boys are doing so well.  They love attention and being held.  They really like just snuggling with someone while being held.

 

They are already running and jumping around in the barn.  They have only taken a few steps outside of the barn, they are a little weary of the outside world still.

 

Whimsey's Boy #1 who we name Allen

Whimsey's Boy #2 who we name Sam

 

I really hope we can find wonderful homes for these two sweet boys.

 

We can't forget to mention that Brady is the sire (daddy) to these handsome boys.

 

 

 

Maybe Next Year.

Whimsey

Well, we bred Whimsey back in November to Brady.  We were pretty sure she was bred because she never came back into heat.

We waited the long 5 months for her due date of April 8th.  As we got closer to her due date I was second guessing myself if she was really bred.  I never felt baby movement on her and she wasn't getting very large to show she was carrying babies in her.

Then on her due date she started showing some discharge.  We thought she was going into labor.  The next day I did find a small puddle of what I thought was discharge and Whimsey's mucus plug.  We waited and waited for her to go into labor and it never happened.

I went onto the computer and asked some of the more experienced goat owners what they all thought.  Everyone said to watch her and give the vet a call.

Monday morning, 8 days after her original due date, with no baby still here, I called the vet.  The vet explained that Whimsey most likely had a miscarriage and her body absorbed most of the miscarriage.  Once the day arrived that she should of went into labor her body expelled the rest of what her body didn't absorb.

We are a little disappointed that she didn't give birth.  We really wanted her and her sister, Windy to both have babies at the same time.  Whimsey and Windy are very bonded and we thought that if they both had babies at the same time that it would be a little less stressful on them for each of them to have a baby to focus on instead of one having a baby and the other not.  Unfortunately it didn't work out that way.

Whimsey is a little lonely.  She looks for more lovings from me everyday and I am happy to give them to her.  Spending a little extra time with her helps her feel not so lonely.  Things have gotten better now too since Windy and her baby are no longer staying in the birthing pen but in the barn with all the other goats. The sisters are still very close and Whimsey is actually very gentle with Claire, Windy's baby girl.

One thing we have done is started Whimsey on a diet.  When a doe is pregnant you need to increase their grain intake and we did do that for Whimsey thinking she was expecting. Since she wasn't pregnant, she gained a little bit of extra weight from the grain.  We have now cut back on the grain for her to get those few extra pounds off of her.

Thankfully the vet said Whimsey is healthy and should be fine to try to breed again this fall.

Whimsey relaxing on top of the baby box

Check back later in the year to see who we decide to breed Whimsey to.

Is She or Isn't She?

Miss Whimsey -3-8-12

Today is the 4 month mark for Whimsey in her pregnancy and she has me stumped.

I still can't tell for sure if she is pregnant or not.  She hasn't had any signs of her heat cycle returning since November.  I witnessed Brady breeding with Whimsey so I was pretty sure that she was bred.

She has had a few personality changes which is common when a doe is bred.  Whimsey loves to have pats and rubs now but before she didn't like them so much.  She also eats like she is starving, which I can assure she is not. LOL

I still haven't been able to feel any movement like I have in Priscilla but that may be that she is only carrying 1 baby and hiding it well.  She also hasn't started to bag up yet, which is when they start to have their udder fill with milk in preparation for the impending birth.  I have read though that some does don't do this prior to birthing or that they don't bag up until right before.  So it's still a little early.

Whimsey's due date is April 8th. In hopes that she is expecting, I gave her the CD&T vaccination this morning and will keep a close eye on her over the next month for any changes. Hopefully I will be able to feel that baby/babies move sometime soon.  I'm really hoping that she is bred and has a healthy baby or babies.

Her are some pictures of her today.  You decide. Yes or No?

Whimsey saying hello

Whimsey eating grain

Whimsey eating grain

Whimsey eating hay

Whimsey eating hay, her sister Windy (next to her) is bred (have felt baby movement) and is due 2 days after her.