Baby Update

Well, at long last, we’ve got babies!

First to deliver was Birdie. No surprise there, she’s the herd matriarch and is always first at everything.

I came home from an errand on Monday, May 22 around 1pm and saw all the ladies in a circle. This usually means something’s up.

As I approached, I saw a very recently unpacked baby, still glistening wet. So that meant I probably missed the final push by less than 3 minutes.

This was Birdie’s 5th baby and as expected, the unpacking was perfect. The little GIRL was up in very short order and mama was attentive as always.

I named her Dixie, a name I’ve loved for forever but because last set of babies in 2021 was almost all boys!

As soon as I saw the little Dixie nurse, I knew we were off to the races.

Which is kinda funny that I say that, because all the other births thereafter took…forever!

It wasn’t until June 1st that the next arrival came.

Hoosier started to deliver her cria and I realized quickly that one of the front legs was stuck. ((Think: the elbow tucked close to the chest)).

I was able to free up the leg and then I walked away quickly. If you remember, Hoosier is Hammie’s mom, and she abandoned him because his birth had complications.

I bred Hoosier again thinking that first unpacking she had with Hammie was a fluke…

As soon as she delivered…all on her own this time…I thought we were good. The cria got to the seated position quickly and I was able to confirm it was another GIRL.

After about 10 minutes, Hoosier was doing all the things mamas do—vocalizing, cleaning up the baby, passing the placenta. Meanwhile, little girl seemed content to just sit there.

Typically, the cria starts to flail about, trying to get on their feet…so they can find that first and all-important drink.

This little girl, though? Not so much.

Ultimately, I went over and helped her to her feet. And that’s where I noticed she was down on her pasterns. Pasterns are the first joint on their legs, being down on them is a tell-tale sign of immaturity. Because of this, she had even more difficulty finding her legs and stability.

About this time, Hoosier started to back off. Anytime the poor baby would get onto her feet, Hoosier very clearly would not let her near.

While I could go on and on with the details, it’s just a bit too much and too soon for me.

I ended up bottle feeding for the first few days, sleeping outside with her and the herd. Sadly, no amount of love and hope could change the reality that she was not long for this world.

At 2am on June 4 under a spectacular full strawberry moon, little Frannie passed away.

The next arrival wasn’t until Friday, June 16th - and it was another GIRL this time for Riff Raff! Both Elena, the farm intern (blog to follow!), and I got to view the entire unpacking.

This was Riff Raff’s 3rd unpacking, and much to my surprise, she allowed her last baby, Reba, to hang around during the unpacking!

Typically, mamas want privacy and space (duh) when unpacking a new baby. We weren’t able to get Reba out of the maternity ward, and rather than chasing her out and causing a fuss, we just let her stay. Normally mamas will spit and get anyone out of the way they don’t want around, we figured we’d let her handle it. That wasn’t the case here. She just allowed her to hang around and sniff the new baby.

This is such a good thing — for reasons I’ll share in a minute.

Watching Riff and Reba fuss over this new baby was adorable — and learning it was another GIRL was just so incredible.

In keeping with the illeteration naming for Riff Raff…I had a few options for names that I liked. I put a poll on our farm’s facebook page and the standout winning name was Roxy — and she’s proving to be a little rockstar!

And then just a couple days later on Monday, June 19, Sugar unpacked! Both Elena and I also got to view the entire process, including the very early stages of birth — that often go unnoticed.

I was reminded why I prefer to come out to a fully birthed baby! Those early stages of labor…are hard to watch! Lots of discomfort and lots of wondering…is it in the right position? Should it look like that? Why isn’t something coming out yet?

I walked away at one point, nearly certain something was wrong. I went right over to the livestock trailer that I’ve never yet used and only purchased for this very reason…thinking I might need to take Sugar (my most wildebeast-esque of all alpacas) to the animal clinic. Ug! Trying to accept the fact that this is just the way things go… I walked back to the maternity ward and was relieve to see one leg…then two…then the head.

WHEW!

All the while, the wind was blowing and blowing. And it was downright cold for June 19th. This little cria was up very quickly, and I darted over to see that it was another GIRL!! Quite small but sturdy and fully developed, this little cria is striking — a perfect unpacking of her final baby — Sugar is proving to be a solid mom again.

Because she was born on a windy day, Elena suggested the name Winnie and that felt like the perfect name!

With 3 beautiful girls on the ground, I’m feeling so overjoyed. Now normally, this would’ve completed unpacking for the year. After all, I like them to all be born as close together as possible so they can be playmates…and that makes weaning and halter training done as a group as well.

However…when I was moving Hammie, Earl and Bernie into the big boy herd after weaning…I left a gate open. And someone made good use of that. I’ll spare you the details, but Rainier found Reba and now Reba is expecting her first baby sometime in August.

So it’s a good thing that Riff Raff let Reba hang around after unpacking Roxy….hopefully that means she’ll be a great first time mom when it’s her turn later this summer.

For now, we’re enjoying these three beautiful girls!