Elizabeth

I've had a hard time keeping up with my blog as of late. I have a new baby on my arm most of the time, so typing can be a bit challenging. That's right! For those of you who didn't know, I finally had my baby girl on July 15th. I started having contractions on the 14th around 4:30 PM. I wasn't sure it was truly labor until around 9 PM when the bloody show finally came. I had been losing mucus plug for about a month already, so it was really exciting to finally get the bloody show and know I would be holding my baby soon. My mom arrived first, then my sister (Mariah), my midwife (Sheehan), and the midwife's apprentice (Gina). The whole birthing crew was here by midnight. My contractions were inconsistent (not uncommon for me) coming anywhere between 3-6 minutes apart, but they were getting stronger by the hour.

We all sat around the table for awhile before Mariah decided to go to bed since she knew Ethan, Madeleine, and Robbie would be waking her up early the next morning. Not long after she went to bed the rest of us decided to move to the living room. The baby was a little posterior, so I needed to get on all fours to encourage the baby to turn a little - the living room rug seemed like the best place to try that since Brad and Robbie were sleeping in my room. Once I was in the living room and things were partly set up I decided I didn't want to leave, so the midwife brought all the birthing supplies from my master bathroom (where I birthed Robbie) into the living room. Sheehan checked for dilation and found out I was about 5 1/2 centimeters dilated. With how far apart the contractions were Sheehan figured it might be awhile before I was to the pushing point, so everyone laid down. Sheehan laid down on the love seat, Gina on the couch, and my mom and me on the sheet that was laid out on the floor. After a few contractions I decided to start getting on all fours for them, because laying on my side started feeling too painful. I think it was on the second or third contraction on all fours when my water broke. I was a little surprised by that since with both of my boys my water broke right before the pushing point and with Madeleine the doctor caused the water to break so that my labor would progress (it wouldn't on its own). I knew, though, that the water breaking meant I would be going through transition, which would mean throwing up. I don't know why I have to do that every time, but I do! Yuck. And I did. Twice. After the first time I tried to get over to the piano and stand for awhile thinking that may help the baby to come down faster, but after getting over there I started feeling really light headed and nearly passed out (my ears were buzzing, everyone started sounding far off in the distance to me, and things were getting dark). I was quickly made to go back to the rug. Shortly after the second time I threw up came the pushing point. My mom got Mariah and Brad up to see the birth of the baby. Amazingly enough Ethan, Madeleine, and Robbie slept through the whole thing. I was more quiet than with any of my other births, so that probably helped.

I've had all of my children in different positions. With Ethan I was sort of on a birthing stool, with Madeleine I was in the crouched down position holding onto some metal bars they had especially for that position, with Robbie I was standing, and with Elizabeth I was on all fours. Strangely enough the contractions were still spaced apart a bit (not a ton, mind you, but more than usual for that point of the birthing process). She still came out in about 3-4 contractions, but I had to work on breathing her out in between the contractions since the midwife was telling me to push when I just couldn't seem to (there wasn't a contraction helping me out a good portion of the time!) Elizabeth arrived at about 2:45 AM (no one actually looked at the clock for a few minutes, but we figure it was between 2:43 and 2:45 AM). Sheehan happily told me it was my smoothest labor yet. They handed Elizabeth to me right after clearing out her nose a bit. She quickly learned how to nurse and nursed for about the first hour after being born! It took the placenta awhile to come out, but when it did it arrived with a big surprise. The cord wasn't attached to the placenta the way it normally is. The name of what it was is: Velamentous Cord Insertion (click there to read all about it). It's probably why I had an amniotic leak for so many months! The cord was attached to such a thin place in the membranes... my little Elizabeth is a little miracle baby! The cord could have come detached in my womb or even during birthing and caused serious problems... even death. I'm so very, very thankful she is alive and well. I had a feeling something wasn't quite right and cried a couple of days before she was born as I prayed that she would live. I had never done that with my other babies, but with Elizabeth I kept having this feeling that she was in danger. I'm so thankful everything turned out so well! Not only did she get all of her nutrients just fine in spite of the bad connection, but she ate really well! Sheehan weighed her as I was getting showered off and she weighed 9 pounds, 10 ounces! Wow. That's about 1 1/2 pounds heavier than Madeleine was and over 2 pounds heavier than Robbie! She didn't feel any bigger than my other babies coming out, although two days later I felt really bruised in my lower back and hips due to Elizabeth's size.

Things are going really well. Elizabeth started sleeping through the night after just a few nights. My contractions went away after just two nights, which I'm incredibly thankful for (normally I have them for 4-7 days/nights after birthing a baby)! Those can feel a bit torturous at times! My belly is shrinking back and I'm happy to be fitting into my normal clothing again.

Here are some recent pictures:

A week before I birthed Elizabeth.

Elizabeth the day she was born with Ethan.

One day old.

4 days old.

Brad and the boys. It was so cute when I looked out and saw Brad, Robbie, and Ethan all hanging out with our ox, Little Bill. I just had to have a picture!

Elizabeth at 6 days old during her second outing.

5 days old.

8 days old.

Ethan giving one of our little roosters a ride.

Elizabeth (8 days old) almost smiling as her brothers give her some attention. Robbie was giving her a kiss.

12 days old.

Birthdays and Ella

My baby girl, Madeleine just turned 4-years-old at the end of May and I wanted to post a couple of pictures of her while I have a chance!

She is so beautiful and growing up so quickly!

For her birthday she requested blueberry cake and since I'm on bed rest a friend of mine who was over helping me made Madeleine a blueberry cake with cream cheese frosting! That was so sweet of her! Thanks, Bettina!

Here Madeleine is playing outside on her birthday with Robbie.

The other new thing around here is our new Jersey heifer, Ella! She's 15 months old and weighs about 650 pounds. She'll be our milk cow next year - assuming she gets pregnant soon. Here are a couple of pictures of her:

We bought Ella from some folks who had her as basically a pet. She's very friendly and loves following Brad around. She even comes when he calls her name! She is also gentle enough Ethan and I can lead her around if needed.

Here are a few random pictures from this month:

Robbie just had his second birthday, but his birthday pictures didn't turn out as well as I would have liked. He had food on his face in most of them! :o) In the picture above he is petting a new lamb Brad brought in the house to show me since I'm unable to go out and see the new ones. That little gal couldn't seem to figure out how to feed off of her mother, so we gave her to some friends to bottle feed. It sounds like she is getting spoiled with all sorts of attention! I sure am glad it worked out for them to take her!

Here's a cute picture of Ethan, Madeleine, and our Scottish Highland calf, Red. I think it's cute how Ethan is standing in this shot - it reminds me of his daddy! And I think it's funny how Madeleine was brushing her hair outside with the new hairbrush she got from her grandma for her birthday!

Amniotic Leak

Sorry for the absence! I may not be writing much for awhile more, though, because I've been off and on bed rest. I've had an off and on amniotic leak and it looks like I may just have to be on bed rest the rest of my pregnancy (due date: July 7th). There isn't really a whole lot to talk about when I can't even go outside at this point! I'm just happy to be able to stay at home instead of in the hospital. For those of you who pray out there I'd appreciate prayers that I get to continue to stay at home, that the baby makes it full term, that baby will continue to stay healthy and strong, that the amniotic leak will seal up, and that no infection occurs! Brad was away for awhile on another business trip, but arrived back at home yesterday, so bed rest should become a bit easier for me now.

Due to all of the concern the amniotic leak has caused I've taken a few trips to the hospital. During one visit I got my second ultrasound (ever) and as it turns out the baby looks very much like a girl! That was a big surprise to me since the first ultrasound looked so much like a boy. At 30+ weeks ultrasounds are more accurate in the area of figuring out the gender, though, so most likely the baby is a girl. I'm happy Madeleine will have a little sister! Not to mention all the fun, girlie, ruffly little clothes I'll get to "play" with again! :) I don't want anyone to think I wouldn't be just as happy with another precious boy, though! I'll be happy either way. :) I just think it would be fun for Madeleine to have a sister.

Baggies

Yesterday, when I was on the phone with my mom I noticed Madeleine pulling all of the sandwich sized baggies out of their box. I quickly interrupted my phone conversation to say, "Madeleine, what are you doing?!"

Looking a bit annoyed, she calmly replied, "I'm looking for a smaller size." I couldn't help but laugh. Apparently she was looking for a snack size baggie and just figured all of the sizes were in one box!

Lambs!

We currently have 15 lambs from this spring! I love watching them climb upon the back of our llama, Oscar when he is laying down for a nap and then jumping off again. Oscar gets a bit annoyed by this game, at times, and will stand up with his ears back making all of the lambs tumble off of him.

We've had two complicated deliveries, which isn't bad for how many ewe's have delivered lambs so far. I noticed the first complication as I was feeding the animals (before Brad returned home). She was in labor and came to the pushing point. I watched her push a few times and realized there was something not quite right. I climbed over into her pen, chased her down (yeah, she was running from me even though she was in labor), dragged her back into the sheep shed and held her with my legs as I checked out the situation more thoroughly. The lamb was coming out with both front hooves and its head at one time (see illustration below)! First I tried pushing the feet back in, but there was no way I would have had enough strength to get the legs in the right position when her body was fighting me with contractions. So, I started pulling. I didn't have enough hands to do it alone, so I had Ethan pull on the legs a bit as I eased the head out. The hardest part was getting the shoulders out. That poor ewe let out a loud, "Baaahhh!" when the shoulders pulled through. The lamb was a big one for having a Shetland mother and Black Welsh/Jacob father! I'm guessing he was overdue, which happens a lot when the lamb/kid/baby is in the wrong position. Here's an illustration of how he came out:

The lamb was having a difficult time breathing, so I rubbed its back down to help gets things circulating well and cleared out its mouth and nose. It was fighting hard for life, so with a little help from me he began to breathe better and let out his first little, "Bah". I left him then with his mother. The ewe healed quickly and the lamb is doing great. There is a picture of him below. His interesting coloring is due to his father being part Jacob.


The second complication came after Brad was home. He was out watering the animals and noticed a Shetland ewe was in labor. He had me come out to inspect her. Sure enough, shortly after I got out there she began pushing. After watching a short time I could tell something was wrong. I climbed in and took a look at it. This time the lamb was coming out backwards (breech) - rear first! So, I had Brad help me. It took a lot of pulling. Not only was it coming out backwards, but he was a big lamb, so it took a lot of muscle to pull him out. Here's an illustration of the birth position:

I had to work with the lamb for quite awhile to get him breathing right. He took in more liquid in his lungs than the one I mentioned above since he came out backwards. I had to pull stuff out of his mouth and nose, and then do a lot of rubbing him down. Here are a couple of pictures of the little guy with Ethan:

Ethan and the little ram lamb.

Madeleine probably was saying something about the lamb's tail here.

Ethan and Madeleine climbing over a fence.

Another new lamb with its mother.

The big, brown ewes are Rambouillets and most of those black lambs are Rambouillet/Black Welsh mixes from this spring. Oscar the llama is there in the background. The extra wooly looking small ewes are Shetlands.

The Jacob ewe in the background is the mother of these little twin lambs - they're 2-3 weeks old now.

Spring

Spring is definitely here. Spring brings with it many ups and downs; snow and mud, gray skies and blue, warm and cold, bicycle rides and sledding. We've gotten more snow this spring than we did during the whole winter, I think. We had one snowfall of 18 inches, then another of about 6 or 7 inches. Most of the other snowfalls have only left an inch here and there. The wind keeps blowing it into drifts making some of them deep enough for me to sink up to my knees in and other areas bare. I must admit, this part of spring is bothersome. I look forward to the end part of spring where we mainly get sunshine, blue skies, and blossoms. It's just around the corner... I can almost smell it and definitely hear it - the birds are returning!

Here are a few pictures I've taken this month that I thought I would share with all of you:

A picture of spring; bicycling and snow.

Little man, Ethan shoveling paths through the snow.

Robbie interrupting school time.

My baby belly at 6 months along. I accidentally didn't get my head in this photo, but it was the best angle of the belly out of all of the photos I took recently.

Brad has returned and will be working from home, hopefully for a long while. I'm very happy to have him home, as are the children. Even the oxen seem glad to have him home! They get more attention from him than they do from me. :) I just don't tend to find the extra time and energy it takes to stand around scratching their chins, necks, and backs.

Well, that's it for now. I'll try to get an updated photo of Madeleine on here soon. I have a harder time getting a good one of her since she is always on the move! :) Have a great weekend!

An Overdue Update

It has been a long time since my last update and I apologize for that. It has been really busy around here for the past month or so. Brad has been away a lot since October due to work, which means I've had more responsibilities to tend to. With spring being here we've had a lot of birthing going on around here. We now have 11 lambs! There were 3-4 kid goats born as well, but they're no longer on the farm. One kid billy I gave to a friend to take care of because his mother didn't want to feed him. She would take care of him in every other way - lick his butt, cuddle with him, and protect him, but she just wouldn't feed him. I guess she is a pretty dumb goat. That nanny goat had had twins, but one died the day he was born. Then another goat had her kid/s, but we have no idea what happened to it/them. One day she was pregnant, the next she was searching for her kid/s acting like she had no idea what happened to them. I don't know if a neighborhood dog got it/them, if it was coyotes, or if they died of natural causes. Whatever it was I haven't found any sign of it/them anywhere.

With birthing goats comes milking time. I began milking both nanny goats each day for 7-10 days before deciding to let them go dry. My midwife told me I needed to figure out how to take it easier, because of signs of a possible premature labor, which I couldn't risk (of course!) The only thing in my everyday life at that point that I could afford to get rid of was the milking. Feeding and watering the animals is mandatory, obviously.

A couple of weeks ago a Black Welsh Mountain ewe died and Brad had told me if that happened to remove its liver, so that we could send it to a lab and figure out why a lot of our Black Welsh just keel over without any signs of something being wrong. So, when I found one of our Black Welsh ewes dead as a doornail in the pen one morning I knew exactly what I needed to do. I ran back to the house for a knife, then dragged the ewe out of the pen, and began gutting her. I had never done this sort of thing alone before, so of course I did the one thing you're not supposed to do for pleasant gutting - I punctured the stomach. Or at least one of them - sheep have four stomachs after all. It was a really gross job after that point (it would have been gross enough without puncturing the stomach), but I found the liver, rinsed it off, put it in a freezer zip lock baggie, and put it in the freezer. At some point we are going to send that off. We suspect that the Black Welsh have a copper deficiency, because Brad recently talked to someone else who has Black Welsh sheep and found out that most of her sheep had died before she figured out they need more copper than most other sheep. The problem with this, of course, is that too much copper would kill them and not enough kills them. So, we have to find the right amount to give our Black Welsh and give it to them in a form where the other sheep won't get it along with them. Also, before we assume it's a copper deficiency we're going to send that liver off and see what the test results reveal.

There have been several other "guy" jobs that have come up, but I won't bore you with all of them in detail. One of them was that our furnace ran out of heating oil and the fuel company couldn't come fill up my tank until the following day. Since it was a really cold day/night, I had to make sure the pipes in the house wouldn't freeze. To do that I had to deal with copper pipes, stinky fuel, and a bucket (that's a long story in short form). Another job: our huge hay stack had to be moved back for a hay delivery. I could have waited for Brad to do it on the weekend, but I hated the thought of him spending his weekend that way when I could help. So, I took it on myself to move that stack. Amazingly enough, even at nearly 6 months pregnant, I only got a minor backache. Each hay bale weighs 100 pounds and I had to move about 40-50 bales to make enough room for a hay delivery. I tried not to lift too many of them - mostly I rolled and scooted them until I had the pile the way I wanted it. I did get a bit scolded for that job. Not even Brad wanted me doing that! I thought that was sweet. Everyone was right; I shouldn't have done that. I also shouldn't have thrown straw bales over into every pen to make fresh bedding for the animals. The straw bales aren't 100 pounds... probably more like 75 pounds, but it was still an awkward, difficult job a pregnant lady shouldn't do.

My sister, Mariah came and stayed with me for 2 1/2 weeks, which was great. I don't know how I would have kept up with housecleaning without her. She was here during the time I was milking goats, which was good. It was hard catching those goats! Our older nannies are trained to get up into the milk stand by themselves, but these younger ones have to be chased. That's where having two people to do the job came in handy. Also, it was nice having someone to play games with, craft with, watch movies with, and just take my mind off of missing Brad.

Well, I guess that's enough of an update for now. I hope everyone is doing well!