Apparently I Just Adopted Quadruplets

Its been a rocky few days here at Gypsy's Dream Farm. Within and hour after Tierra gave birth on Saturday, I was able to get three of her four babies, the girls, to nurse from her at least a little bit. They were not great at it, but neither were Mumble and Poe (by the way, that is Harmony's doeling's new name) so I didn't worry about it too much. Tierra's little buckling would not nurse and refused to even suck when I tried to get him to take some colostrum from a bottle. We ended up squirting it in his mouth with a tiny syringe, but even with that it's hard to say how much you're getting down him. We brought him into the house, and my mom, God bless her soul, got up with him every 2 hours that night and tried to force some more colostrum down him. He was totally lethargic, and did not even try to stand up like his sisters. The ironic thing is that his sister who looks exactly like him is considerably smaller, yet she is just as vigorous as her huge sisters.

Meanwhile, trying to get the girls to nurse from Tierra was proving less than fun. Tierra was running away from me as I chased her with a baby in my hands trying to get in the general vicinity of her teats. It was horrible and I ended up pretty much wigging out on her and tying her in a corner and pinning her with my body all the while trying to get a baby to suckle. She would stomp and carry on as if I was torturing her, and even managed to step on the tiny little brown doeling's foot. Ahhhh! At this point I was at my wits end and called my goat mentor, whom I bought Tierra from. She said that Tierra's first owner raised her as a show goat and on that farm they did not dam raise, but immediately took the babies from their mothers and bottle fed them. Last year was the first time that she was allowed to raise her own babies, and Casey said that she also had to tie her up and pin her against a wall to let the babies nurse. That went on for a few DAYS before her mothering instincts kicked in and she realized that feeding her babies was an acceptable thing to do. Well, I don't have the time, energy, or patience to force her to be a good mother, and the responsibility of that was bringing me to the edge of my sanity. So, I made the only rational decision available, I decided to make them bottle babies. That meant I had to bottle feed them 4 times a day the first couple of days, and now thank goodness we're down to only 3 times a day. Working 2 jobs, raising my own child, and taking care of my own family does not leave much room, but you do what you have to do. Its ironic, but the minute I decided to bottle feed them my stress level greatly diminished. I had felt so worried about them starving or being stepped on with Tierra, and all that was gone. Instead I had three healthy little girls locked in their warm, dry stall, and the peace of mind that they would neither be stepped on or starve. How is that a bad thing?

And Tierra? Well, when I locked her out of the stall she just walked away and went off grazing with the other goats in the back pasture. She never even looked back. She was like, "Yeah, that was fun and all being a mom, but I'm done now." Heavens.

Tierra's first born, the little buckling, I simply did not have enough time to give the attention he needed if he was to make it. This is a picture of him the morning after he was born, and I'd actually gotten him to stand up for a minute. My friend Lynn had mentioned to me that if Tierra had a boy to give her first option at him, so the morning after he was born I immediately called her. I told her that he had made it though the night, and my mom and I had finally gotten him to suck at a bottle for the first time since he was born and he'd taken about 2-3 ounces. I made her the proposition that if she would like to take him and nurse him, she could have him for free. I normally would have sold him for at least $250 when he was older, but I am happy to have him go to a good home with people who can give him a fighting chance. Here's a picture of her husband, Joe, holding him. The last I heard, Lynn had gotten 1 ounce down him every two hours for the next 24 hours. I haven't heard any more since then, but I've been praying that he'll pull through. But if he does not pull through with such devoted care as that, then he simply was not meant to.

Since then things have steadily gotten better, as I'm getting back into the swing of milking Tierra twice a day and the girls and I figure out this whole bottle feeding thing. Dustin has discovered that he actually rather enjoys bottle feeding the girls, and for their part they are getting much better at it. This afternoon Ayden helped me feed them and even gave them a bottle himself for a minute. It would have lasted longer, but the two big girls were fighting over the nipple and it was stressing him out. ;) The two big girls have gotten so good with the nipple that they can actually be fed standing up now instead of draped over our laps. What a mess! We're talking warm sticky colostrum all over everybody.
We've finally come up with names for the new girls, which was no easy feat! I found out last night that we will be able use our new registered herd name with them, so that is really exciting. So let me introduce you.
This is Gypsy's Dream Twilight, but she will go by Gypsy.
This is Gypsy's Dream Sable Afterhours, or Sable for short.
And last but not least, this is Gypsy's Dream Tiny Dancer, Tiny for short. (My mom came up with this one!) She is so itty bitty that she can wear the little sweaters I made for the Nigerian Dwarf babies the night they were born! This picture gives you an idea how much smaller than her bruiser sisters she is.