Could Today Be the Day?!

So you guys have probably been expecting a post from me for days now announcing the arrival of Tierra's little ones. Well, lets just say that a whole lot of "expecting" has been going on here since her due date came and went FIVE days ago, but so far not a single thing to show for it. My mother stayed the night here last night to be on goat watch duty for me (God bless her, I haven't had a full night's sleep in two weeks for checking on goats!). I have never been so disgusted to not be woken at 4 a.m. in my life. I keep telling myself that they have to come out sometime. They simply cannot stay in there forever. The laws of physics are against it. I received one particularly insightful suggestion by one of my readers that perhaps she is keeping them in there until they are weaned and everything, just skipping all the middle business.

But... I do believe today is the day. When I half heartedly went to check her tail ligaments this morning I recoiled in horror. I cannot sufficiently describe it, but to perhaps say that where yesterday there was normal bony goat flesh, today there is something the consistency of warm pudding. It feels absolutely unnatural, and even Dustin said "Ugh!" when I had him feel it. There have been no discernible ligaments for weeks, but this is another whole thing entirely. That combined with the way her udder looks this morning, (GINORMOUS!) and the fact that her udder feels like stretched leather leads me to believe that it will finally happen today. Not to mention the fact that her vulva is finally a bit swollen.

Here are two pictures of Tierra's udder, the first taken 2 months ago in December, and the second taken 5 minutes ago.
















Quite the difference, huh? When I went out to check on her she'd gone into her stall and is standing in her favorite corner, and had obviously been pawing at the ground making herself a nice nest because I actually had to move a bunch of bedding away from her udder in order to get the picture. Her teats are literally dangling about 2.5 inches off the ground. Lets just hope that her belly rises back to a normal height right when the babies are born otherwise they'll be having to find a teat thats down by their ankles!

Here's a picture of her standing in her stall getting ready for her babies to come. Take a moment and really LOOK at that belly. I mean.... geesh. And you know what I love about her? She's not worried about stretch marks. Or her saggy boobs. Or if a man goat will every find her attractive again.
I'm suspect that a small part of her fortitude and strength of spirit might be due to the fact that she's growing not only healthy babies, but A BEARD! (This one goes out to you, Marigold!)