Our lambing began on March 29th. Unfortunately, I missed the first birth, as I was with my Grandmother who was in the hospital. Sigrid was our first ewe to deliver. We knew she was pregnant with twins, so we had been keeping a close eye on her. We installed a baby monitor camera in the loafing shed, it really helped to keep an eye on the ewes without having to disrupt them by going out all the time. Troy and Trevor could see that things were starting to begin and were keeping a close eye. They got occupied talking to Troy's parents and hadn't checked for about fifteen minutes. Next thing they knew, they heard the bleating cry for a new born lamb through the monitor. They quickly hung up with the grandparents and headed out to the barn to witness the second lamb's birth. I arrived about 10 minutes later, as they had texted me at the hospital to let me know and Grandma shooed me out of the hospital.
Two ewe lambs! A great start!
As it was a chilly night, the lambs wore their little coats to make sure they stayed plenty warm. The coats were purchased from The Good Shepherd Lamb Coats.
Astrid was our wild card. We had seen all of the other girls get bred, but we never saw her. When we did the ultrasound, it seemed to indicate she was going to have twins, so we weren't expecting her to go too soon. But, on the morning of April 3rd, we were woken up about 4:30 in the morning to a ruckus going on in the shed. We could hear lots of bleating, so Troy headed out to see what the fuss was. Of course, Astrid had delivered a beautiful white ram lamb. Well, we were expecting twins, so we woke our poor vet up about 5:45 that morning as nothing else seemed to be happening. She came by to check, but by that time Astrid had delivered the placenta, so we knew we had one nice sized ram lamb.
Snuggled in with his warm coat.
Now that is a darling face.
Next up was Elsa, our gestation calendar had her delivering around the 12 of April, so when the boys wanted to go to Colorado Springs to see some live music for Trevor's college class on the 8th I didn't think there would be a problem. Ha! About fifteen minutes after they left, I headed out to do the chores with Samantha. When I fed the girls, Elsa did not come in to eat. I knew this was a good sign that something may be happening. I finished the rest of the chores and sure enough she had come into the shed and I could see we were going to have a lamb soon. I called the boys back, and she delivered a lovely white ewe lamb about fifteen minutes before they got back. We got everyone all settled in the jug and they went the next week to hear the live music. :-)
Just moments after birth.
Already up and nursing.
We have one more ewe yet to deliver. Based on her size, we are pretty sure she has twins. When we did the ultrasound, the vet saw one lamb, but was pretty sure there was one there that we couldn't see. I think she is right. The next post will have some fun picts of the lambs. Our vet calls them "Smiles on legs" and I have to totally agree!