A Baby Is Born...

    It's been a long day here.  Started bright and early with the farmer's market and ended with a baby...lamb that is.  It's still Saturday to my body, but actually we're in the wee hours of Sunday now, just after 1:00, so think of this as me telling my story Saturday night.  
    This evening I had a feeling Lucy would be delivering very soon.  Soon as in I sure hope she makes it until morning soon.  Sheep are only supposed to deliver during the day...in a perfect world.  Hon and Young'un went to the Cub Scout leader's house for a campout so it's me, Eldest and the Kid.  About 9:30 I was in the kitchen and heard a faint sheep noise.  It's like my mama radar was working overtime to be able to hear it.  I went out to the front pasture and there was Lucy, just a laboring away.  Problem was, I saw a nose and no feet.  Since Hon was only about 15 minutes away I gave him a call and told him since he had two of the three flashlights for camping and I was out in a dark field trying to keep an eye on Lucy while coyotee were howling up a storm right in the farmer's field on the other side of the fence, I truly needed his assistance.  I'm so fortunate that he is the type of person that will do everything in his power to help me when I need it.  Before I knew it he was tearing down the road...with the flashlights.
    He, Eldest, and the Kid came out to help keep an eye on Lucy since the coyotee were out in full force.  Lucy was able to deliver that baby unassisted with all the other ewes standing guard around her, but not only was Lucy completely exhausted, the babe wasn't standing up.  She (yes, she's a she) had no strength in her back legs.  This was more than likely due to the hard birth and the way her legs were tucked up inside Lucy.  I wrapped her in a towel and we got Lucy in a stall with the baby.  I helped Lucy clean her off and still there was no movement in those back legs.  The poor girl was utterly exhausted.
    While I assisted Lucy with clean-up, along with giving the lamb some Nursemate ASAP and Nutridrench to help give her some energy to start working those back legs, Hon and Eldest went in the farmer's field to a spot where there's a bunch of dead trees piled up and a stream where the coyotee have their dens.  When they got there those coyotee started howling and kicking up a fuss until Hon shot off his gun a few times.  Then they kept quiet and stopped their nonsense so Hon could get back to the campout with Young'un.
    All the while I was helping clean off the lamb with Lucy and working with it to get up on those back legs.  She would try so hard to get up and then roll over.  She'd rest a bit, I'd give her a bit to eat from a bottle since she couldn't get to Lucy, and then she'd have a go at it again.  At 11:28 she did it!  I was so proud of that little lamb!!  She stood for a brief second and then went back down.  Did it again, stayed up a little bit more and plunked back down.  After a while she was able to find the strength she needed to get her legs working and she was doing great!  She's a little wobbly, but she's coming along beautifully!  Lucy is a great mom, too.  She's just not sure what to do with the lamb when it disappears under her, wanting to turn around, so I put a stantion gate up and had her stand there for a bit while the lamb got the nursing down.  I let Lucy out afterwards and will go back and check on them again in a few hours, but in the meantime this gal needs to put head to pillow and catch a few Zzzzzzz's.  Smiling & Waving, Sharon