Welcome to the ranch Tiny Dancer! (newsletter)

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Earlier in the week I had a dream that Alaska had 8 babies and then another night that she had 5. Friday at 12:30am she had...

One. lol

Welcome to the world and our farm Dancer!

She has her dad's face (he's a black and white spotty goat like Charlotte) and everything else is mom, including her "frosted" ears. I'm in love!

I thought for sure she would be born Wednesday night since her mom Alaska was showing so many signs. By Thursday morning she was really talking up a storm so OBVIOUSLY she was going to give me the gift of a day birth right?

Haaaaaaaaaaaa!

We went out Thursday night at about 11:45 to check on the girls before bed:

and there was Alaska, NOT talking anymore and quietly having huge, belly clenching contractions. It seemed the contractions were short, just a few in a row and then she would go back to staring at me:

I started timing the non-contraction times and withing about 20 minutes they went from 12 minutes with none, to 3 minutes with none, to 1 minute with none.

I sat just outside the opening of her stall, silently talking to her. A few times she came over to me. I felt various things from her, mainly she wasn't sure she could push hard enough to get the baby out. I told her that she was powerful and capable and she would most likely be able to. I gave her some warm molasses water to give her some energy since her early labor had been so long. I told her that if she couldn't get the baby out we would take her in the car to NC State Vet Hospital and they would get the baby out super fast. It would be okay.

She went into actual, pushing labor at 12:20am, she was up and down, thrashing around, just YELLING. Panting. And for the short moments in between she would come over and look at me with wild eyes and I would just tell her she was STRONG and POWERFUL. I was all teary and she was working so hard. Suddenly there were feet! Were they front or back?

And then feet and a...nose! A nose and feet! Perfect position!

Half a dozen really hard pushes and there she was! Before I could step in with a towel, Alaska had spun around and started licking her like the great mom she is. Dancer shook her head immediately, coughed and sneezed a few times. In just a few minutes she was already trying to get her feet under her. So strong!

I let mom get her cleaned up and watched with a towel ready. It was kinda cool outside so I went in and sat on the ground and towel dried the areas mom wasn't actively working on. At one point I picked her up in the towel and put her in my lap to help warm her up and Dancer struggled and yelled and I said, "Boy you're feisty!" And thought, "Hmmm, "Feisty?" And immediately heard, "Dancer." Ignored it in the fuss of the moment.

Friday morning, after catching up on some sleep, I went out to visit and held her for awhile. She's just so pretty and sweet:

Names would come to me and each time I heard, "Dancer." It finally clicked, duh, that was her name. I've not had a baby so young communicate to me before!

Friday afternoon I took mom and daughter out into the sunshine for a bit. I sat in the sun with Dancer who promptly fell asleep in my arms. Alaska stayed very close to us, occasionally giving her little licks. She's super attentive :-)

Now, when will Charlotte deliver? The nighttime camera watch continues!

And, babies...besides the cuteness overload, why do we have goat babies?

Because babies represent hope. Innocence. Family bonds. Joy. And every year that I have them, I have a renewal of those things in my life. Life can be a bear sometimes. It's just so GOOD to have babies around. To be there through the delivery, the dark time of pain and fear, and then have this beautiful, hopeful, precious creature be born into the world. To be reminded that after the dark comes the light. She makes the world right again.

If you're looking for more pics and snippets of stories, I'm on Facebook too :-)

And if you're a fellow weirdo :-) and want to watch Alaska give birth to Dancer, I will be posting that on my YouTube channel soon! Subscribe here!

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