Sunday started out just like any other day on the farm. Up in the cold morning to take care of the animals. Of course, it got much colder than expected (you'd think that in this day and age they could predict the weather to within 10 degrees!) and water lines were frozen. I didn't discover this until I had already dumped over the sheep trough to clean it and refill it. Doh! So I made the mental note to come back in a hour or so once things warmed up and the pipes got moving. Thank goodness it wasn't like the REALLY cold days of winter when I hauled buckets of hot water all over the farm!
It turns out that the frozen pipes were a bit serendipitous. They forced me to go back to the sheep pasture much earlier than I might have that day. When I got there, Maggie was pawing the ground. Sounds pretty innocuous huh? Ah, that's because you must not know that is one of the first signs of labor!!! We didn't have any due dates on the sheep (we let the ram run with them instead of doing planned breeding) and I thought I had at least 2 more weeks. Obviously, Maggie had other plans. I bustled around the farm collecting the strewn birthing supplies and set up camp in the Mootel (the sheep barn is a pre-fabricated hutch for calfs!) with Maggie and locked the 'peanut gallery' on the other side to give us some privacy.
Shortly after 10:00, Maggie began pushing in earnest. I was really excited. Maggie, probably not so much. I'm currently attended Bradley Method of Natural Childbirth classes. Dr. Bradley based his method on observations of farm animals growing up and was sure that women could also have peaceful, natural, non-distressful, unassisted births just like animals on the farm. If Dr. Bradley had witnessed Maggie laboring, it might be called the Bradley Method of Completely Medicated Childbirth. She was not a happy camper. Every bellow rattled me to the bones and made me cringe.
A full hour into hard pushing and Maggie had not made much progress. That doesn't sound so bad but one thing Dr. Bradley did get right was that livestock typically have much shorter labors. If sheep have not progressed in 30 minutes, it's wise to intervene. I was reluctant to jump in too quickly as she was making small progress, but I also noticed that her efforts were lessening. I knew that if I needed to help her, I also needed her to be able to help me. It needed to be teamwork.
On her next contraction, I grabbed hold of the tiny hooves that protruded and pulled gently. Wow, I was going to have to pull harder than I thought! It took me about 5 contractions to finally pull hard enough to make any progress. Together, we finally got the head out! It was nerve-wracking and I was so glad it was all over. I figured the head must have been the difficult part so I would let her finish the labor. Well, I was wrong. Turns out, it's typically the shoulders that are stuck. So after a few more contractions that got her no where, I jumped in again. A few more good pushes and pulls and out came the lamb! I'm not usually terribly sentimental, but I will admit to tearing up just a tad at that moment.
I cleared the lamb's mouth as Maggie was quite exhausted at this point. Made sure he was breathing and then this time I was able to step back and let Maggie take over with mothering. She did wonderfully! Got him all cleaned up and on his feet with in a short period of time. Boy, is he just the cutest thing you've ever seen! Here's the 13 pounder, Ace!
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