MMMMMAAAAAAAAAAAA!

It was 9 p.m. on Saturday night....and I was looking forward to going to bed.  I was tired but I was thinking of going up and reading for an hour.

Then Jack came in the door....he always checks the sheep before bed....and he said "Her water just broke."

My plans just changed.

This was the ewe that we had been checking on day and night all week.

This was the ewe that was as big as a house.

Terry went ahead to bed....because he had the alarm set for 1 a.m. to check on the cows.  He is still getting up every night to check.....and he was a little exhausted.

It was all up to me and Jack.

We went out to the barn...but it was cold....colder than I expected.  And the wind was picking up.  It felt like winter.....like January....not the second day of spring.

We actually stood around and watched nothing happening for about 20 minutes when we decided to go back inside and get warmed up.  We stayed inside for about 10 minutes and went back out...but there was still nothing and when we were starting to feel cold again we went back in to get warmed up.

We had only been away for 10 minutes and we had missed the first lamb being born.  She had it all licked off when we returned.

There was another hoof sticking out of the back of her....which didn't surprise us because she was so huge.

She continued to give all her attention to the new lamb.  She didn't seem to be in any pain.  It was as if she was ignoring the hoof sticking out of the back of her. 

This went on for over an hour....we got the new lamb to have a good suck and it was doing really well.

We were getting really cold....and really tired.

Jack suggested that we go in the house....maybe she wasn't lambing because we were standing right there.  But I told him that she can't actually hold it in.  When you are going to have a baby....you are going to have a baby...trust me, I know.

Then finally she lay down and gave one good push....it was backwards but it came easily and Jack was there to help.....there was lamb Number Two.

I was relieved....and said something like...GOOD, Lick it off and we'll get it to suck and then we can get to bed!

But then Jack said....There's another hoof back there.

Good grief.

And she wasn't really interested in licking off number two.  We had to towel dry it off a bit, wipe its nose and rub it down to get it to come alive.

Number Three came shortly after.  And she was even less interested in it.  She wanted to give all her attention to Number One.

We had a plan....get Number Two to have a good suck and then we'd take Number Three into the house.  And that's what we did.  But it took us a little while....and Number Three was looking awfully cold.

And when I finally got it down to the house it was really cold.  But I worked away at it....drying it off....and rubbing it down.  Terry came down to see what was going on....it was 1 a.m.

We made it a bottle and it had a little drink.  I left it in front of the heater and went to bed.

The alarm went off at 4 a.m.....Grady needed to milk this morning.  I went out to check on the two new lambs and they looked good.  They were up walking around....and their bellies looked full.

I gave another little bottle to Number Three.

By 8 a.m. Number Three was running around the kitchen.

By 11 a.m. I insisted that Number Three go out to the barn to be with the rest.  I put a little lamb coat on it.

Sophie settled it in under the heat lamp.

And I told all the rest to behave....and get along and be nice.

Number Three would be good there.  Everything would be fine.  Jack would bring it out a bottle.

We needed to go and pick up Johanna at the airport.

But when we got home....Number Three was back in the house.  It was being bullied out there by the mother sheep.  It needed to be protected.  It needed to be in the house.

Heaven help me.

They put it in a big Rubbermaid container and put a laundry basket upside down on top of it.  They said that it was caged in there...it couldn't get out....it would be good there for the night.  We all went to bed.

At 3 a.m. I heard.....

thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.......

MMMMMMAAAAAAAAAAA!  MMMMMAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

MMMMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!  MMMMMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

It was out.  It was running all around the house downstairs.  And it was hungry.

I sighed and rolled out of bed.

Terry laughed and rolled over.....and went back to sleep.

I made it a bottle and settled it back in the Rubbermaid.

And I made another bottle at 6:30 a.m.

And Lydia is having the best day of her life.

And I need to scrub the floors.

Brenda