Leave it to Naomi to make it an exciting day at Hum Sweet Hum. At feeding time last night, she looked ready to birth any time. She was very lax and poofy on her backside. Her milk was in and I could see the baby's head pushing up against her rear end. She was quite open even and I was concerned that perhaps she was already in labor. So I checked on her a couple of times through the night. It was cold so I didn't want to leave a newborn that was damp in that cold for long. Alpacas don't usually have their babies in the middle of the night but it has happened so I wasn't leaving it to chance. But, come daylight, there was still no baby. I watched Naomi go to the poop pile a couple of times and I thought perhaps we truly were going to have this baby finally today. As I mentioned in the last blog, Naomi is one that does not want an audience. I went into my house to keep an eye on her from inside so she couldn't see that anyone was watching. After going to the poop pile as she walked out to the big field, she began grazing. I worked at my computer which is by a window where I can watch my pastures. I kept an eye on her for a couple of hours and she just grazed. No extra trips to the poop pile. No up and down, lying down and then rising like the expectant moms do when in labor. I didn't see any signs other than that one peek of her poofy behind earlier. I got to thinking that it was just another false alarm. After several hours of no signs of labor, I decided to run to the feed store. I was almost out of their pellets and a few other items. It isn't far from my farm so I jumped into my car and ran my errand. As I drove down my driveway, I had another good look at Naomi. She was grazing away but lifted her head and looked at me and then went back to eating. I sighed and left for the store. It is no more than 10 minutes from my house and all I do is get my pellets and load them in the car which takes maybe 5 minutes if there is no one in line ahead of me. I was home in less than a half hour. As I drove back up my driveway, I see something new laying in my field and several alpacas surrounding it. It's a baby! That stinker Naomi took advantage of me leaving and quickly delivered her baby. She is the stealth deliverer!
I jumped into my boots and hurried to the field. I found a little fawn boy in the sternal position already. He was shivering so ran to the barn to get some towels to dry him off a bit and warm him up. What a cute little guy and I was so thrilled. A healthy baby with no fuss and need of assistance being born! I waited until Naomi passed her placenta which only took her about 15 minutes after I arrived home, then picked up her little boy and she followed me back to the barn where I could work on drying him up. It was a cold fall day here in Oregon and the hardest part of the little guy's birth was warming him up. But three jackets later and a hot water bottle next to him under a towel as he napped, he finally stopped shivering. He figured out nursing quickly and has nice straight legs and very bright eyed as he looks about. What a sweet boy. Naomi and Olivier did a great job. Now the hard part is to figure out a good name for our newest addition.
I will be up a couple of times during the night I'm sure. I always do even with no issues. The over-protective worrier in me needs to put my eyeballs on these new babies every couple of hours or more if there seems to be an issue. I won't fully stop worrying for a day or two until I see all the normal things going on and know that mom and baby are fully bonded and can find each other easily. But there still feels like a big weight has been lifted to know that the pot finally boiled and I'm done with cria watch until next year.
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| It's A Boy! Naomi and Olivier's baby is born. |
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