I really don't think I should use the words, "joys" and "calving" in the same sentence. This calving season is chocked full of surprises. This is our second year watching our cows calve, and they have decided to give us a run for our money! We are finding out that last year was really a piece of cake!
I now carry a 5 gallon bucket full of calf supplies every time we go out to check the cows. Its amazing how much stuff can fit in a 5 gallon bucket. I take calf bottles, three different sizes of nipples, several bags of colostrum replacer, old towels, scissors, lots of hot water, and the tuber.
There are times when we go out to check for new calves that we find a calf that was born dead. I feel so bad for the cow, I just want to bawl right along with her. She just can't understand why her baby won't wake up.
Then we have a perfectly beautiful calf whose mother turns into some kind of hormonal heifer! She has no clue that her calf just needs some tender loving care!
One old cow, (at least she was old enough to know better), had her calf right at the fence. The little guy slipped right through, so she couldn't reach him. Rob and I were watching her through binoculars, so he went out and moved the calf to her side of the fence. She took off and left the poor little thing lay there shivering, so we took out towels and a bottle of replacer. After we fed him and wiped him off, we came back to the house and continued watching her through the binoculars. She would walk up to him, sniff him and then buck him. After watching her do that several times we went out and brought the cow and calf into the corral. We then got her in the squeeze chute and brought the calf to her. She tried to kick him several times but she finally settled down and left him nurse. We kept her in the corral for several hours till she started mothering the calf then we let her back out with the herd. She finally realized that WAS her baby and nobody was trying to take it from her.
About a week later we were up on the butte checking for calves and we came upon a new calf that was struggling to get up. We stood him up but his front feet would double backwards. He was going to have major problems getting milk from his momma so we loaded him up and took both cow and calf to the corral. For several feedings we got the cow in the squeeze chute and Rob milked her by hand. She was not happy about the situation, she wanted out with the herd in a bad way! The calf struggled to get up so we would massage his legs every time we fed him. After a day or so Rob decided to let him try to nurse off the cow while she was in the squeeze chute. It took both of us, one to hold his front legs steady and the other to hold his hind quarters still. The cow was getting harder and harder to get into the chute, she absolutely hated it! Finally after several days the calf was able to stand and walk, but was very shaky. Rob made a smaller pen in the corral, so the cow couldn't get away from the calf. We got our trusty binoculars again and watched to see if she would let him nurse. He finally got it mastered. It wasn't long till he was walking better so we put them both down below the house, in the pasture with the heifers so we could keep an eye on them. The calf is doing really well, though it still has some stiffness in his legs. The cow is still longing to be out with the herd. Maybe... one of these days...
The snow last week really threw us into a tailspin.
It was during the snowstorm that I wondered if I am crazy or just plain stupid for wanting to work with cows and calves again. Who enjoys putting four layers of clothing on and riding out in the bitter wind to find a frozen calf that needs attention fast or he will die?
We had calves born in 5 degrees with a 15-20 mph wind. They looked like little icicles. We had to bring several of them into our little sheep barn, put a heating pad on them, cover them with towels and give them colostrum. In a few hours they were up bawling for their mothers. We took them back out and their mothers were waiting for them. That's when the "joy" part comes in. Watching the mother come up and nuzzle her calf, talking to him, just gives one the satisfaction that you did the right thing!
I just keep telling myself "We are one day closer to spring!" ...and to think another snowstorm is heading our way....
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
The Miracle of Life..
February 18, 2018 Today is our youngest daughter's birthday. She asked me a few months ago if she had a baby book. She does...somewhere. Then she asked if I would write down the events of the day she was born. I don't think she was thinking of a blog nor do I think she knows the complete story. It was a day full of miracles, a day I really didn't think would turn out the way it did!
My whole pregnancy was a roller coaster ride. Morning sickness to the point of dehydrating. A weight gain that went off the charts. Toward the end of my pregnancy I started showing signs of preeclampsia so my midwife put me on a high protein diet and lots of bed rest. We had our last two babies at home with no complications so we were planning another home birth.
Four o clock, Thursday morning Feb. 17th my water broke. I called my midwife mid morning to let her know. I hadn't started any contractions so we decided to just see how the day progressed.
Sometime in the wee hours of Friday morning my contractions started. The midwife arrived about 4am but nothing seemed to be happening. I homeschooled our three older children so a friend came by and got them out of the house for the day. I spent the whole morning eating natural herbs to keep my labor going.
My midwife was new to this job. I don't remember how long she had been practicing but as time went on and I wasn't doing anything by the textbook, she called another midwife and asked her to come assess my situation. She was an hour away, running between two Amish homes delivering babies. She said she would come as soon as her ladies delivered and she could leave them.
My labor stopped! No amount of blue cohosh, Pitocin, or anything else the midwife had hidden in her bag would start it up! (God just shut everything down so the other midwife had time to get there.) I lost track of time, nothing was making sense. Every time I looked at the stack of little baby things in the corner of the room, I just knew I wasn't going to use them. We had lost two babies prior to this pregnancy and I just felt I was going to lose this one too. I just stopped looking at that corner of the room.
Sometime in the mid afternoon the other midwife showed up. She quickly assessed the situation and informed me my uterus had shut down and I was going to need to start pushing this baby out myself. She said when the baby got to a certain point my uterus would kick in again and help me out the rest of the way.
I started pushing! And she was right, at some point my contractions started again and I mean they started!! I never felt pain like that before. It was sharp jablike pains. I told them, just let it in there, I'll carry it the rest of my life...
I didn't even feel the actual birth. That was the easy part. The baby arrived around 5pm Friday. As soon as she was born, I knew there was something very, very wrong. I laid my hand behind my head, and when I picked it up, it was covered in blood. There was no crying from the baby, so I knew it had died. No one said anything about it being a boy or girl. With all these thoughts going through my head nothing seemed to be registering.
The midwives were both working on me and I could hear them whispering. The one said, you go call the ambulance, and the other one said, lets try one more thing. We were 30 miles from the hospital, they were pretty sure I wouldn't make it that far. I could feel them working inside me but I felt no pain. I just remember feeling very relaxed, at one point I remember asking them, "Should you be doing that?" and they said "If we don't, you will die!" That didn't even register.
Rob was by my side the entire time. The ladies had him making sugar water and he would feed it to me continuously. When they finally got the bleeding stopped, one of the ladies exclaimed, "we forgot the baby!" "There's a baby??" I asked! I don't know how much time passed between the birth and the time they remembered her but she hadn't cried at all. She was laying off to the side, just looking around.
Three miracles took place that afternoon, the second midwife was able to be there, my baby was alive, and I lived to hold her and watch her grow up!
When the midwives came back the next day they told us my delivery was one that their instructor warned them about and hoped they never had to deal with.
So today my baby turns 24, I still think of her as my miracle baby!
I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Ps 139:14
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace
and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jer 29:11
My whole pregnancy was a roller coaster ride. Morning sickness to the point of dehydrating. A weight gain that went off the charts. Toward the end of my pregnancy I started showing signs of preeclampsia so my midwife put me on a high protein diet and lots of bed rest. We had our last two babies at home with no complications so we were planning another home birth.
Four o clock, Thursday morning Feb. 17th my water broke. I called my midwife mid morning to let her know. I hadn't started any contractions so we decided to just see how the day progressed.
Sometime in the wee hours of Friday morning my contractions started. The midwife arrived about 4am but nothing seemed to be happening. I homeschooled our three older children so a friend came by and got them out of the house for the day. I spent the whole morning eating natural herbs to keep my labor going.
My midwife was new to this job. I don't remember how long she had been practicing but as time went on and I wasn't doing anything by the textbook, she called another midwife and asked her to come assess my situation. She was an hour away, running between two Amish homes delivering babies. She said she would come as soon as her ladies delivered and she could leave them.
My labor stopped! No amount of blue cohosh, Pitocin, or anything else the midwife had hidden in her bag would start it up! (God just shut everything down so the other midwife had time to get there.) I lost track of time, nothing was making sense. Every time I looked at the stack of little baby things in the corner of the room, I just knew I wasn't going to use them. We had lost two babies prior to this pregnancy and I just felt I was going to lose this one too. I just stopped looking at that corner of the room.
Sometime in the mid afternoon the other midwife showed up. She quickly assessed the situation and informed me my uterus had shut down and I was going to need to start pushing this baby out myself. She said when the baby got to a certain point my uterus would kick in again and help me out the rest of the way.
I started pushing! And she was right, at some point my contractions started again and I mean they started!! I never felt pain like that before. It was sharp jablike pains. I told them, just let it in there, I'll carry it the rest of my life...
I didn't even feel the actual birth. That was the easy part. The baby arrived around 5pm Friday. As soon as she was born, I knew there was something very, very wrong. I laid my hand behind my head, and when I picked it up, it was covered in blood. There was no crying from the baby, so I knew it had died. No one said anything about it being a boy or girl. With all these thoughts going through my head nothing seemed to be registering.
The midwives were both working on me and I could hear them whispering. The one said, you go call the ambulance, and the other one said, lets try one more thing. We were 30 miles from the hospital, they were pretty sure I wouldn't make it that far. I could feel them working inside me but I felt no pain. I just remember feeling very relaxed, at one point I remember asking them, "Should you be doing that?" and they said "If we don't, you will die!" That didn't even register.
Rob was by my side the entire time. The ladies had him making sugar water and he would feed it to me continuously. When they finally got the bleeding stopped, one of the ladies exclaimed, "we forgot the baby!" "There's a baby??" I asked! I don't know how much time passed between the birth and the time they remembered her but she hadn't cried at all. She was laying off to the side, just looking around.
Three miracles took place that afternoon, the second midwife was able to be there, my baby was alive, and I lived to hold her and watch her grow up!
When the midwives came back the next day they told us my delivery was one that their instructor warned them about and hoped they never had to deal with.
So today my baby turns 24, I still think of her as my miracle baby!
I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Ps 139:14
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace
and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jer 29:11
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