Our first baby!

We noticed as the girls were being shorn that Rose’s udder was more full than Flower’s. And, since our veterinarian recommended checking for lambs every 4 hours {especially overnight} when the udder is “full,” I wondered: What does a “full” udder look like, exactly? It struck me, again, how much information is available for all sorts of things, like, “You should shear the sheep before lambing to make it easier for the lamb to find the udder,” but not for the most basic, practical things, like, “When the ewe’s udder looks like a basketball it’s full of milk and she’ll delivery her lamb within 48 hours.”

So I got up the first night and walked down to the barn at 12:30am. It was cold and I had a very hard time getting back to sleep. I didn’t think she looked like a ewe in labor {you know, at least not like any of the other zero ewes I’ve ever seen in labor}. I decided to look for a more reliable sign than relative udder fullness.

So I did the only thing I could think of: I Googled it. That’s right, I pulled up the trusty old Goog and typed, “ewe udder prior to lambing.” Among the Images results was a link to this page. And of course it answered my question immediately. It’s a collage of photos of the writer’s ewe, every day or so, from the time her udder looked “full” to the day or two before she lambed. The ewe’s udder looked like Rose’s udder in the first photograph. And there are 9 photographs.

So I had a pretty wide range from “check her every 4 hours, especially overnight,” to “it could be two weeks before that baby is born.”

Did I mention I’m totally new at this?

I decided not to wake up the second night. I had a late meeting and didn’t get to put the sheep in the barn until 10:30pm and figured I’d check on them first thing the next morning. Instead, I found this:

I guess you could say I was caught a tad bit off-guard. I can see the nursery paddock from the house and had zero clue that Rose was in labor. I saw no suspicious behavior. Heck, the dogs didn’t even notice! The great news is that Rose delivered her baby without complications, right out there in the field, and not at 3am or at below freezing temperatures. Just the way sheep have been doing it forever.

Of course I woke the kids and they helped me put together the lambing jug, feed Flower, and then I grabbed the baby lamb and brought her to the barn as Rose followed. We went to bed at 12:30am, once they were all toasty warm and safe for the night.

Phew!