Babies, and more babies!

We had a baby last week. We had thought she was due and had been watching since Jan 24th. So by this time we are getting tired of watching. Subsequently we found out that we had the due date wrong and she wasn't due until Feb 8. When we found this out, she was still overdue, but perhaps less concerning. One thing to remember though is that Alpacas can have viable pregnancies with terms from 11 months to 13 months... so no real concern yet, it could have been that the weather was cold and she didn't want to have her baby. Well finally last week (while Mike was gone) Barbara went into labor. I watched her close and something seemed strange. Alpacas usually birth easily, in fact some people say they can be eating at the hay bin and drop babies. So when she was laying down, and up and down and up and down again I got concerned. When I got out to check on her the baby was just just beginning to be born, and the head came out but no feet. In alpacas this is bad. The feet need to come out the same time as the nose, in fact the toes need to be in front of the nose. I had to reach in and find and pull out one leg, but when I went in to get the second, I could not reach it. The vet had to come out and get that second leg out. Once the second leg was in position, it was not 10 seconds before the baby popped out! She is totally black, and a girl.. our favorite kind! And she is the biggest strongest baby we have had to date. She was walking within 30 minutes. Her mom was pretty sore for the next few days, but otherwise all is fine. Baby's name is Zia.

We also were waiting for Cupid to have HER baby. She was also a few weeks overdue (Due Feb 4). She had a little beige boy last Friday (Leap Day). I was gone to Las Vegas (training) so this time Mike was all alone! At first it looked like we were going to have a repeat performance (the whole class was watching on the barncam from Las Vegas) but finally a nose and feet popped out. The birth was textbook after that. He also is a strong large boy, his name is Boston Elite.