Claire and a Lamb a la Carte

Last night we had a nerve racking event. Claire, our last pregnant ewe, went into labor. Shalea and I were sitting on the bench swing in the sprinkling rain, talking for a minute before we needed to head back inside since we were in the middle of both making dinner and watching a movie called Bella (highly recommended, by the way). But while we were in the middle of our conversation, the beller of a lambing ewe permeated the air from inside the old pig house that is now the humble abode of our five sheep. Claire had been sticking inside the last few days, creating a little nest in the hay, and only coming out to eat and drink. We had been waiting for her to give birth for over eleven days since the second ewe delivered twins (one of which was pure black, whom she shunned, so we adopted him inside our own house and named him Shadow, because he thinks that my mama is his and follows her everywhere she goes), so at that single beller, Shalea and I bolted up and went running to hop the nearly five foot fence that makes our sheep paddock.

Well, I wasn't really thinking smartly, because I was in bare feet and a calf-length skirt. Not really the type of garb you wear into a dirty, poopy pen full of urine soaked hay. But I wanted to see my Claire-bear "lambing" for the first time.

(For a little history update, Claire is my buddy out in the sheep pen. She's the sweetest of all the sheep, and loves to lean on me while I scratch her cheeks and sing to her. I don't know which one of us is the luckier one, because she doesn't mind my singing, and I get to practice all my lullabies on her.) :)

Shalea asked me to run to the house and get everyone else, but suddenly Claire's "lambing beller" turned into this horrible, agonized, sheep-scream. I stared at her while her eyes bugged out through contractions, the corners of her mouth "smiling" in pain as she panted rapidly, her tongue projecting out of her mouth each time she grunted.

Taking off towards the house, I got Mom, Dad and Ryann, and ran back. Something was definitely wrong (or so we thought). Feeling sick and worried, I stood there with my hand covering my mouth while Dad knelt down and examined her back end. None of us have ever experienced a situation like this. Both of the other mothering ewes had easy births, Tess baaing once as Shadow slipped out, while she licked off the still-wet face of her firstborn. Nothing traumatic. Fairly easy. But here was our sweet Claire, groaning in agony and seeming like she was going to die any minute.

Mom read through a sheep book that we have, and walked Dad through what to do. A friend of ours has had to help her goats once or twice through birthing, reaching in up to her elbows to twist a mixed up kid into the correct birth canal position. Apparently we were supposed to wait a few hours until Claire showed signs of quitting, or if only one of the lamb's front hooves was showing beneath its chin, or if there were two front right hooves or two left, because that would mean that twins were mixed up and coming out tangled up. How can you even tell which hoof is which? They looked the same to me. But thankfully, the little dark-faced, mucus encased lamb was coming out nose and front hooves first.

Well, I won't go through the whole ordeal, but I did wind up washing my feet and putting some sandals on, and Claire gave birth to one of the most enormous lambs I have ever seen! These sheep are dwarfs, but the baby that came out was the size of an 11 day old twin lamb. For those of you who haven't had lambing experiences, lambs grow incredibly fast! Within the hour of their birth they are dried off, walking and nursing. By the next couple of days they're romping and bucking, butting their heads in glorious pleasure, and testing the other adult sheep that have no patience for little rascals.
Mom had to pull on the lamb's body when it was most of the way out, because Claire was too tired to go on. Thank the Lord there were no complications, except for the pain a small ewe endured giving birth to a massive lamb! But it was an answer to prayers. Both mama sheep and baby lamb are doing fine and healthy today, and as suspected, Claire is a great mother.

We also got to eat dinner, spaghetti, and it didn't burn. Plus we got to finish our movie before midnight! Bella is a highly recommended film, so if you want to check it out, here's the website:

http://bellamoviesite.com/

It was a great movie, you'll love it!


~Brianna