Surprise!

We started suspecting that April was pregnant a few months ago, when the buck was here. April never came into heat. She hadn’t had any obvious heats since September. She was noticably getting rounder and rounder, and her udder was getting bigger as well.

The father is either Jasper or Euphrates.

The day before yesterday, April’s udder was noticably round and shiny. That night I went down to the barn at 3:30 am. April was contracting and pushing. Around 8:00, the first baby’s hooves emerged. April is a wonderful mom, but gets very panicked in labor. She screemed so hard, that she didn’t seem to be pushing very hard. I pulled the baby and between me pulling hard and April pushing, a seven pound, beautiful baby girl was born. Once we saw her face, we knew that this must be Jasper’s baby. If you disagree, leave it in the comments. I included pictures of both possible sires. April was excited when she met her kid. We named this one Jochebed. Leave a guess for her name in the Bible, in the comments.

Immediately after Jochebed, another baby came with only one leg forward. The baby was big, and April was panicked. I reached in and the next kids leg was back, but the hoof was forward. This was an easy fix and the second seven pound doeling was delivered. If you haven’t experienced it before, one leg back can be difficult to deliver, if the hoof is back. Occasionally, a large kid presenting this way, will even break their neck as they’re delivered. This kid’s name is Hadassah, since she was born so close to Purim (a holiday that celebrates the book of Esther). You can leave your guess for this name in the comments.

Both kids are doing good. Jochebed has a bent leg, and walked on her ankle for a day, but she is already getting better.

If you don’t remember, April was Eutychus’s dam. Eutychus was the buckling who died at a few months old from scours last year.