Wednesday night when we got home from work and drove past the sheep, I noticed Sadie was off by herself lying down in the barn. Hrm! We dropped our stuff off in the house, and while Andy fed kitties I wobbled as fast as I could down to the barn. I checked out Sadie’s girlie parts and could see the tee-tiniest bit of hooves sticking out! (This was about 6:30 or so.)

Andy came down and took a peek, but he was hungry and not much was going on so while I stood and watched he went back up to the house to make dinner. About half an hour later he came back with a chair for me to sit in, our sheep books, and our lamb kit. I sat in the chair and watched and watched as Sadie would wander around for a bit and munch hay and then flop on the ground for a few contractions and then get back up and repeat. After a while, she started pawing at the hay, kind of digging a nest. She also started making noises. It got dark, so Andy brought down a lantern and something for me to eat around 8:00. I sat and sat. It didn’t seem like much was happening. The opening was getting bigger, and I saw a maybe an inch of hooves, but that’s it.

Around 9, Andy came back and we talked about what to do. We were of course impatient for things to happen, but we were also worried because from what we read it seemed like things should be moving a bit faster. She just didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. I decided to stay one more hour and then reassess, but after about fifteen minutes I was cold and hungry, so I went back up to the house.

At around 10 we both headed back down and decided that if nothing had changed, we’d try to help Sadie out. There was a hint of nose poking out now, but after watching a few contractions we decided Sadie was having a really hard time and figured the lamb was probably big. Andy held Sadie, and I strapped on the gloves. It was really hard to get a grip on those tiny, slippery hooves, but I did my best and tried to pull when Sadie had a contraction. All the while this little black nose was there, too, but it wasn’t moving, and I was really worried the lamb was dead. I flicked at the nose a few times, and I thought it moved but wasn’t really sure.

I pulled and pulled and finally found out that I could grab one hoof with both hands a lot better than one hoof in each hand. It probably wasn’t the best way to do things, but I was finally able to work first one leg out and then the other. At that point Sadie was being really vocal (can you blame her?) and started really pushing and I sorta pushed her parts back and pulled on the head and VOOM. Lamb.

The lamb was kind of still, and again I was worried it was dead. I rubbed its side and made sure there wasn’t any gook on its face (and tried to see if it was a boy or girl and thought it was a girl). Andy and I were all frazzled, “What do we do? Why won’t it move? Aie!” Andy grabbed the sheep book again and read we should move the lamb up by the mom’s head (duh), which we did. Sadie began cleaning the baby and the baby began wiggling around.

Andy and I stepped back and watched but after a few minutes we began to get worried the baby hadn’t tried to eat yet. Of course, Sadie was still lying down and needed to stand to let the lamb eat. It was so hard fighting our worry and our impatience, and they won out a bit so we tried to get Sadie to stand. Poor Sadie. She put up with us pretty well until we went back to the book and realized that DUH it hadn’t been that long–give them time! After about 15 minutes or so, both Sadie and the lamb were on their feet. Though the lamb was pretty wobbly, and his (yes his) back legs kept splaying out like a frog.

Still, the lamb hadn’t fed yet and we thought, “OH no! Something’s wrong!” So we pulled out the halter from our kit and tried to get it on Sadie so we could hold her still for the lamb. Sadie wanted none of that and we finally backed off and POOF. Nursing lamb.

I don’t know if we really needed to help pull the sheep, and I do know we were probably driving Sadie and the lamb nuts with our interference, but I think we did a pretty good job. Both are doing really well today.