It won't be long now until our new kids start arriving--Goat kids that is!!  We're all very excited.  I should receive my order from Hoegger Goat Supply today for the last of my supplies.  Since I was so sick, I didn't get my order in as early as I would have liked and that has put some stress on me wondering each evening if "tonight" would be the night and I wouldn't have my supplies.  But we've made it, so that worry is a thing of the past now.

      My basket of general supplies is ready and waiting.  Clean fluffy towels to dry the kids off with, a bulb syringe for suctioning mucusy noses, iodine for dipping cords, baby bottles waiting to be filled with their momma's nourishing colostrum and other odds and ends.  After the delivery I like to fix the mommas up some tasty fiber cereal and molasses mixed with Goat Nutri-drench to eat after they birth to help regain their strength.

     We bottle feed our kids.  Our herd is closed (meaning we don't show and don't bring in new animals without quarantine) so we aren't susceptible to CAE.  I don't pasteurize the milk so the kids are getting good raw milk, which of course is better for them.  We like to bottle feed because it makes the kids far more friendly and easier to sell--everyone wants a goat that isn't afraid of them. 

     I confess that I worry about kidding a lot.  My mind conjures up a million and one ways things could go wrong.  I worry about the kids being positioned properly because I hate having to turn kids or lose them because they are in the wrong position.  This year I bought some coated steel cable in case we have another kid in that horrible position of the front legs coming out but the head is stuck, pushed backwards up inside.  In that position you need a "kid puller" to loop around the head and pull it down (it wants to keep folding backwards up inside unless you help hold it steady so that it can come out with the front feet).  We've only had that happen once but it was very traumatic to me. 

     I also worry that they will kid in the middle of the night and not survive the cold temperatures.  We've only had that happen once and was actually able to save the kids because I heard the kids bleating in my sleep, woke up and ran out to find them. 

     Then, once the kids are born I worry that they will be OK.  I worry that the mommas will be OK.  We keep our kids in the house for the first 3-5 days (generally in our bathtub) so that I am able to keep a really good eye on them and make sure they are eating and eliminating properly and that they continue to act normally.

     Sometimes I think that I worry so much so that when things don't go badly I have a huge sigh of relief that things went so well.  And if things don't go well I am mentally prepped for the worst case scenario.  I prefer the sigh of relief though!!

     I'll let ya'll know how things turn out!!