New Life!! (Updated)

Here's what I came rushing home to find!




I was going to write "he was mostly dry..." and just realized in all my excitement I never even looked to see whether it was a male or a female! I'll get back to you on that! Anyway, it was mostly dry already. Mama was doing a good job standing over him so he didn't get injured by the other ewes moving around. Every thing I've heard has said to let them lamb with the group, then move them to their own little pen or "lambing jug". I had a little pen set up for her already so I gently picked up the lamb and carried him, at eye level for the ewe, to the new pen. They can still touch noses with the ewes and with a calf on one side. The goal is to give them a few days to bond on their own.

My only concern right now is that I haven't seen him nurse. I've seen him nuzzle around back there but not latch on. He did urinate but I'm not sure if that could be from his time in the uterus or is from nursing earlier. They need colostrum within the first few hours and he could have been born as early as 9 AM. I tried to hold him up to her udder but Bonnie wanted nothing to do with it. I'm going to check again in awhile, he was sleeping when I left and seems alright.

Off to check blogs and then see what this thing is: boy or girl!?

BTW, thank you everyone for your good luck. :)

I was just thinking, based on where I saw the urine coming from, it must be a girl! Duh! I'll still double check though.. lol

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Update 6:30PM:

She's eating! Yahoo! I was not looking forward to dealing with it if she didn't eat. Also, she is definitely a she, I looked this time. Sorry for all the gates in the way, I was using zoom so I didn't disturb them too much.





You can't see it in the picture but her little tail was just a waggin'. I tried to video it but couldn't get enough light. I'm thrilled that it is a ewe lamb, that means we'll get to keep her if she's anything decent. She's the first lamb ever born on this farm. *big sigh of relief*