Baby Born

A little baby was born today. It was warm and breezy, and everything was pleasant. Poor momma cow was in labor all morning. Late morning we drove by and could see that she was contracting. By lunch, she still had not had the baby. The calf's feet were visible, but there was no movement with momma cow's pushes.

Gampy (Daddy) was growing more and more concerned, and by lunch he had insisted we try to get her up. We left Little Bug inside with Mema to have a bottle, and the 4 of us went out to get her up to the barn.

Gampy, Golly (Mom), and I drove to the far end of the pasture to find her. The wind was blowing hard enough that they might close, and we couldn't have the steers from the other pasture come over so Papa manned the gates. We took a rope and walked with it stretched between us. Gampy to the right, Golly to the left, and me holding the middle, we herded her through two pastures and into the barn.

We did everything we could to minimize her stress. I couldn't tell that the calf was moving though, so our stress was rising. I went to get little bug, Golly grabbed a new rope, and Gampy grabbed some chains. We all hoped to give momma cow some time to settle after all that walking, but this is where the stress really started.

Gampy took the rope and went round and round the pen with momma cow. He did everything he could to keep her calm, but to keep everyone safe, and the calf out, she had to be tied in place. This way Gampy could get behind her, help get the calf out, and no one get hurt.

Little Bug and I stayed in a different pin to help as we could. We were the gofers. Golly held the rope so momma cow wouldn't turn and hurt Gampy, or smash the calf's legs. Little Bug watched with wrapped attention as Gampy took the chains and got them around the calf's feet. He waited for momma cow to push, and gave a heave. In one quick movement, the calf was out. We got the chains off the baby, the rope off of momma cow, and she quickly started cleaning the calf.

We all watched with bated breath to see if the little baby moved or took a breath. After what seem like minutes, but was probably only a few seconds, the little baby took a deep breath and lifted her head.

It's so good to see miracles like this happen!