We are up to 17 kiddos now, with just one more doe goat left to freshen! It just so happens that my FAVORITE doe settled last this year, so I am still on pins and needles waiting to see her contribution to our kid group. There have been 5 night births at very erratic times, varying from two days early to four days late, beginning some 3 weeks ago. As of this writing, I am severely sleep deprived.
"Stormcrow" is a quiet first-freshener who was assessed at 2 hr intervals, since she filled her udder or "bagged up", as we rural folks like to say. Last night, I knew she would definitely kid, based on her behavior, so I ran up the hill to the barn in my long underwear at 8 pm, 10 pm (to feed kids), 1 am, 3 am, 5 am, and again at 6:15 am to milk and feed for morning chores. Wouldn't you guess, that sneaky lady kidded sometime between 5:00 and 6:15 am. All the recent moms attended the birthing girl, so kids were sparkling clean and wandering around for a random tit, when I arrived. It was easy work to dip navels, milk out lucky bewildered doe and feed hungry kids before my children were ready for school.
My two first-fresheners both kidded unattended, but they are easing into milking time just fine. In contrast, all of my older does were heavily assisted, so I am now very comfortable re positioning breech kids and exploring a doe up to my elbow. There should be a word for spelunking a goat uterus...like "capcaving" or "goatsplelunk". Both sound "maaaaaa-velous".