And then there were five ....

God has been faithful and so have we .... watching and waiting and checking every daylight hour hoping for the chance to see a live birth.  After thinking for four days in a row that "any hour" our first and most beloved goat "Starlight" would give birth, it finally came to fruition yesterday.  Over the four hour span, I was able to do a little photojournaling for those of you interested.  WARNING: if you have a sensitive stomach, you may want to skip down to the last happy picture :-)

Starlight grew quiet and solitary by the early afternoon.  I knew something was up when I found her standing and facing the corner of her shelter alone and still.  She also had her teeth showing which I've never seen prior to yesterday.

Isabelle found her a few hours later lying down and in a puddle of water -- her water had broken.  The contractions grew hard and she was restless and obviously uncomfortable.

An unusual thing to happen with goats in labor is that they yawn.  Sure enough, I knew when things were really hurting her because she yawned wide and frequently.

Josiah was our faithful "gopher" and stayed on the outskirts of the true action - gathering supplies, finding lights (we went past dark), bringing towels, and checking the news on his iPhone (just in case?) :-)

Isabelle and our young neighbor friend had fun passing the time by watching every move Starlight made (and trust me, there were many "movements" if you know what I mean).

God gave us a beautiful sunset, a few sprinkles, and a warm wind to help us pass the time.  We read the goat books on birthing and waited, hoping for the best.

Thankfully, Joe had just gotten home from an evening meeting before anything began to actually appear. (Can you hear me breathing a sigh of relief at this point? I think it was even audible to our neighbors).  Although devoted, I really wasn't sure I was interested in "intervening" should that be necessary.   I'm the one with the weak stomach in my family.  Ugh.

Animal births are not always as easy as they seem.  In our case, goat #1 (should I call him "Esau"?) came out presenting only one hoof and a head and then labor stopped all together.  We sat for a few minutes wondering what to do ..... thankfully, Joe took charge and helped pull the other hoof out in order to enable labor to proceed.

Low and behold, a black goat (!) buck (male) came out.  Those recessive genes sure are interesting!  He ("Midnight") is really big. 

Believe it or not, our goat did groan pretty loudly while she was pushing out her kids. This was a great learning experience for Isabelle .... although I saw her think long and hard and wondering out loud if she really was up for this challenge when the time came for her to be a mother :-)

Number two (yet unnamed) -- another male came out much easier and just as big.

Hooray for Daddy doing all the gross work of wiping them off and helping clear their airway!  They sure look like a mess here.  But all it took was spending overnight in a clean stall with their Mama and now, voila!

Another set of adorable baby goats!  These will be sold, likely for meat, within a couple of months :-(  We try not to grow attached to the males for this reason.  Isabelle sees them as an investment and is already counting her profit dollars (after paying Daddy that is)!