91热爆

Right before dinner we found Sheep #4 sniffing around "The Corner" (the sheep in labor have a thing about this particular corner of the pen) and when I looked at her her back end was wet and she was deffinately in labor! We had a quick dinner at the in-laws and came back to find the bag of waters had burst. She didn't seem right though. Something was "off"...

Sheep #4 had a hard lambing: she didn't seem to be getting on so when I put a hand in her I wasn't surprised to find that the lamb was coming head first. I searched and couldn't find any hooves so I had Erlend double check. He confirmed that the legs were back and the head was coming first - but luckily the head had not passed through the pelvis yet!

So...once again we propped a yow's hind end up on a strae (straw) bale and made her kneel (so her backside was elevated) and I had a go at trying to find the legs and get the lambing rope around them.

It was a very hard job. #4 was extremely tight and Erlend said this was because she had not stretched anything oot yet because the head hadn't come through the pelvis.

I'm taking notes for my own births in the future...

Erlend had already fished out one leg and then we swapped places so I could get some practice. I managed to get the lambing rope on that leg - which sounds easy but is DIFFICULT when you have to do so inside of a very tight slippery space with one slippery hand clutching at an extremely slippery leg! To top it off you can hardly feel the rope because it gets slippery too!! But I did it and I felt elated.

After some time, and quite a bit of yoga-style positions, I was able to locate the second leg and get the lambing rope on it. THIS TIME I didn't put the ropes on the same leg!! That in and of itself was a triumph haha!

I found the head and accidentally stuck my finger in the lamb's mooth. He immediately began to sook! I tried my best to get the snare around his little head but...I just could not tell the head, body and the other various slimy parts one from the other! I gave it a good try but since the sheep is not exactly having herself a picnic I thought it best for Erlend to take over.

He got the snare on in two shakes of a lambs tail. He's good! (Even though he always acts like he's some lumbering dumb ox or something...) (Acctually, wait, I should view his behavior through the lense of Orkney culture and see it for what it is: Orcadians are loathe to put themselves forward and always wave aside praise and play down their skills and talents.)

It was a tight and tough lambing and it took some work and a lot of cries from poor #4 before that big bonnie lamb passed through the pelvis. She was licking him and nickering at him the second we placed him under her nose!

I stink of iodine and sheep - the scent of sheep just SINKS into your skin and hair...it's still there even after you wash with hot water and soap! Sheep scent is ok but when it is mixed with iodine all I can picture is the hot slimy world of birthing lambs... (I've lost my appatite more then once in the past few weeks!)

#4 had another very wee lamb inside of her and when we pulled him out his eyes were blinking and he was gasping. But sadly he died because his heart stopped. I swung him like a cat and Erlend pumped his wee chest but all to no avail. He died anyway.

The good news is that I bound three of "Little Sheep's" flailing hooves and we covered him with the birth fluids and #4 accepted him as if he were her own lamb. However...we don't know if Little Sheep will accept the yow! He may be too bonded to me. But when Erlend stuck him on one of #4's teats he sooked like mad so there's hope...

Ooooh ugh my hands stink!!! And nothing takes the stench away! Yack.

Now "Ten" is sniffing around The Corner and her udder is about the size of my head! Are we to have three lambings today? I sure hope that Ten drops her lambs without any problems!

I am going to attempt to take a wee kip...(nap) Wish me luck!