Hindel Kidz 27: And Baby Makes 21
Hindel Kidz 27
And Baby Makes 21
Since Lainie, Joy and Jane had not been expecting babies after the first time around, Jack decided to try it again. This time he put Lainie in with Pete. Pete just had a hay day. Jane and Joy were both placed with Ben.
Around the middle of May, Grace thought Joy looked a little more round and thought she was starting to look like she had milk. But Grace couldn’t be sure. She hadn’t been up to see Joy again before the end of May. Before she got ready to head home, she wanted to go see if Joy had gotten any bigger since she hadn’t come out of the building yet. Finally, Joy came waddling out. She looked a lot rounder and she had so much milk; her belly was almost touching the ground.
“She is definitely going to have a baby,” Grace said. “There is no way she can’t be expecting.”
Instead of asking Jack when Joy’s due date was, Grace asked, “Is she going to have it in June?” Jack said yes. She hoped Sven would find out if Jack even had an idea when Joy would have it. It drove Grace a little crazy because Jack wouldn’t come right out and say when he thought Joy’s due date was. Grace really wanted to be there since she hadn’t been able to see Pete and Peanut being born. They would turn one in July and had turned into two little heathens. Since Joy had so much milk, Grace thought for sure she was going to have twins again. Maybe even triplets. She also hoped Joy would have girls for Jack.
“Wouldn’t it be great if Joy had triplets and they were all girls?” she said.
Sven found out the earliest Joy could have the babies was June 11th. But knowing the goats the way Grace did, she knew Joy probably wouldn’t have them on that date. Jack said it could be another ten days before the babies were born. It was time to hook up the camera so Jack could sit inside and watch Joy’s every move.
So far Joy was not showing any signs. Finally on June 15th, Grace noticed her back end was sticking out a little more than normal. Joy might be having her babies in the next few days, Grace thought.
On June 17th, Joy was making soft little noises and showing what Grace considered to be signs of pre-pre-labor. Grace was pretty sure Joy would be having her babies pretty soon. It was then Grace found out Joy’s due date had been the 15th. So she was only two days over. If Joy didn’t have her babies by Saturday then Grace and Rhonda were going to be on Goat Watch. Jack was going to a goat show down near Cincinnati and Sven had to work. If Joy was showing definite signs Jack wanted Grace and Rhonda to check on her every two hours. If not every four. Heck, if Joy was showing any signs at all, Grace would be up there the whole time.
“If I come back from the goat show and there are three girls that turn out to be three boys, I am going to be upset,” Jack teased Grace.
“I think I can tell the difference between boys and girls,” Grace said. “And I didn’t even go to vet school.”
“If she has her kids at 4:00am, do you want me to call?” Jack asked.
“Why not?” Grace answered. She had been up there at 4:00am with Ruby.
“You had better call,” Sven said, “or I am never going to hear the end of it.”
Well Grace’s pretty soon turned out to be very soon. Jack went to check on Joy at 3:30am and she was having contractions. By 6:00am she was showing other signs. Jack called Sven and Grace at 6:05 and they were up there by 6:15am. Grace sat in the building with Joy for two hours. Joy would stretch her legs out, push and sometimes cry. So far nothing was happening.
“So what’s the report, doc?” Jack asked Grace. He came out to see if he could feel any part of the baby. He thought he could feel the head. Jack decided to have Charlotte call the vet. After what had happened with Ruby Jack wasn’t about to take any chances.
Sven helped Jack load Joy into the truck and then he had to leave for work. Since Grace had not been able to go to the vet when Carolyn had Jack In The Box, she really wanted to go this time. It was around 8:15am when she, Jack and Charlotte were heading up to Mt. Vernon Animal Hospital.
When they arrived, Joy did not want to go in. Jack had to drag her across the parking lot and into the examining room. Charlotte sat out in the waiting room, but Grace went into the examining room with Jack. The vet’s name was Dr. Robb. He had been the one to work on Carolyn and Ruby.
“Well, we’re back again,” Jack said. He found it ironic all three goats that were going to have babies had to go to the vet and they all had them on Friday.
Dr. Robb washed his hands and had his assistant bring in some towels. When he asked questions about Joy, Grace was the one who answered them. He reached in to see if he could feel the baby. Joy screamed.
“I know, pretty girl. I’m sorry,” he said. “I can feel the legs so the baby is right where I want it to be.”
As it turned out the baby was not coming out headfirst like Jack had thought. It was coming out backwards and back feet first. The back legs were tucked up underneath it. After Dr. Robb got hold of them, he was able to pull the baby out so he didn’t have to do a C-section, which made it easier on Joy. All though she had screamed almost the entire time.
The baby was all back with a tiny white spot on its forehead and gray ears. It was listless. Dr. Robb started massaging its throat and chest and it started breathing.
“Hello there, squirt. Welcome to the world,“ Dr. Robb said.
Grace sighed in relief. Just because Pete and Peanut had been okay, Grace already had it in her mind this baby would be okay as well. They had brought Joy in at just the right time.
Dr. Robb felt to see if there was another baby in there, but Joy only had a single. Grace, Jack and Charlotte couldn’t believe it especially with all the milk Joy had. She had enough milk for ten babies. Dr. Robb said it could have been because of the cats. The cats can cause humans and goats to have only single births, stillbirths and miscarriages.
“I am going to let you hold the baby, if you don’t mind, while I clean up the mother,” Dr. Robb told Grace. Grace mind?
“That’s why she’s here,” Jack said.
“This is your baby,” Grace said to Joy. Joy only licked it around three times.
“Is it a boy or girl?” asked the vet tech. She had been the one who had thought Jack In The Box was a girl. Everyone at the office had been on her case about it ever since.
This time everyone including Jack and Grace checked. It was another boy. The reason Jack had wanted baby girls was because they were more beneficial to show at the fair. A withered boy can only been shown for two years and boys who aren’t withered cannot be shown at all. A girl can be shown for two years and then Jack could breed her so she could be shown again. It’s just the rules of the fair.
The baby boy nibbled on the front of Grace’s shirt looking for a place to eat.
“I am not your mother,” Grace replied. She placed him next to Joy and tried to get him to eat, but Joy wouldn’t stand still long enough to let him try. He weighed four pounds, one ounce. He was twice as big as Pete and Peanut had been. Dr. Robb said he was strong and healthy.
When they brought them home, for the first few minutes Joy walked away from her baby. Jack thought he was going to have to bottle-feed him for the first couple of feedings. With Carolyn she had been in la-la land and didn’t even know she had a baby. Five minutes later Joy was lying down, but had her tongue out trying to lick her baby, but he was too far away. Grace went in and put the baby closer to Joy and she began to lick it and talk to it. Since she was responding to her baby, Charlotte said to wait for a little while before trying to bottle feed him to see if Joy would let him eat. He would get up walk a couple of steps and then fall over. He was doing pretty well for just being born.
It looked like he was trying to and was eating from what they saw on the TV screen. Grace hadn’t started to think up names yet. If the baby had been born on June 14th, Grace could have named him Flag or Banner because of Flag Day. But Joy had him on June 18th. Grace suggested Friday after the day he was born. Charlotte said to call him Clark Bar after the Clark candy bar so he would have the same kind of themed name as his mother. Continuing with the theme Rhonda thought Skittles would be a cute name. Grace liked Payday since they had to pay for him to be born. Jack was hoping to sell him after he was weaned and then the people who bought him could name him.
Since Jack and Charlotte were still going to the goat show, Grace and Rhonda would be responsible for feeding and checking on Joy and her baby at least once during the day to make sure they were doing all right. Rhonda thought the baby was the cutest thing ever.
At feeding time, Jack already had Joy and the baby out in the yard. Molly sat in Sven’s lap the whole time since she knew the brown goat was out in the yard. Jack and Charlotte both laughed at her. She must have remembered Joy charging her last year. She had already tried to charge Molly twice through the gate. And had walked toward her a couple times. Jack still believes Joy was jealous. After Sven and Grace got Molly, Joy must have felt like she had been put on the back burner.
Joy was a good mommy even though she wasn’t as protective as she had been with the twins. She would come out and lay in the yard or wander around while her baby was still in the building.
By August they still hadn’t come up with a name for the baby so Grace just started calling him Little No Name.
