First batches out of the oven

 By Feb 28 Borealis and Tzatziki were both a day overdue.  Around dinner time a bubble finally emerged from Alice – and then retreated back into the warmth again.

 Barb went in to help the reluctant 10-pound guy out.  He looked a little froggy at first

 but cleaned up real good 

 under the careful attention of first-time mom Alice 

 and doula Barb.

 The second guy was REALLY reluctant to come out.

 He was full breech

 so Barb had to do some careful rearranging in the darkness of Alice's plumbing

 before he could emerge, also

and be attended to.

 Draco and Polaris were soon on up on wobbly little legs

 and enjoying their first meal outside the womb.

 Early the next morning they were napping comfortably beneath the heat lamps. 

 Cheeky waited till early afternoon on March 1 

 to deliver not one

 not two 

 but three gorgeous doelings (Tzilla, Tzippa and Tzugamushi)

 with Barb's assistance (as Alice and sons cheered from across the barn).

 Everything looked fine at first.  Cheeky was taking care of her girls, licking them non-stop and allowing them to nurse.  This came as a relief; we remembered last year when she rejected her buckling.

 But then over the next few hours Cheeky's tongue and lower jaw swelled up alarmingly, probably an allergic reaction of some kind 

 (or else she just overworked that poor tongue bathing her girls).

After consulting Dr. Angela Urban, Barb gave her shots of epinephrine and dexamethasone; the swelling soon went down and she had no further health problems. 

 However, by bed-check early the next morning Cheeky had once again morphed into Mommie Dearest;

whenever poor Mooshie approached, Cheeky would pick her up by the ear and toss her aside.

We weren’t sure she was going to care for the other girls, either,

 

  so we moved them all to the bathtub for a period of close monitoring and frequent bottle feeding.

 They were all doing so well by the next day (and pooping and peeing up a storm, requiring frequent changes of the towels lining the bathtub)   

 that we packed them up again

and moved them to their own suite in the goat barn.

They left the bathtub needing industrial-strength cleaning

and somehow managed to smear poop on the bathroom walls.

While we were delighted that their young digestive systems were functioning so efficiently, dried meconium is almost impossible to remove.

Fans of Action Comics will remember the classic issue (#189, July 1946) in which Lex Luther, having failed with Kryptonite, almost succeeds in destroying Superman with the strongest substance in the universe, Baby Goat Meconium.

At first Mooshie's ears were a bit floppy

but with plenty of mom's good milk

(delivered not by mom but by that nice other lady)

she was thriving like her sisters

and dividing time between climbing all over their suite

and napping furiously.

Across the barn, Alice has proven to be an ideal mom

and her boys are flourishing.

Disbudding is fun for no one involved

but the babies got a consolatory dose of milk.

They rested for an hour or two

and then were back tap-dancing on their furniture.

Welcome to MeadowWild

Draco

Polaris

 Tzugamushi

Tzilla

and Tzippa.

The next batch is due from Kuiper!