Little Love

(Continued from yesterday's post...)

So I have lots of things I could write about that all happened on Monday. I could write about co-hosting 45 women to a taco dinner at our church. Or I could write about having my nieces here for the day and how awesome they are and how in a sad twist, Sonna got the flu right before they were to leave. I could write about how we are suddenly bottle feeding a lamb in our house and how I burned through every beach towel and old towel before someone at Taco night told me I could put a diaper on the lamb. I could write about how Rory evaporated 35 gallons of maple syrup during all of these events in our new Sugar Shack. Or I could write about how I saw an entire uterus first thing in the morning.

I think we'll start with the uterus...

At 5:00am on Monday morning Rory went out to the barn to check on the little twin lamb #2 that didn't seem quite right. And he called my phone immediately, "Becca. The mom is dying. It's so bad. I need you out here."

So I joined him in the barn, leaving a walkie talkie for Mara, Sonna and Svea with a note that said, "we're in the barn, let us know if you need anything." And when I got to the barn it was bad. Really, really bad. The mama had birthed her entire uterus but it was still attached to her insides. She was laying on her side, barely alive and let me tell you, you don't actually ever want to see an inside out uterus. Ever.

Ever.

It had octopus suction things all over it and it was huge and blobby. I could say more but I guess I'll leave it at that. Rory was on the phone with the vet and I was watching a youtube video on how to put a uterus with straw all over it back into a Ewe. It didn't look very promising.

Also, Twin #2 was still in the same position as the night before and definitely not thriving. I told Rory I was going to go get a warm bottle of milk for Twin #2 and he said, "please don't be gone long. I really want you here with me." This was traumatic. It was still night outside, the stars were brilliant in the sky and after seven healthy mammal births, this experience was about to turn us into real deal farmers.

The vet arrived and she was wonderful. I told her we had seven kids in the house and she said she had two in the car she had running. Her 5 and 2 year old were along and watching a movie because her husband milks cows in the mornings. Later, when she drove away I told the kids she had her kids in the car and Svea said, "That is not a lazy lady." Nope. She was awesome. Rory and I watched as she slowly put the Ewes insides back on her inside and stitched her up. It was much more involved than that one sentence but I'll keep moving.

She took a look at Twin Two and couldn't figure out what was wrong. He was kicking his legs wildly, but unable to stand. His neck was curved, so it seemed like it might be scoliosis or something with his spine. But he was unable to walk, and since his mother had just gone through quite the ordeal herself, he was unable to nurse. So we were told to bring Twin Two into the house to warm it up, feed it and make it comfortable.

Which is obviously the most exciting thing that could happen to a house full of children. A darling lamb coming in to be bottle fed? So fun. The trouble was that everyone knew the fact that it couldn't walk was a really bad sign. The vet said to give it a day or two to see if it improved, but then we'd likely put it to sleep. And that was a terribly sad thought.

We went along with our day together. We held the baby kittens (we had three born last week!) and did a morning of homeschool, the kids all went out to play, Rory fired up the evaporator in our garden shed (we turned it into a sugar shack!), and we fed the lamb every four hours. Between the maple syruping, the seven kids, the little lamb pooping all over my beach towels in the downstairs shower, and the still-uncertain health of the Ewe in the barn, life felt a bit full and over the top.

At 4:00 I had to leave because I was hosting 46 women at my church with a friend for a Taco Night. (Which, by the way, I totally recommend as a fun gathering. We just had five get-to-know you questions on the table and asked that everyone get to know two new women throughout the evening. It was fellowship at its finest with no programming or agenda. And it was so good.)

I got home from church around 8:30 and found all 4 kids still awake, excited to tell me that poor Sonna go the flu and threw up all over the upstairs bathroom. And how Dad had cleaned it all up and was still tending the maple syrup and that the girls went home (which was planned) and that the baby lamb needed to be fed. I went out to the Sugar Shack and caught up with Rory about our evenings and then fed the lamb until 10 when I positively fell into bed. I woke up to my alarm at 2 and bottle fed the lamb. And then Alden wanted to nurse. Rory fed the lamb at 6 and I woke up at 8. It was hard to get out of bed because I was exhausted and because today was the day we had to decide if Twin Two would ever walk or if he needed to be put down...