The Tale of Two Preemies: Spring is coming!

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Spring is coming!

It may not look like it and only slightly feel like it, but spring is on it's way. We calve all year long, but this is my extra special calf. I have 2 red Holstein cows, mother and daughter. Since the daughter was born, 4 years ago, I haven't had another heifer. Last year they both had nice looking bull calves, but my cow laid on hers and killed it. Great motherly instincts huh? Anywho, this year she was 2 weeks late = bull calf. Only her udder started to shrink before she calved, not a good sign. We figured the calf had died and for some reason she hadn't aborted it yet. Pat gave her meds to induce labor, and nothing. Finally, 2 weeks ago, she calved. Bull calf, but it was alive!

My other cow isn't due for a few months and hopefully it will be a heifer. The heifers we keep and they go into the milking herd. The bulls we sell and invest the money for the boys college fund. Their fund is growing but my herd sure isn't.

Anywho, here is how I KNOW spring is on the way. Baby kitties! We had our first litter on Tuesday. Turns out this is a wild cat that is nearly identical to the tame cat we thought was the mother. We've been up petting her and her 4 babies and she hasn't seemed to mind. She wasn't too crazy about the boys messing with her babies.

1 comment:

MrsTallPaul said...: We had several red & whites when my parents were still dairying. My sister and I had a pair of heifer twins that were our show calves for several years, Cherry & Berry! All the red and whites had "red" sounding names... Red, Peppy (short for paprika), Rose, Cherry & Berry... you get the idea! They were always so fun, and so easy to identify out in the pasture!

PS - I LOVE baby kitties! Since ours are both fixed, I hope some of the barn cats start having babies soon!; 3/15/2010 8:23 AM

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Cole's Story

Cole was born at 30 weeks 3 days, much to our surprise, in 2006. I went in to the hospital because I wasn't feeling well and was afraid I'd get dehydrated. I ended up being air lifted to a larger hospital where Cole was born 24 hours later. He weighed in at 4 lbs. 2 oz. and was 17" long. He had some developmental delays, mostly due to acid reflux. He also had positional plagiocephaly and was in a remolding helmet for 6 weeks. At 14 months he underwent a cardiac catheter procedure to close his PDA. At 25 months he tripped getting out of his kiddie pool and broke his femur. He was in a cast from his hips to his toes for 4 long weeks. He also broke his shoulder at age 5 1/2. His latest medical drama has been a cyst in his left ear. He's had his adenoids removed and another surgery to remove the cyst. He'll have a second surgery in August. He's been through the ringer, but you'd never know it. He just rolls with the punches. He's 100% farm boy. He wants to know how everything works and why. He loves the farm. Farming is definitely in his blood.

Tate's Story

Tate was born at 34 weeks 2 days in 2008. Since I had a previous premature delivery, I was on high alert for another one. It didn't help. We had ultrasound after ultrasound and everything looked great. Tate, however, was not patient. I was admitted to the hospital with preterm labor. He held off for a couple of days, but was still born early. He weighed 5 and a half pounds and was 19" long. Fortunately he had no problems and was released from the hospital 3 days after he was born. He was born the middle child. He desperately wants to do what his big brother does, but has his own interests and wants Cole do to those with him. He's my trouble-maker, fit-thrower, and snuggle bug.