Meet Lady Eleanora's baby “Juniper”

The birthing story

Ellie's water broke at 7:30 pm Friday evening.  I (Cindy) was out having pizza and wine at the Madison County winery with friends.  I pulled up my Baby Watch camera to Ellie's water breaking.  I rushed home and 3 friends joined me to watch and help if needed.  

My friend Jana Teachout and I took a cattle-keeping course through Iowa Land and Legacy last November.  It's a women's landowner's group in Iowa.  The class was put on by the Iowa State Extension office in Adel.   The course covered everything from nutrition and genetics to stages of birth and when to intervene.   Ellie spent an hour in stage 2 of labor with no progress, which meant we had to jump in and help.  We could see feet, but we had yet to see a nose.  My concern at that point was that the baby's head was backward and not with the nose resting between the two front legs.  

I checked the head was in the correct position.  But Ellie was trying NOT to push very hard during each of her contractions.   It was time to pull.  I grabbed both feet and pulled with each contraction, but I didn't have enough strength.  I got concerned at one point.  I could see the baby's tongue sticking out, but there was no movement.  It was clear that we had to act fast.   I asked Jana to help.  We each grabbed a foot and pulled down as Ellie had contractions.   After that, it only took about 8 contractions for us to get the baby clear and on the ground.  The moment it hit the ground, we saw movement and I breathed a sigh of relief.  We gave Ellie a minute to see the baby and get her bearings, then I checked to see if we had a little boy or a little girl.   (I'd been having dreams for days that it was a little girl calf)  Much to my joy and surprise, we got a little girl. 

After that, we spent the next 2 hours trying to get the baby to eat.  There's a short window when the baby needs to get colostrum from her mom's milk in order to build her immune system. If she misses that window, she will live a tough life and her exposure to illness will be very high.  The baby knew she needed to try to eat, but she wasn't sure how.  I spent a very long, tiring couple of hours trying to squirt milk into her mouth, getting her to suck on my finger then trying to transfer the motion to her mom's udder with no success.  Thankfully I had purchased a tube of backup colostrum gel.  I gave her the tube in bits and pieces.  Both baby and momma were exhausted.  It was after 2am.  My friend Anna was the last one hanging out trying to help.  We finally decided to call it quits.  I decided I'd head into Bomgaars when they opened at 7:30 the next morning and get some replacement colostrum if she hadn't eaten by morning.  

When I went out the next morning to check before I headed into Winterset, the baby was nursing away just fine.  She looked up at me with a bunch of milk all over her nose.  I knew then that we were out of the woods and ok. 

The baby (still unnamed as of Sunday) is learning to find her legs, she does little hops and sideways jigs starting to play.  She's only 36 hrs old but a sweet little bundle that lets me kiss her nose.  

Ellie trusts me with her baby, which is so nice since some cows can be very aggressive.  

I can't wait to share her with you.  Be sure to bring a way to take photos.  

Cookies, iced tea, and lemonade will be provided.

This event is rain or shine.  

Tickets are non-refundable.