All About Seniors: What a time for another kid!

I’ve been married for over

43 years and believe it or not, I didn’t even know she was pregnant! I felt a

little bit like Sarah in the bible laughing at God when He told Abraham she was

going to have a baby when she was 80. These were my first thoughts when my wife

awakened me at almost exactly midnight on January 1st saying, “There are signs

of labor, I think we’re going to have a kid”!

 

Well, it was not her labor

and not her kid of course. It was my brother in law’s goat (see “How far can a

goat pull you?” in the Nov. 14^th edition) bleating in the back yard

in hard labor. We never would have heard it if the house hadn’t gotten too warm

(my step father-in-law likes the house as warm as anyone else can stand it) so

my wife opened our bedroom window for a little relief. Sure enough, I heard it

too.

 

In a flash I threw on a coat

over my pajamas and was out the back door for my first midwife experience.

Snickers, the youngest and smallest of our three goats, was lying on her side

with a baby kid half birthed and that was all she could do; she was almost

exhausted. She was obviously pregnant when my brother in law brought her to us

in November to “goat sit” for him, but none of us knew it.

 

Now what to do? That was the

big and urgent question for this city boy suddenly thrust into a new country

situation for which we were not prepared at all. We called and woke a neighbor

who seems to know all about these kinds of things but not much help there. Then

my wife consulted her high tech “smart phone” and started reading to me about

all the supplies we should have had on hand ahead of time for this birthing

moment; well, we would have if we’d only known she was expecting…..but we

didn’t!

 

Now my 89 years young mother

in law joined us in our make-shift manger (my tool shed where we had spread

cedar wood chips on the floor several inches thick to help Snickers get a

little more comfortable.) Several calls for Vet help……”Yes, we’ll pay the

afterhour’s fee; we just need help now”! But no help there either.

 

So now, it’s about 1:30 AM

and Snickers has done all she can do and it’s time for us to do all we can

do……. not that we haven’t been already. So put down the smart phone and let

Mother Nature’s intuition take over. My wife went to the business end of this

ordeal and I went to the head; she pulled south as hard as she could and I

pulled north on Snickers’ head and shoulders. ”We’re sorry, Snickers, we know

it hurts but it’s all we know to do”!

 

After another half hour or

so of hard labor on our part (Snickers had already done all she could do and we

were all fighting for her life now as well as the kid’s). It was nature’s

intuition that won out over the high tech smart phone. Finally, a beautiful,

fully formed and very large, but stillborn, baby goat appeared. We were all

exhausted! Disappointed the kid didn’t make it but thankful that Snickers did.

 

I couldn’t help but think of

Mary and Joseph 2000 years ago giving birth to the Messiah in a manger not much

different than this one. I gave thanks, and went back to bed for a few hours of

rest before resuming the New Year. We all vowed to be more prepared the next

time!

 

See you next week!

 

Bill

Milby, CSA, is a Certified Senior Advisor and a Director of Visiting Angels® of

Macon, a non-medical, living assistance service for seniors.  If you have questions or comments about

this column you can reach him at william.mercylink@gmail.comor  search for us at www.facebook.com/VisitingAngelsMacon.

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