…He was born yesterday, April 26 at 12:30pm. 

This is the first time that we’ve had a calf born to us, and boy was it a lot of work!  We watched his mama in anticipation as she paced the pasture and looked for a nice, quiet, shady area to give birth to this humongous beast she had been carrying for the past nine months… I know the feeling.

If you cannot handle birth stories and seeing pictures of birthing, I advise you to stop reading and go to a different blog.  We’re gonna get graphic and I don’t want to upset any stomachs.

I was watching her while she turned in circles under some oaks, and noticed her friends grazing as they wandered by, completely unconcerned for their sister in bovine-dom.  She struggled a little with the head and we noticed that the sack was not breaking on it’s own.  So my hubby decided to intervene for the little guy and give him a breather.

By this time, “Layla” was very happy to have some help.  And while my hubby and a friend (Dixie’s hubby) were working on the barn, it was good to have two men around to help pull that baby out.  They just gave some traction while Layla pushed, and that little guy came sliding out.

Layla let both hubbies doctor the umbellical cord and check him out with out a problem and then decided she’d better get up and get moo-ving because that guy needed a bath pronto.

A woman’s work is never done.

Then they decided that it would be good to take a nap in the warm spring air and enjoy eachother’s company a while.  Layla has proved to be a good mama.

And once he got clean enough, this mama thought it’d be safe to introduce the two babies.  I think they instantly took to eachother.

But don’t get too attached, there’s a reason his name is Stew.