Maddie's cria

Here is Maddie a few days before having her cria:

On Saturday Bay had her cria, even though technically Maddie was due next.  I think Maddie felt slighted and made sure to have her cria the next day.

On Sunday the kids and I were talking about going for a walk, when we heard some thunder and decided that wouldn't be a good idea.  Emma was headed out to our back yard and yelled "we have a baby" just I had the day before when Bay was in labor.  Emma also said "it looks just like Maddie."  Then I knew it was Maddie's cria.  I ran out to find a fresh cria on the ground, looks like a mini Maddie, just like her daughter, Twilight.

Once we were outside we could see the cria was breathing fine and seemed ok.  Oh, and it's a boy!  Next to color the sex of the cria is a pretty exciting fact.

Since it was starting to rain and the cria seemed cold, we took him into our garage out of the rain and towel dried him:

I rubbed him good with the towels but he wasn't warming up as fast as I'd like.  So I got out my hair dryer.  I was careful to blow dry with my hand moving between the baby and the blow dryer (as it could be possible to get him too hot and actually burn him).  I just wanted to take the edge off the wet chill:

I made sure mom stayed nearby because I want him to bond to her.  She has the milk he needs.  She wouldn't come into the garage and there wasn't room in the barn for me and all my stuff, so I was in the garage with the cria in the doorway and Maddie standing just outside:

She'd lean over and nuzzle him from time to time. He was calling for her.  And she was giving me a mean mom look quite a bit.  Even as I explained I was trying to help her baby, new moms aren't usually too open to that idea.  I don't blame her.  After all that work she is supposed to be protective of her baby.

No worries about these two.  As soon as the rain cleared I put him on a dry towel in the paddock, and Maddie followed right behind.  She is one protective mom.

He was up walking and nursing in no time.

He weighed in at 16 pounds.  Pretty average for an alpaca baby.  Maddie's other cria was Twilight and I remember her being 17 pounds at birth - but she went 374 days gestation!  This guy went 354 days, a much more average gestation.  But also just like with Twilight, Maddie didn't show any specific signs of being in labor during morning chores.  And just like with Twilight, we found a cria on the ground right around lunch time.  I love those kind of births.   We aren't naming this cria because he and his mom will be going to a new home in the coming future.  We actually have a lot of changes going on around her.  J loves to spice up the genetics on our farm.  Of course, more details will be coming on all of this.