A Harrowing Farrowing - Round 2

This Easter weekend was not as relaxing as we had expected!

A newborn piglet in the hay

Piggy number two, or Emma, had her babies on Sunday. We had high expectations for her. Compared to her sister (who farrowed 7 babies last week) she is larger, hardier, more correctly put together and calmer.
Matt turned out to be quite the pig whisperer and has gotten her to really enjoy being scratched and rubbed over the last week. We were hopeful that we could be near her while the babies came without her being worried. Everything was set and ready, we were just waiting on her.

Emma looking uncomfortable after her belly had dropped. I really enjoyed watching her flop over and go to sleep late in her pregnancy. Her belly would start to wiggle with lots of little kicks. That pallet in the background makes a piglet nursery corner with a heat lamp just for babies.

Sunday afternoon she started farrowing. Everything started smoothly. Two piglets born. We tucked the babies under the heat lamp and kept checking back for more throughout the afternoon. They were born quite a bit larger than our first litter and refuse to stay under the heat lamp the few times we tried to tuck them away. They found and nursed from Momma right away, which was very reassuring after last weeks litter!

The next one was born all wrapped up in the sac. We lost a piglet from our last litter from not getting the sac off quick enough. I think I got there right after it was born and I snuck in and ripped the sac off its nose. He had slipped right underneath Momma so I thought I would slide him out and get the rest of the sac off him. It seemed like a good idea at the time but it turned out to be a very hard lesson learned for me. He gave a tiny squeal as I lifted him, which cause Momma to try and get up. She has been rather heavy with piglets and has had to rock herself back and forth to get off the ground. The little guy was so slippery that I couldn't get him out in time. Once she got up, I tried for a long time to revive him. I didn't realize having piglets would be so hard emotionally.

After that she got up and ate and drank. A sows womb is divided into two "horns" and there can be a bit of an intermission between when they empty the first side and roll over and start the next. I assumed this was her intermission.
Matt checked her every hour through the night, but no piglets. By morning we started to wonder if something was wrong. She was lying down and grunting with every breath and shaking all over. Sometimes we couldn't get her to open her eyes when we came to check on her.
After lots of reading, we decided that we had probably over fed her and with these large piglets one was probably stuck. My small hands made me the ideal candidate to check. I reached as far as I easily could but I didn't find anything. We checked on her throughout the morning while trying our best to get a hold of someone who knew more about pigs than us. We were pretty worried that she was in serious trouble and finally tried the vet. They were closed and we couldn't decide if this was a pig emergency worthy of an after hours emergency dispatch.
Oh the trouble with inexperience!
When it had been over 24 hours since the last piglet had been born and she didn't seem any better, we decided to give her one more feel and make sure we did a good job of it. This was pretty much the last thing I felt like doing so you can imagine we were fairly concerned.
I have never done this before, but I imagine if I piglet is stuck, it will be stuck on the way out. Once I got up to my elbow without feeling any tiny snouts or trotters, I figured that was probably far enough.

After that, I felt like we had kind of done everything we could for the time being. We just kept an eye on her. By night she was eating and drinking and her shaking had stopped. We continued to watch for piglets just in case. 
Now,we are two days after the piglets were born and we have finally called off piglet watch. Babies are doing well. Momma continues to eat lots and drink and get up and down and all that. She seems comfortable, so we are just going to let her and the babies be. As far as we can guess, she just had three in there.
And we had to learn the same lesson as last time, not to worry so much...

I have to say, having piglets has certainly brought out the worrying side of me. For me, it has been fairly stressful and a bit of a blow to my farming confidence that all the piglet losses have been on my watch. I also feel like I have gotten to know the inside of a pig a little better than I ever wanted to, but I am glad to know that if I need to I am able to step up and do what needs to be done. Matt has made a much better pig midwife than me and I am very glad to have him on my team.
We have learned a lot for next time and are feeling blessed to have seven little bundles in the barn!

Here is some pictures of our first litter at a week old:

And some pictures from around the farm this weekend, mostly taken by my very talented Mom!

These cats pose constantly, I have way too many pictures..

The horses got moved off the pasture. They will be in the riding ring until the grass gets established. Handsome Charlie is showing off how much I need to trim him again!

And the little filly dashing through the snow

I love the snow flying

And I just keep taking piglet pictures. I spend way too much time watching them...

 

In a piglet pile

They are getting to be pretty busy little things!

I feel a little bit like we have passed a farming initiation this spring. Maybe now we will feel like real farmers!