This was Cherry Blossom's first freshening (kidding). Cherry Blossom had the classic easy kidding. She popped out the first, a boy, and by the time dad reached around for the crochet hook, the bag was already broken. It was rinse, lather, repeat for the other two kids that followed. After the boy was dried off a little, dad put him in front of Cherry Blossom. She looked and then backed her head away from the kid and dad could tell she was thinking "What the heck is THAT and what do you expect ME to do with it?" There is always a worry that moms will reject their kids and especially when it is a first time mom. After a couple of minutes, she gave the boy a lick... and then another... and then dad saw a light come on and her eyes softened she started LICKING him and talking to him. She kidded the second, a girl, and then a third, also a girl but this one came out hind legs first. That is a first for here.. The boy looks like Cherry Blossom's dad, Sky. The first girl looked like the dad, Bear, and the last was gold like Cherry Blossom. Cherry Blossom had been laying down almost the entire time from when she had started to kid and she had popped them out real quick, so no one had gotten a chance to nurse yet. Dad aimed the boy at her udder, and Cherry Blossom gave a half hearted kick. Another worrying sign of a mom rejecting her kids. Dad aimed him again and she raised up her leg and held it up, but then she let him nurse. Another topic of motherhood that Cherry Blossom had been clueless about but learned quick. The boy looked like a dill pickle when he came out, so that was made his name. We had two names unused from last year, Marigold and Sakura. The gold doeling was given Marigold, and the brown one Sakura. Sakura is Japanese for "Cherry Blossom" so dad was glad we did not use that name until this year. Dad texted the weights to Dr Margi, "First a 1.85 lb boy, then a 2.95 lb girl. Then a 3.1 lb girl. That looks like it." Dr Margi replied, "At that trend I'm glad there isn't a 4th".
Some moms are natural moms, some take time to learn. Cherry Blossom's half sister, Flossie, scared Dr Margi pretty bad with her first freshening. Flossie was stepping all over her kids. Dr Margi was afraid she was going to kill someone. But Flossie had learned and was very careful with her second set of kids.
So it took a couple of minutes for Cherry Blossom to figure out she was supposed to lick her kids, and then it took her a minute to figure out how to feed them, But then Cherry Blossom bloomed into a super mom. She would look around before moving her hind legs to be sure she would not step on anyone. She would pick an open spot to lay down next to them. She counted them constantly to make sure no one had wandered off. She talked to them constantly. At the end of the first day, Cherry Blossom was so exhausted that she did not even wake up and raise up her head when dad went into the kidding stall, You can see that in the video. Cherry Blossom fed her kids up so well that they broke records and this even included the runt Pickle. The kids only had two days of twice a day weightings (that was the first broken record) and then the once-a-day weightings ended when the kids were one week old and that broke another record. The kids were gaining at such a rate that Dr Margi was concerned that Cherry Blossom would not be able to keep up with her own nutrition, and suggested a special diet. And Cherry Blossom was super protective. She freaked out when Stella, Josh, and Jessica came to see her kids. That is also in the video.
Something dad did not catch in a video was when Pickle ran up to the stall door, jumped up, planted his feet on the 2x4 running along the bottom, sprang off of that and sailed two feet up into the air. At the zenith he sounded his version of a barbaric YAWP! (which came out sounding like a squeak to the rest of us) and then stuck the landing and ran.
This Carly Simon song has been stuck in dad's head ever since Cherry Blossom kidded...
There's some kind of magic inside you
That keeps me from runnin'
But just keep it comin'
How'd you learn to do the things you do?
And nobody does it better
Makes me feel sad for the rest
Nobody does it half as good as you
Baby, baby, darling, you're the best
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