Day 338

Sancha, whose picture you see at the top of the sidebar is due to deliver our farms first cria on the 21st. Of course with alpacas the due date is a rough estimate. We calculate 340 days gestation. But, it could be two weeks before or two, three, or even four weeks after. This is also Sancha's first cria so we can't even use her history as a guideline as to when the little rascal will arrive. The past week she has been exhibiting some of the signs that I have read mean that birth day is approaching. These signs can start just a few days before or even two weeks before. So really the only sure fire way to know that she's ready is when you see that little nose peek out. Lately she has been humming a lot when she's grazing in the pasture or in the barn scarfing down her daily ration of feed. She also flicks her tail alot. This is not normal behaviour for her. And I'm stuck here at work wondering if she's giving birth as I type. Wonder if I could talk Stephanie into coming to Tennessee and camping out in the pasture with the girls until all three give birth. I could give her a quick lesson on the differences between a human birth and an alpaca birth and the vets phone number and she should be good to go. Seriously though, I really want to be there for the birth. Not just so that I could give assistance if something should go wrong but I want to see our first cria be born and see it take it's first steps and suckle for the first time. So stay tuned for pictures of Liberty's first cria and think "pink".