Blueberry Hill Farm

I'm feeling for all the world like an expectant father tonight.  Rather than pacing I've decided to write.  

Our beautiful alpaca girl, Runaround Sue, is about to have a baby.  We've been waiting on this baby for 348 days.  Sue is not very impressed that I'm impatient.  After all, who's been carrying this baby for nigh unto a year??  She is hot and ill these days - especially today.  

Late this afternoon it became obvious that things looked different.  Sue is breathing a little more labored.  The baby has dropped far down, with Sue's huge tummy down close to her knees.  She doesn't seem to be very comfortable "cushing" with her legs folded up under her in the camelid way.

I've turned all the barn fans off so I can be sure and hear all barn noises very clearly over the baby monitor that's down at the barn.  Any excess "humming" I'll hear and will know something is up.

I should be packing up blueberries for tomorrow's market, but I can't.  It'lI just have to wait until 5:00 in the morning.  I feel as restless as Sue.  Truthfully, I'm a little worried.  This baby looks quite large and Sue is a small girl.  The vet at Alpaca Jack's in Findlay, Ohio, where Sue was bred last year, has already told me that, because of her small size, she may need assistance delivering the baby.  I'm not real sure I have what it takes to be an alpaca midwife!  Guess time will tell. . .

Sue's baby will be the third cria born on the farm.  Such a miracle.  As I've watched closely Sue's tummy the past few weeks to make sure I could see the baby moving, I've thought about air mattresses.  I'm amazed that all those long, skinny legs and that long, skinny neck, could get all packed up inside Sue's tummy.  Just like a new air mattress that WILL NOT go back into the box it came out of once it has been blown up and let out, I'm pretty sure there's no way one of those crias can ever be folded up and returned to the womb.  Within twenty minutes that baby will be up on her feet nursing and walking around.  Again, just another of the "ordinary miracles" that occur with regularity on this farm -- just another affirmation that "all Creation bears witness to the Glory of God."

Good night, Sue.