Foal watch day 4

Day 343

9pm or so she has started blowing a lot. She was rubbing her butt on the wall and later stood with her butt firmly pressed against the wall for quite a while. She laid down, sternal for a while, appearing uncomfortable, but not miserable. She did a big roll and jumped up. Tail went up, we thought it was time to poo, but she didn't. She's holding her tail very high often and swishing it a lot. Almost wagging it like a dog. 

10:40

She's also started rubbing her teeth on the wall. She's pacing a considerable amount and is standing in the weirdest positions. Back feet really close, one back leg up and the other bent far, like a one legged squat... Things like that. Mom has declared this is the night and I refuse to agree because I'm tired of this horse proving us wrong. 

11:44 I can't survive many more days of this. She's acting the same. She hasn't laid down again. She's currently resting in her naughty corner. She hasn't visited it for a while. This is the first time she's stood still for a while. Probably stopped labor. I'll update again in a month when she foals. I won't be able to form words by then, much less type, so good luck interpreting her foaling story. 

11-12 I'm actually typing this on Sunday evening. Things got crazy and I only updated Facebook and not here. Around this time, Don't started getting really crazy. All the aforementioned signs were multiplied by 1572 and she finally convinced me tonight was the night. Mom, Ashley, and I were glued to the monitor watching. 

12ish with her tail held high, (she'd been holding it up a ton anyway, she shoved her butt near a wall so we couldn't see well. (She was standing). Don't get super excited, yet. No baby, but she pooped. The thing is, it appeared to be liquid poop. Maybe this means nothing to you, but in my vast experience of watching YouTube and mare stare for 3 weeks, I knew this was often a sign that water breaking was imminent. I'd already shared this delightful knowledge with anyone who would listen, so naturally we all freaked out the tiniest bit. Coats and shoes were thrown on and we headed for the door. Time to go to the barn. 

We stopped. Took a breath and thought about it. We didn't want to interrupt too early. We all decided to wait. We called my sister and told her it was time for her to come home (she was about 15 minutes away). We continued watching and Don't got increasingly restless. Then, out of nowhere (and completely unlike him to do randomly in the middle of the night) the donkey brayed. Don't wasn't affected a whole lot, but she definitely took a step backwards as far as labor goes. This happened again about an hour later. She slowed down again. 

Then, the dogs in the other side of the barn started barking to go outside. It was all downhill from there. She slowly became less interesting to watch and eventually was content napping. 

No baby. 

Foal watch night 3

9:30pm: Don't isn't doing a whole lot. It's warmer and quiet, and everyone says she'll foal tonight, but I'm not convinced.

 She's done quite a bit of pacing, but not an insane amount like last night. She's practically wagging her tail like a dog, and she seems to hold her tail high and to the side (like she's getting ready to poop) almost constantly. It's kind of odd to watch. 

She laid down once about a half hour ago, right in a corner. (Feet away from the wall, so no casting!) She rested for about 10 minutes, waking to glare at her belly a few times. Then she tried to roll, but didn't have room there. She jumped up, lifted her tail, did a couple circles aroun the stall, and is now munching on her hay. 

Mom, Jessie, and Brian are all napping. I have the kids here and my cousin Ashley is spending the night, too! Hopefully she'll get to see some foaling action! Fingers crossed. 

9:53 she pooped. Oh, and Jessie is awake. That's all I've got for you. (Jessie's mad. "She's not doing a freaking thing!") Also, the baby monitor won't work if the microwave is running. That's almost as frustrating as the fact that Don't isn't doing enough I warrant my panic if the monitor turns off. 

10:20 she peed. Interesting, right? She's blowing quite a lot. Probably nothing, but it's new. 

10:53 she laid down for ten minutes, did a little roll and back up. She is never having the baby. 

11:37 she pooped. No baby, minimal pacing. Resting up to foal in 2015 or so. 

11:58 SURPRISE! Don't isn't even pregnant! This was all an elaborate, really lame prank. Hahahahaha you fell for it! But really. I'm beginning to wonder. I think the vet is in on it. "Heartbeat sounds good!" Pffft. She made that up. (I'm getting impatient.)

12:51 I have company again. Mom and Jessie are awake. The kids, Brian, and Ashley are sleeping. Don't is just relaxing. Eating hay, gettin a drink, holding her tail in the air. 

2:03 she laid down for approximately forever. Rolled. Got up. Peed, and is now standing with her tail high to the left. Just hanging out with her tail held stupid. 

Foaling night #2 day 341

Red vulva, big boobies. Surely tonight is the night. Fatty didn't want exercise and she didn't want her grain. 

9pm: Don't has swished her tail, held it up, and pooped 3 tons. Repeat. 

10:30pm: She laid down! Oh, wait. She stayed there. And went to sleep. A few dirty looks at her belly. 

11:00 she's back up. Some pawing at the ground. Tail way up. Mom just said "she's having the baby tonight." I agree. Seriously. Some pushing. 

11:03: cue freak out and squealing. Woke up Jessie and Brian. Mom said wait. I didn't listen. 

11:30 Jessie keeps glaring at me. Brian hates me. Don't is happily eating her hay.

11:53: she's occasionally holding her tail up. Little pushes. Jessie wants to go back to bed, but Brian is in it for the long haul. Jessie ate my peanut butter m&ms. I have my boots on. Just in case. I'd be the one running to the barn in my sock feet. I don't have my snowsuit on yet. It's within reach. I have my escape plan mapped out. 

4:44 still waiting. She's just messing with us at this point. She's been up and down quite a bit. She's currently down, glaring at her belly. 

7 or 8 or something: Don't stopped everything. The sun rose and Don't thought she'd be hilarious and stop. I called her names, but that didn't help. 

Foaling night #1

Day 340

Tonight was the night I started living at Mom's house. Being the amazing mother I am, I left the kids sleeping in the house and I went to the barn. It was approximately 72 degrees below zero, and tonight was definitely the night. (I doubted it was, but I wasn't risking it)

During the night, Don't did things like poop, pee, eat, drink, and pace. At 3am I went to bed while mom watched the monitor until about 5. My alarm woke me up at 5:30 and behold! No baby. Just a really fat horse and a lot of poo. Back to sleep until 6:30. No baby. She was laughing at me, so I gave the monitor the finger and went back to bed. Foaling night #1 was a bust. 

Day 341

Don't really messed up the straw in her stall last night with all of her pacing etc. She's swishing her tail and holding it up a LOT. Her udder looks about the same as yesterday.

The baby seems to have dropped a lot. She's got the telltale v shape to her belly. She did not want to go outside today, and especially didn't want to go on a short walk with me. 

She didn't eat much, if any, hay while outside. She also didn't touch her grain for quite sometime after coming inside. She did eventually take a bite of it, but I've never seen her ignore her grain for even a minute. 

The sides of her tail are indented and very spongy to the touch. 

The inside of her vulva has gone from light pink to dark red. We forgot to look at the lengthening of her vulva today. 

So basically, she could go at ANY TIME!

Day 340

Today Don't was extra thrilled about the prospect of Mom checking her for milk. Everyone survived the little battle, but we still didn't get any milk out of her. This is surprising because her udder is really filling up! Let's compare!

Two days ago:

Today:

The part to your right in the bottom picture is right and hard. As if that wasn't enough excitement for us, Dont also had some bloody discharge. This is most likely part of her mucus plug. (They is plug is stuck on the cervix, and as te cervix starts to dialate, the mucus plug dislodges and comes out. 

Now for belly pictures! She's ginormous! We're looking for her belly to be less round and kind of a curved "v" pointing at the ground. 

Her vulva also looks a lot more loose/relaxed, so we are getting closer!

Gross picture warning! Stop here if you get grossed out easily!

Vulva before

Vulva now (note bloody discharge towards bottom.)

Day 338

Today Mom sent me pictures and I got insanely excited because it appeared that Don't finally has more of an udder. I wasn't happy with the vulva shot because it was at an angle (Mom was in a hurry. Unlike me, she has this thing she calls a job!) and it looked really loose to me. 

Naturally, I squealed a little and called mom and told her I HAD to go see for myself. Being the overprotective (and smart) mom she is, she said I couldn't go in th stall by myself. Since I highly doubt that Don't would nicel position her tail by the stall wall for me to get a picture from outsid the stall, or roll on her belly for an udder picture, I went with plan B: bug mom's friend. 

Brittney was not only nice enough to let us borrow her video baby monitor for easier viewing when don't goes into labor, but she also brought baby Gage to the farm and held Dont's head so I could get pictures and see for myself. 

The verdict: one side of her udder looks pretty full. I didn't touch it since mom would kill me if I got kicked, but it appeared to have changed quite a bit. I could even see it from the side, which is new! Brit and I agreed that we vulva looks longer and looser, too. 

So her udder still isn't full, but it's really filling up! Don't was also holding her tail higher than normal an swishing it quite a bit. Kind of like she was swatting at non-existent flies. These are all signs that she's getting close. Not hours away close, but close enough that my completely non-professional, biased and over-excited opinion is that we will have a baby within a week. Unless her udder deflates and she goes into a holding pattern, in which case you'll be able to fin me in the corner of the barn. Sobbing. 

Pictures are in the comparison posts for anyone who wants to see them. Keeping this PG rated for my more squeamish readers who don't enjoy an occasional horse vulva picture. 

Picture of her back end. Supposed to look for something like indentions near tail. I don't see any. I also don't really know exactly what I'm looking for.