Well, I said I'd post pictures later the day of my last post...nearly 2 weeks ago...guess it's about time...At least one of these pictures could be classified in the TOO MUCH INFO category, so I'll give you fair warning before that picture if you'd rather not see it...

After we saw Clarabelle's water break Saturday morning, we resumed full-time guard.  We had already brought her into the barn, thinking that'd be a nice shady place to give birth on a sweltering hot day.

 Well, perhaps she just needed to walk through the pain (been there ), or perhaps she was tired of our presence, but pretty quickly, she decided she'd rather be at the FARTHEST point in the pasture.  As soon as she got to that point, she laid down.  We dutifully followed her out.  At that point, the birth began.  Now here's where I'm going to give you warning that if you don't want to see a "too much info" type of picture, then scroll down quickly.

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OK...if you're still there, I'm assuming you want to be...I'm going to let you guess what the picture is first before I offer an explanation of why I would post it...

 The front hooves emerged first...then after a long delay, the snout emerged...the reason I had to post it was because he was sticking his tongue out at us...so funny...did you guess right?

On to more tolerable photos...this next one was taken very shortly after he fully emerged...they both just sat still and took a break for a moment... 

 Commence the clean-up...similar to cats, momma eats EVERYTHING associated with birth...probably too much information again, eh?...

 We made this a fun family event...bring out the chairs and the Cream Soder ...our cow's havin' her a calf!!!  Brittany even donned her "Holy Cow" t-shirt for the event!

 After many, many fledgling attempts to stand up, the calf sorta gave up.  Momma didn't leave his side.  We did...because we thought maybe he'd do better without us there, it was waaay past lunch time and Susie and Sammy were over their initial excitement, and, well, we didn't know what else to do...

But before we left, I did try to stand him up...this picture makes it look like he was standing, but rest assured, I was completely holding him up...and eventually he collapsed in a heap again... 

 My concern was building and after about 3 hours he still hadn't stood up.  By this time, he'd been completely sun-exposed for at least 1-1/2 hours.  He looked very healthy, but I knew he needed his momma's milk.  I called several people that I thought might know what to do and finally got in touch with my friend's dad who had had a milk cow when she was growing up...he said the calf would die if I didn't get him out of the sun...okey dokey...I guess my laissez faire approach to the whole thing was not good enough.  Brittany and I went out immediately and carried the calf all the way across the pasture to the barn where we commenced forcing him to try to eat...which was not easy because he still couldn't stand up. 

I was kinda at the end of my rope...a little bit tired from wrestling a calf and trying to force him to stand up...my 7 month pregnant belly and back were a bit worn out.  Finally, instead of relying on myself, I asked God to help us...It wasn't 5 minutes after I prayed that my friend's husband and dad showed up to help...  Isn't God amazing.  The next 8 or so hours are a blur of friends coming and going...These men did everything for us...set up a gate so we could keep the calf in the barn and any predators out, they brought syringes and bottles to try to get the calf some more colostrum, and many more things.  My parents came down and brought dinner and took Susie and Sammy home with them.  My friend brought more food.  I could go on and on.  God's family is amazing.  I was so humbled by their generosity. 

Long story not quite so long...T-Bone (isn't that a great name for the little guy who's going to fill our freezer when he gets big ??!?!?) didn't start standing until late Monday...2 full days after he was born...so until he did that, we had to go out every 3 hours and stand him up (by late Saturday he could stand if you lifted him to his feet.) to eat and if he didn't eat, we fed him with a little dropper...do you know how many droppers you have to squirt into a calf's mouth to equate an actual feeding?!?!  He never would take a bottle, so it was either his momma, or we force fed him.  I was soooo thankful when he began standing on his own and even more thankful when David got home from his business trip on Tuesday!