I wasn 't entirely surprised . Three months ago I had mentioned on the Antiquity Oaks Facebook page that I was worried about Vera because she already looked pregnant . Only twice before have I ever had a goat that looked pregnant at two months , and both times it was Vera 's mother Coco when she was pregnant with five . When I pulled into the driveway and parked the car , I went straight to the kidding barn . All five kids were mostly dry and bouncing around in the straw already . I asked Mike what happened , and he said that he was in the house when he heard Vera sounding serious over the video monitor . He was downstairs , so he couldn 't actually see her , but he knew he should head outside soon . He 's never actually been the sole attendant at a birth , however , so he didn 't understand exactly how soon he needed to get outside . He walked into the barn to see two soaking wet kids in the straw . He started drying them off as Vera stood there and continued pushing . " I had to catch them , " he said incredulously , " because she was standing up the whole time , and they were falling out . " Getting them all to nurse , however , was not so easy . It was obvious that some of these kids were very small - - as small as the two pound , two ounce kid that had been born a week earlier who was unable to maintain his body temperature in the sub - zero barn . I told Mike I had bought a sheet of vinyl flooring and suggested that we put it in the barn office and put Vera and the kids in there . Ultimately we left the kids in there for a week . We were checking all of their bellies several times a day to be sure they were getting enough to eat , and we offered everyone a bottle the first few days . Most of the kids seemed content to fight it out amongst themselves to get their fair share ( or more ) from Vera 's two teats . However , one little doe gave up almost immediately , and we 'd see her in there with her head hanging down like Eeyore , the donkey in Winnie the Pooh . She is now completely bottlefed . We weighed all of the kids at birth and checked their weights again at one week of age . Most had gained about a pound and four ounces , although one buck had gained almost two pounds , and one doe had only gained four ounces . Clearly , he has been getting her fair share of milk ! Unfortunately she does not like taking a bottle at all , so our efforts to supplement her have failed . If she doesn 't start gaining an appropriate amount of weight , we might need to take her away from Vera to convince her to take the bottle . As her siblings grow bigger and stronger , it is will only become increasingly difficult for her to get enough milk . A week ago Monday it was obvious that Giselle was in labor . She woke us up over the video monitor shortly after 6 a . m . but wasn 't really making much of a fuss until closer to 8 , which was when I finally went outside to the barn because I thought I saw mucous glistening under her tail . When I got to the barn , I didn 't see any mucous , so either it had already fallen into the straw or there was some sort of optical illusion over the video monitor . I spent most of my time sitting in the barn office watching Giselle through the window because I 'm having trouble regulating my body temperature due to my thyroid issue , and I didn 't want to go outside into the zero - degree temperatures until I really needed to be out there . Around 9 : 00 Giselle seemed to be seriously , but quietly , pushing , and from the office I could see a kid 's hoof presenting . Considering the experience I 'd had the day before with a kid presenting ear first , I was really happy to see a front hoof properly positioned . I left the office and went into the barn , assuming that the kid would be born fairly quickly . However , once I got within a few feet of Giselle , I knew I had trouble on my hands . The hoof was much too big . I went back into the barn office and called Jonathan 's cell phone , asking him to bring my insulated overalls . This would not be a quick birth , and I was already freezing . He brought out the overalls , and I asked him to stay with me because I would probably need his help . At this point , the hoof had been sitting right there , sticking out of Giselle a couple of inches for at least twenty minutes and hadn 't progressed at all . I grabbed several vinyl gloves and a bottle of iodine , put on my insulated overalls , and headed back into the barn . Jonathan held Giselle while I put my hand inside of her trying to figure out how to get the kid out . My hand could not slide between the kid 's head and her pelvis . As I slid my hand in , the head moved back into her uterus . I looked for the second front leg , but there was no room for me to maneuver inside of her , and I was having no luck . Normally I don 't worry about pulling a kid when there is only one leg presenting , but it was obvious that this was a very large kid , and Giselle is a smaller than average doe . I didn 't want to deliver the head and one leg , only to have the kid get stuck on the shoulders . With a kid that big , I wanted the assurance of having both legs front and center . I tried a second time . I did grab what I thought was another foot at one point , but I didn 't think it was a front leg . Third times the charm , I thought as I tried again . The kid is too big . Her pelvis is too small . I told Jonathan that I was taking her to the U of I vet clinic . I ran into the house to phone and tell them I was coming while he got my car ready . It 's a hatchback , and we put several empty paper feed bags in the back with a blanket over them . Jonathan carried Giselle to the car , kid 's leg still hanging out of her back end . In her condition , I knew she would not jump over the back seat to join me . For the entire two - hour drive to Urbana , every time Giselle let out a scream , I kicked myself for one thing after another . I should have just pulled harder . I don 't need to be taking her to the vet clinic . I should have had more confidence in myself . And then there was the " should " that I repeated the most . I never should have bred her again . I normally have a two - strikes rule ; a goat has a kidding problem twice , and she 's retired . Unfortunately , I had rationalized and talked myself out of retiring Giselle the previous year when she had a hard time delivering a fairly large kid . They were extremely busy at the University Vet Clinic , and there was not the usual large group of students meeting us . In fact , it was one senior vet student who was in the midst of her first day of clinic rotations . Luckily I 'd been to the clinic enough to tell her how we needed to move Giselle inside ( using a cart ) and how to open the sliding door , and so on . The resident joined us fairly soon , and I explained to her what had already happened . She examined Giselle and asked how I felt about a c - section . I told her that I was expecting it . " This is what I get for breaking my two - strikes rule , " I told her . The mid - size operating room was being used for surgery on a small pig . Giselle was clearly too wide for the smaller operating room , so they wheeled her into the large operating room , which has a cow - sized table . Definitely overkill , but it worked . The senior vet student assigned to Giselle had never met a goat before and was full of questions . Giselle was an excellent ambassador for the breed , being very cuddly and agreeable , in spite of her condition . Between finding people , gathering supplies , getting drugs , shaving Giselle , administering an epidural , it took more than two hours before the first kid was finally delivered , and it was dead . I was watching from an open doorway and thought I 'd heard a squeak , but when no one said anything about the baby , I finally asked how it was doing . One of the students looked up at me and shook her head . " It 's dead ? " I asked . " Yes , but we 're working on the other one now . " That was the kid that was engaged in the pelvis , and I heard the vet professor tell someone to push the head and foot out of the pelvis and back into the uterus . A minute or two later , and it was also delivered dead . The professor said it was tough to get the kid out of the pelvis because the head was really jammed in there . As we had all suspected , there was no way it could have been born naturally . It was simply too big . While everyone had been in awe over the large hoof sticking out earlier , now everyone was talking about what a huge kid had been delivered . The kid blocking the exit was a five - pound buckling . Most Nigerians are in the two or three pound range . Although we have had a five - pound kid born once before , it was to a doe that was 22 . 5 inches tall , and Giselle was three inches shorter than her ! A five - pound kid was simply too big for her to deliver . And the poor little 3 . 5 - pound doeling never had a chance . Once the kids were delivered , and they assured me there were no more , I decided to go get lunch . It was close to 4 : 00 in the afternoon by then , and I hadn 't eaten since 7 : 00 that morning . After eating at the local health food co - op , I went back to the University to see how Giselle was doing and was amazed that she had won so many fans already . " She acts just like a princess , " said the senior vet student , as she described how Giselle seemed content to sit and let everyone take care of her . And on the drive home alone I kept repeating to myself that my two strikes rule needed to be followed in the future . There would be no excuses for any goat , regardless how much I adore her and want more babies from her . It simply is not worth it . Kat had to leave Sunday afternoon to get back to the university because she 's a copy editor at the newspaper there , and she works Sunday nights . Before she left around 3 : 00 , she went out to the kidding barn for a final check of the does . She said that Nina would probably be giving birth soon . And I thought , of course she will ! She 'll probably give birth as soon as Kat 's car disappears down the road . Nina was only slightly slower than that . As I was sitting in the barn with Nina pushing , I saw something peeking out , but I wasn 't quite sure what it was . I grabbed it with my thumb and forefinger and quickly concluded that it was a tail . Okay , that 's why she isn 't making faster progress . But Nina is a pretty big doe , and I wasn 't really worried about her being able to give birth to a butt - first breech . Her mother had done it plenty of times , and Nina is bigger than her mom was . After another half dozen pushes , however , and almost zero progress , I started to look more carefully at what was happening , and I touched what I thought was a tail . This time , however , I realized it was much thinner than a tail . In fact , it was paper thin . " It 's an ear ! Are you kidding me ? An ear ? " I was speaking quite loudly and incredulously . " Of course , you just had to wait until Kat was gone to do this , didn 't you ? " In our 12 years , we 've only had one ear - first presentation before , and it was a kid that had been dead for awhile already and had a very swollen head . Luckily it was a rather small kid , so even with an out - of - proportion head , it still came out without much difficulty on the mom 's part . The books say that a kid can 't be born like that , so you 're supposed to push the head back into the doe enough so that you can pull the nose forward . If you 've ever tried to push against a doe that 's pushing , you know that is much easier said than done ! Before you do any pushing or pulling with a kid in the middle of a birth , however , you need to know exactly what you are dealing with , so I started sweeping my finger around the kid 's head to try and figure out where the nose was . As I was trying to find the nose , Nina kept pushing , and I said , " Can you really do that ? " I looked at the newborn kids with Sadie in the next pen , trying to compare the circumference of their butts and the tops of their heads , knowing that Nina would have no problem with a breech . And as I was thinking , Nina kept pushing . " Oh , my goodness ! You are going to do this , aren 't you ? " The head came out and then the rest of the body . . . and then the rest of the body . . . and it just kept coming ! The kid was huge . And it was also very dead . There was no hint of a heart beat . At first , I put the kid behind me , but then realized that Nina was rather upset , knowing that there should be a kid somewhere . She was talking the way that does speak to their babies in soft , short little bleats and sniffing the straw everywhere . I reached behind me and moved the kid to in front of her so she could lick it and say hello and good - bye . A couple short minutes later , she gave birth to a second kid . He was obviously very alive , as he was immediately shaking his head and kicking . I moved away the dead kid and put the live one in front of her as I continued toweling him off . Our temperature was in the single digits , and it was rapidly falling to another predicted low of below zero overnight . When the third kid was born , it looked dead , and I immediately started to feel a horrible panic . What is going on here ? Does Nina have toxoplasmosis ? No , the second kid is perfectly healthy . As a multitude of thoughts were rushing through my mind , I was also searching for a heartbeat while wiping off the kid 's nose . When I realized it was alive , I immediately jumped up and did something that I didn 't think I 'd ever do . I started slinging and swinging the kid . I 'd read about it , and I 'd even seen it demonstrated at the American Dairy Goat Association conference a few years ago , but I never thought I 'd actually do it because I have a bulb syringe that does a great job of getting mucous out of a kid 's airway . However , I didn 't have a bulb syringe with me at that very moment , so I held the kid 's head in my right hand , and held its body against my right arm with my left hand , and as carefully and forcefully as I could , I repeatedly slung the kid 's head down to expel the mucous in its airway . Still , I heard no sneezing or squeaking to indicate that the kid was breathing . Then my husband came walking through the kidding barn in the midst of doing evening chores . " Get the snot sucker for me , " I yelled across the barn . " It 's in the office in the green and white plastic box on the desk . " Half a minute later he was back , and I was able to suction the kid 's nose and throat . As the slurpy sound of the bulb syringe indicated it was sucking up mucous , it was obvious why I had been hearing so much gurgling as the little guy tried to breathe . And then I heard the most beautiful sound that anyone can ever hear at a birth - - that sound that we take too much for granted - - the first squeak that a kid makes when he 's filled his lungs with air and discovers that he has vocal chords ! " Hallelujah ! " I screamed . " Yes ! That 's it ! You can do it ! " I was smiling and crying and laughing while continuing to towel him off . Less than a minute later , he lifted his head . Although it imperfectly wobbled from side to side , he was obviously alive and progressing very rapidly for one who had such a precarious entrance into the world . As I write this , the bucklings have passed their one week birthday and are growing like little weeds . Even though the first few minutes after birth are the most uncertain , I still worried about the little guy for the first few days because it felt like I had cheated death , and as the saying goes , cheaters never win . Had I simply prolonged the inevitable ? There is nothing in homesteading that is more humbling than death . It often means we must admit we are powerless . But every now and then we face the possibility of death and realize it is not a certainty . On those rare occasions when we are able to beat death , it gives us the strength and the courage to try again next time . Thursday , February 6 proved to be quite an exciting day as I learned that my biopsy for thyroid cancer was negative . Feeling like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders , I ran errands that I had put off for weeks , and getting home took me far longer than it should have . I had left for the doctor 's office before 7 : 00 that morning and didn 't get home until almost 3 : 00 . Having awakened at 4 : 30 a . m . , then driving three hours round trip to the doctor and having run quite a few errands , I was really tired by the time I got home and was ready for a nap . As I was about to lay down , I remembered that Scarlet was due soon , so I turned on the video monitor . I don 't think my eyes were closed for more than about thirty seconds when I heard that familiar sound of a goat that 's in labor . No , that 's impossible , I thought . What are the odds that she would go into labor at just this very moment ? And then I heard it again . . . maaaaaa - aa - aa - a - a ! " Really ? Really , Scarlet ? " I said as I threw off the covers and got out of bed . No one else was home , so there was no one who could go check to see if Scarlet was really in labor . I grabbed an armful of clean towels , put on my insulated overalls , coat , scarf , hat , and gloves , and headed outside . I glanced at the thermometer , and it was - 1 , which meant I really needed to be there when the kids were born or we could have frozen goatcicles in short order . It 's all a bit of blur what happened after I got to the barn . Scarlet gave birth to two kids fairly quickly . I was toweling them off and sticking them under the blow dryer as fast as one person could possibly be expected to dry kids . I couldn 't help but notice that Scarlet still looked very pregnant . Although she only had twins last year , she was one of quads herself , so three or four kids could certainly be a possibility . At the moment , however , I was simply thankful that she had not given birth to another kid . Then she let out a scream and . . . plop ! . . . kid number three was born . A couple minutes later , another scream , and another kid . I grabbed my last dry towel and said , " Okay , Scarlet , you better be done ! " I looked at her back end and saw about a foot of membranes hanging out , which usually means the placenta will be next . About an hour later , the three larger kids had started nursing , but the smallest kid had not . He also was not at all happy about my attempts to help him nurse . I milked Scarlet and gave him a little colostrum in a bottle then left them for a couple more hours while I went inside for dinner . I went back outside close to 9 : 00 , which was almost six hours after the kids had been born , and the smallest kid still had not started nursing yet . I put my finger in his mouth to discover that he was quite chilled and had no sucking reflex , so I brought him into the house . I put him on a heating pad in my lap and held him until he was warm and his sucking reflex returned . He took a bottle with his mom 's colostrum , and although he seemed to be in good shape , I decided to keep him inside for the night because it was so cold ( already several degrees below zero and falling ) , and he was only 2 pounds , 2 ounces . Friday morning , I took him back to the barn , where he and his mother were happily reunited , and he immediately started nursing like a pro . Because we had six kids due over the weekend , our daughter Katherine came home from the University of Illinois on Friday afternoon when she was done with classes . When she went out to the barn on Saturday morning to check on the goats , she discovered that the little buckling was again chilled and lethargic , so she brought him into the house . We were back to square one , as the little guy had no sucking reflex and wouldn 't swallow the milk if I put a bottle in his mouth . So , he went back on my lap with the heating pad to get warmed up , and I realized he was just too small to be able to survive sub - zero temperatures , so he would have to stay inside until he got bigger or the weather improved . When I heard that Deborah 's goats were giving birth I was very excited . When she told me that she wanted me to take video or photos of a goat giving birth I was quite nervous . Deborah told me she would call me when one of the goats was in labor last weekend and so I waited . When she finally called to say Sadie was in labor , I packed up my camera and headed to her farm . I am from a small town in Illinois about 30 minutes away from Saint Louis , Missouri . I spent a lot of my time there doing various activities with my church . So I spent a lot of time in the city . I have been on farms before and have seen farm animals . I live in an area where corn fields are abundant , but I have never seen a goat give birth before . Actually , the last time I had seen a birth was when I was in kindergarten and saw a guinea pig give birth . When I got to Antiquity Oaks there was a lot of snow on the ground . I was dressed warmly because I knew these things could take time . I met Deborah 's daughter Kat and her adorable dog and we talked . Kat was home for the weekend from the University of Illinois . Everyone was able to hear the goats in the house because they had a camera with a microphone in the " kidding " barn . This provided a live feed to a TV that is in Deborah 's bedroom . After a few minutes Kat and I went out to the kidding barn where I saw Sadie , Vera , and Giselle . They were so pretty but looked very pregnant . As Kat and I talked , she felt each one of the goats to make sure that their tail ligaments were still hard . Sadie 's were soft which meant she was ready to go anytime now . Kat and I stood there talking and Sadie gave me the stink eye . Kat and I then moved to a different area to talk and Sadie sat down and relaxed . We went back into the house and relaxed for a bit . We were sitting in the living room when all of a sudden , Kat 's dog goes over to a laundry basket and I look in and I see a baby goat ! I wanted to cuddle with him . He looked so soft and so cute . He was very tiny , and Deborah said when she first saw him he looked smaller than a tub of butter . So I decided I was going to call this little guy Butter . I stuck my hand in the basket and noticed that Butter wanted to suck on my thumb and so I mentioned it to Kat and she said that he was probably hungry . So she went to get him a bottle . He was in the house because he was so small , he was having trouble maintaining his body temperature outside in the sub - zero weather . As Kat went to get Butter a bottle I heard a loud scream . It sounded like someone was in extreme pain . Kat turned around , grabbed her coat , and ran out the door towards the kidding barn . Deborah came downstairs and told me to grab my camera and follow Kat . So off to the barn I ran while Deborah stayed behind to give the baby his bottle . Once I got there I found Kat with a bunch of towels next to Sadie . I was nervous and excited . Kat told me I could come into the stall so I did . I bent down next to her and watched , and Sadie pushed and suddenly a giant squishy ball came out . Kat grabbed it and it popped , and a baby goat came out . It was so cute . I was amazed . As a Christian I had a moment of how wonderful life truly is and how neat creation is . I then grabbed my camera and began taking photos as Kat began drying off the first baby goat . Not too long after the first goat came out , a second one was born . A third goat and a fourth goat came quickly too . The first two goats were girls and the second two goats were boys . I noticed that the first three goats got up and were walking around but the fourth goat was just lying there . It looked like it was sick . Kat noticed it too and she picked it up and rubbed its body to see if that would help . It didn 't . I felt so sorry for the poor goat . Kat then told me to put down my camera and asked if I would be okay to dry off the other three goats while she took the fourth goat to Deborah . I said I could try . Kat then ran with the little goat in her hands and I was left there alone with three baby goats and a mama goat . I looked over at them and I was like , okay here I go ! I went to pick one of them up when all of the sudden all three baby goats headed towards me . I stared at them for a moment and decided to just grab one . When I did , all three of them jumped on me and I fell over and laughed and screamed , " Attack of the goats ! " Kat came back and we got out a blow dryer to make sure all of the baby goats were warm . After the kids were dry Kat and I made sure that they nursed . They did really well ! Needless to say getting to see Sadie give birth was an amazing moment . I feel as though I have seen a glimpse of Deborah 's day to day life . Not only that but to see something give birth is almost like getting to see hope . It is a beautiful thing to see a mother bond with her child and to see Sadie bond with her kids right after they were born was precious . Not only that but I went up to Deborah 's room and found Deborah cuddled up with Butter the baby goat and a book . It was adorable ! I got to see the passion that Deborah has for animals and the hard word that her husband puts in at Antiquity Oaks and how it pays off . It was such a blessing to be able to be at Antiquity Oaks at this time . Thank you Deborah Niemann for this experience ! This has been one of the coolest internships ever ! The last time I mentioned my health , I had an appointment on February 11 for a biopsy of my thyroid nodule , but things have changed a lot in the last few weeks . Within the week after that January 13 doctor appointment , it felt like the nodule was growing bigger . It was certainly becoming more uncomfortable and problematic . My voice was getting more hoarse . My cough became more frequent . Swallowing was becoming more challenging . Talking was becoming difficult . I called the doctor 's office on Monday , a week after that appointment , desperately seeking some type of comfort - - a biopsy sooner than February 11 or even surgery to remove the nodule . As it turned out , the doctor was out of town for the week , and the nurse made the mistake of telling me that I wasn 't going through anything that any other thyroid patient doesn 't go through . I knew for a fact that she was dead wrong about that . I 've recently had lots of people share their thyroid stories with me , and the vast majority never have nodules that make them miserable . I also knew that I had all of the symptoms for thyroid cancer . I complained on Facebook , and amazingly enough , a friend saw my rant while sitting in her endocrinologist 's office . She showed it to him during her appointment , and he said that there was no reason I needed to wait so long for a biopsy appointment . He does them every week . So , I made an appointment to see him on January 21 , but we had a snow storm overnight , and I got stuck in the snow right outside my driveway because the plows hadn 't been by our house yet . I rescheduled for Thursday the 23rd and learned that the nodule had grown from 1 . 9 to 2 . 15 cm in the past month , which did not surprise me at all . He also noted that the stabbing pain was actually coming from a 0 . 5 cm nodule on the other side of my thyroid , but it looked like a normal cyst and did not need to be biopsied . I had the biopsy one week later on the 30th . I just got results this past Thursday and learned that the larger nodule was benign . It 's a pretty exciting day when you hear that word - - benign - - as it relates to your body , especially when you have every single symptom of cancer . And as it turns out , I am grateful that my original doctor 's office botched the human relations part of their job so badly because it meant that I got to see an endocrinologist , which is the type of doctor I should have been referred to as soon as the nodules were discovered in 2008 . I had been referred to a surgeon . The logic of the first doctor was that if I had a nodule , I needed surgery if it 's cancer . The really frustrating thing is that I was in his office repeatedly over the last few months with back pain that was not helped by muscle relaxers or physical therapy . I do remember him asking me if I had any problems with hair loss or dry skin , and apparently when I said no , he assumed my thyroid was perfectly healthy . Wrong ! The endocrinologist ran a full thyroid panel , and I learned that I have Hashimoto 's thyroiditis , which is an autoimmune disease . Basically my immune system is attacking my thyroid . Now , in spite of the constant pain and feeling of being choked , I remind myself that my nodule is a blessing . It 's what got me to the endocrinologist in a timely manner so that I could learn about my Hashimoto 's . So many people do not get diagnosed until they are clinically hypothyroid and very sick . Although I am not clinically hypothyroid yet - - meaning my thyroid hormone levels are actually decent - - I am having symptoms of thyroid problems , such as unexplained body pain . Intolerance to cold is another symptom of Hashimoto 's , and if someone had asked me a month ago if I had that problem , I would have said no because we keep our house at 65 to 68 degrees , and that feels fine to me . However , whenever I have to do chores outside in this freezing weather , I wind up with muscle spasms in my back that wake me up at night and sometimes keep me awake for hours . After vacationing in Spain and the Canary Islands for two weeks a month ago , and never being awakened by a muscle spasm at night , I knew that the weather was playing a role in my pain at home , but I didn 't know why . Now I do . Unfortunately , the endocrinologist that diagnosed the Hashimoto 's said that there was absolutely nothing I could do to help myself . I asked about food sensitivities , and he said quickly , " This is nothing you did . It 's all in your genes . You inherited this from your parents . " Although I know there is a strong genetic link with thyroid issues , there are definitely things that I can do to help myself , and I 've been giving myself a crash course is thyroid health and Hashimoto 's over the past two weeks . Many people are under the impression that Hashimoto 's is synonymous with hypothyroidism , and although a person will eventually wind up hypothyroid after many years with Hashimoto 's because it will eventually destroy the thyroid , it is possible to slow down , stop , or even reverse its progression . It 's an autoimmune disease , but it hasn 't destroyed my thyroid yet . I 've already changed my diet because many people with Hashimoto 's find they do better on a gluten - free diet , and I figure I have nothing to lose by trying it . I 've also started taking some supplements that are supposed to help , and I 've found a doctor who believes that there are lifestyle changes that can improve the health of those with Hashimoto 's . Unfortunately it will be a couple of weeks before I can see him . What about the nodule ? The options for getting rid of a non - cancerous nodule seem to be non - existent . There is hormonal treatment , which various sources describe as experimental , controversial , and successful less than half the time . The endocrinologist asked if I 'd like to try it without telling me about any of the controversy about it . He also didn 't even tell me how long it took ( 4 - 6 months ) until I asked . I 'm really not willing to try something that has never been proven to work and has been shown to have a nasty list of side effects . I 'm already sick enough . Other than the fact that I have constant pressure on my throat from the nodule , I am actually feeling a little better . The coughing has decreased , and the hoarseness is coming and going , rather than being constant . A couple of weeks ago I sounded like I had bronchitis all the time , and I canceled a sold - out cheese class at a college because I was afraid that the students would not want a class taught by a coughing , raspy instructor even if I was not contagious . I also figured I 'd be completely hoarse before the three - hour class was over because I was having a hard time talking all the way through a one - hour Skype meeting . About three weeks ago , I also started to have problems with severe reflux , which I didn 't even recognize initially . I haven 't had heartburn in more than 20 years - - not since I was pregnant ! I mentioned my symptoms on a thyroid group online , and a woman said that it sounded like GERD . After searching for GERD online , I realized I had every single symptom mentioned by the Mayo Clinic website , some of which overlapped with the symptoms for thyroid cancer , such as a cough and hoarseness . As much as I love wheat - - and remember , I teach bread making classes - - eliminating gluten from my diet may be helping with that , as those symptoms are improving . To deal with my intolerance to the cold , Mike has been doing all of the outside chores whenever he is home , and I 've learned that if I get my body into a tub of hot water after being outside , it decreases the possibility of being awakened by muscle spasms during the night . I told him that if we didn 't have goats due to kid , I 'd be heading south to stay with our daughter in Dallas for awhile . Depending upon how well I get my condition under control , I might be scheduling much later kiddings next year so that I can leave Illinois if I can 't handle the cold weather . In the meantime , I am stuck here ! We had six goats due this weekend , and as I write this , Scarlet and Sadie have already kidded , so I 'll be telling you their birth stories in the next few days . And between the time that I started this post and the time that I finished it , Nina gave birth to triplets . Dear Sweet Wonderful Agnes ( you know , you 've always been my favorite ) - - PLEASE give birth this afternoon at 2 p . m . when the high temp will hit 17 degrees . If you can 't manage to give birth by sundown , then PLEASE hold on to those kids until tomorrow afternoon when the high will again be 17 . Do NOT under any circumstances give birth in the middle of the night when the temperature is supposed to be 3 below zero ! Your cooperation in this matter will be SO much appreciated ! Hugs ! ! ! A couple of people responded that I had just guaranteed a middle - of - the - night kidding . And they were right . We have a video monitor over the kidding pens , so we can watch and hear what 's happening in the kidding barn from the warmth and comfort of our bed in the house . At 2 : 59 a . m . I was awakened by that familiar scream of a goat giving birth . And this is Agnes , a Sherri granddaughter . If you 've been around this blog for very long , you know that Sherri and her daughters and granddaughters don 't make a sound until the kid is actually coming out , and they give birth very fast . Mike and I jumped out of bed and pulled on multiple layers of clothes as quickly as we could . I actually keep all of my layers together - - turtleneck inside the sweatshirt and long underwear inside the sweatpants - - laid out in just the right position , right in front of the toilet , so that I jump out of bed and go sit on the toilet as I 'm changing clothes . Multi - tasking ! Every minute counts when you have a three - pound , soaking wet kid in sub - zero temperatures . Mike made it to the barn first and began toweling off the little doeling that had already been born . Only a moment after I arrived , the second kid came flying into this world . I turned on the blow dryer and spent the next hour and a half blow drying the two little doelings . After coming inside , Mike checked weather . com , and they said the temperature was - 17 , which would explain why it took so long to dry the kids ! We 've had births in the single digits below zero before , and it only took about an hour to blow dry the kids , but the colder it is , the harder it is to dry them . I had to hold the blow dryer within a couple inches of the kids , and the only part that was being dried was the exact spot that I had targeted at any moment . Every time I switched kids , it was quite obvious where all the little cold , crunchy , frozen bits were . Although one of the kids was pretty quick to start nursing , the other one seemed clueless . As we were finishing up the drying , and she still had not tried to nurse , I put my finger in her mouth to discover that it was surprisingly cool , and the kid had almost no sucking reflex . I asked Mike to go inside and get a bucket to milk Agnes and then a bottle for the kid . I wrapped the little doeling in the heating pad in my lap until Mike returned with the bucket and bottle . Of course , as soon as the colostrum hit the bucket in that temperature , it was cold , so he had to get a second bucket with hot water in it to warm up the colostrum . Finally I was able to get some warm colostrum in the little doe , and within five minutes , she jumped out of my lap , ran up to mom and started looking for the teat ! Mission accomplished ! It was past 5 a . m . when we finally got back into the house . I was frozen and sore , so I got my own heating pad and laid on it for the next two hours , moving it from my feet to my back and neck and everywhere in between . Mike got half an hour of sleep , and then at 7 : 00 , he had to get up to do chores before going to work at the college where he teaches . I felt bad for not helping , but my health issues are limiting what I can do outside . I 'll explain more of that in my next post . In fact , I have a doctor 's appointment today where I 'll learn more . If you 've heard that we 're getting a lot of snow in Illinois , I 'm here to tell you that it 's true , and we 're supposed to get more snow today ! There is a picket fence in the above picture . Can you find it ? And it 's been really cold - - as in below zero Fahrenheit - - multiple times . Our pond is about one - third acre , and we have an aerator that normally keeps it from freezing over completely , but many times this winter , Mike has had to go out there with a pick ax to open up the little hole above the aerator . If the pond is completely iced over , it will kill the fish in there . We 've never had a winter like this since we moved here in 2002 , but some of the old timers say this is what winter used to be like . I just hope that all of this snow melts gradually over the course of a couple of weeks . If the weather suddenly warms up for days , we will probably be in for some flooding . We have a video monitor , which also has sound , and Lizzie is now nine years old and doesn 't have a history of being very quiet . The TV is upstairs in our bedroom , and we were both downstairs , and I heard the unmistakable sound that a goat makes when pushing out a kid , and I told Mike he needed to go outside and check on her . Being new to this whole birthing thing , he wasn 't in a hurry . ( He has only started to help with birthing in the last couple years after our second daughter went away to college . ) In all fairness , however , I wasn 't pushing him terribly hard because I had just heard her start to make noise . And Lizzie has a history of having really huge babies - - as big as five pounds ! - - which don 't usually come shooting out very fast like the normal two to three pound baby goats . Although the kids were apparently born without a problem , the little buckling had some challenges over the next few hours . It appeared that he had been the second kid born because he was not nearly as clean or dry as the doeling . Although the doeling was pretty active and nursing , the buckling was not . He just kept standing and standing . I 'd put him under Lizzie , and he acted like he had no idea what to do with that teat that was dangling in front of his face . Because I am having problems with the cold weather myself , I can 't spend a lot of time outside , so I came back into the house a couple of different times , hoping he 'd figure it out for himself . Mike also tried to help him nurse for quite a long time . Finally I decided to bring him inside because his legs were feeling quite cold , and when I put my finger in his mouth , it felt cooler than normal , and he had a very weak sucking reflex that would not have produced any milk if he had attempted to nurse . After getting him warmed up with a heating pad in my lap and giving him an ounce of Lizzie 's colostrum in a bottle , I put him on the floor to see how he 'd behave . At first he laid down , but after about a fifteen minute rest , he got up and started bouncing all over the living room . We sat down to dinner , and I said that I didn 't want to put him back outside until I 'd seen him pee . And a few minutes later , he bounced over to the dining room table and left a nice big puddle right there a couple feet away from me ! In 2002 , my professor - husband , three kids , and I left the Chicago suburbs to live the adventure that Thoreau never imagined on a 32 - acre homestead on a creek in the middle of nowhere . As clueless city slickers , we made a lot of mistakes , learned a little , and had a lot of fun . Even though the children have grown up and left home , Mike and I are still here , making some mistakes , learning more , and having tons of fun . If it sounds like a frontier version of Gilligan 's Island . . . well , sit right back and you 'll hear a tale of goat birthing , gardening woes , coyote problems , food from the farm , housebuilding progress , and whatever happens to be happening around here . Some blog posts may contain affiliate links , meaning that I will get a small commission when you purchase something after clicking on the link . You pay exactly the same price as you otherwise would , and you help support the blog . Thanks for your support !