25 - I think!

Rushed home from work to find Prince Harry stuck in the fence. He is the "special needs" twin whose mother totally rejected because he is a little spastic. I got him nursing from the bottle okay and now he thinks I'm his mother. I had him living with Prince William before I had to evict them to put my purebred BFL mom in their pen with her tiny twins. Prince Harry was trying to get to Thor outside the fence and got himself jammed. I heard the screams as soon as I pulled up. I opened the barn door to find a tiny ewe lamb, cord dangling, standing next to Kate Middleton's mother. Hmmm, I thought, where did you come from? After much poking around and trying to free Prince Harry with no success, I spied a new mom with a black ram lamb down the other end of the barn. I'm thinking this ewe lamb squeezed through the panel to get in with the other moms and babies and picked whatever mom would take her. The new mom was satisfied with her lovely boy and didn't give chase. I fed Harry a bottle while still stuck, and went around feeding Prince William and Lilly's unnamed ewe lamb, who is very large and a bit lethargic. Poor Lilly wants to feed her so badly and stands over her very protectively but has no milk. Damned that mastitis! Matt arrived home and freed Prince Harry. He helped me milk out the new mom and get her lambs full of colostrum. They are in the kindergarten now with all the others. Most lambs look good. One ewe lamb, clearly from my Merino ram, is a bit light and weak but is taking my supplemental milk replacer and trying to nurse from mom a bit. The big boy born last night - named Rocky Balboa - is a little slow too. I'm making the slow ones take a little milk replacer to be sure they have something in their tummies. Weak lambs are not likely to get up and nurse the way they should. I wandered through the barn to take a look at who might be next. I'm guessing Myrna, another aged ewe who had stillborn twins two years in a row before she had healthy, beautiful lambs at last. I'm glad the bulk of the lambing is getting done this week so Kim will have mainly management issues to deal with, not obstetric problems. I'm concerned my Moira might be about to give birth. She has an udder problem, too. I only have three out of 25 lambs on the bottle now and don't want any more. Did I say 25????? Gonna give Matt his dinner - pork chops with no veggies. Didn't want to take the time to stop at the market, just rocketed home to my babies. Thank goodness for all these good moms I have. Temps going down minus 15 F. tonight. I found half a lamb coat done and think I will sit down and do some power knitting for the new babies born today. Will be quicker than sewing something I think. Really need to work on wedding capes. Oh, how did I let this happen? Lambing 32 ewes and wedding? Great timing Maggie!