It’s official! Dolly had her baby! This has been a long and nerve racking road. We did AI (artificial Insemination) back in May 2024, and we welcomed our first calf to our homestead on March 9, 2025. If you don’t want to do the math, thats 283 days, which is 9 months! Just as long as human pregnancies, which was new information to me when we first got into owning a family milk cow.
She started showing signs of getting ready to labor for a few weeks before. Her milk bags started to fill and get large then for the last week her lady bits started to really grow and get “springy” which means it’s bouncy…I know, sometimes homesteading gets weird, but it’s all natural and actually truly amazing to witness.
For about 10 days before she delivered, I started to really pay attention to her behavior and analyzed each and every sign. I was so nervous because we of course had a storm come and we got over 5 inches of snow just days before she calved. Calfs aren’t supposed to be out in cold weather, if she was born in that situation in the middle of the night, it could have been pretty bad. So I was up checking the cameras every hour! Yes we have a camera out there, I needed a baby monitor!
But luckily a few days later it was a sunny day and when I went out to feed in the morning, Dolly was rocking her hips back and forth, almost like a human would in labor. Then I saw her pushing, looking like she was trying to go to the bathroom and nothing was coming out. Of course I immediately contacted friends and family who wanted to be there for the birth. This was a very exciting moment for a lot of people.
I was hoping this was not a false alarm….again. So when I saw the water bag bulging we officially knew this was happening! There was no mistaking that this baby is coming!
Once the water bag broke we knew it will just be a short amount of time until we are seeing this baby! I was told once the water breaks, the baby should be out in 30 minutes, if not, that could indicate that there could be something wrong. We started seeing hooves, we didn’t know if they were front or back hooves(the front hooves should come out first). She got up a few times and the hooves would go back in, then she’d lay down and push the hooves out. That cycle happened 3 or 4 times. We were minutes away from the 30 minute mark.
She laid down one final time and gave a good push and that’s when we saw the front hooves and a nose! Just a few pushes more, Rosemary was born!
The moment was here, the anticipation was finally over! The obsessing over Dolly’s every move, and googling every symptom was done. Dolly was a momma again! I couldn’t help but just thank God in that moment. I know there are so many births that happen every day, human or our fuzzy family, but it’s something I think we take for granted. What a miracle God’s creation is! This baby was just in a pool of fluid in her stomach minutes ago, and now she so peacefully arrived and is suddenly here and is ready to rock! Just absolutely amazing.
Little did we know, this is when all the work for me starts. I knew what it takes to have a milking cow, we’ve had one for almost 2 years. But having a baby to monitor and a postpartum mom to take care of is a lot more than I really thought it would be. I know it’s been a short time and I know it won’t always be this way, but this week has been a lot! Thankfully, I have been blessed with the absolute best support team!
I had friends, family, neighbors all there supporting and helping in the big day! I had a friend holding our youngest daughter as she fell asleep on her shoulder. I had my dad with me supporting Dolly. My mom was helping watch my other kids and came the next day with lunch and washing dishes (this really felt like having a newborn for the first time!) I had another friend helping me milk Dolly to get colostrum for the baby, which was not easy because Dolly did not love this part. One of my sisters brought my kids and I lunch the day of the birth and my other sister took my kids to the park the next day to get them out of the house for some fun while I did more animal chores. Now my dad has shown up every day to help me care for everyone in the morning and milk Dolly as she settles into milking again. Unfortunately my husband was working when this all happened so he missed the live birth. But to have this support was just absolutely amazing! I’m just in awe to see this team of people coming together for a special day. It felt like this is the way God intended us to do things in life “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity”-Psalm 133:1
We are feeling so blessed and absolutely in love with our newest addition. Rosemary will always hold a special place in our hearts, being the first big birth on the homestead (I don’t think hatching chicks and ducks count). And of course we are so proud of our sweet Dolly, she did such a great job! We will update more about momma and baby when things settle in a bit more. Thanks for following our farm journey!
[…] Rosemary’s birth story […]