Pigs for Christmas

December 19th was a night for many "Firsts" at our place. First of all, it was the coldest night this winter at 27 degrees. It was our first litter of pigs to be born at our farm, my first time to assist in the live birth of a mammal other than a human being, my first time to use dental floss as an umbilical cord clamp, the first piglet was breech (and the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 7th were also!!) and it was the first time that John and I voluntarily stayed awake past 9:00 since our kids were born! Yes, it was a very long night.

Peaches was very restless all day, not napping most of the day as she did in the latter stages of her pregnancy. Instead, she walked around most of the day and got up and down alot. Then about 6:00 in the evening, she began intensely building her nest. Scratching all the hay into a pile in her farrowing hut. She was panting and grunting regularly for about 3 hours until her first piglet was born at 9:35pm. It was a long time coming for that first little guy. He was presented breech. Between the 1st and 2nd piglets she was up and very curious. She finally settled down about an hour or so later for piglet number 2 who was thankfully a facial presentation and she seemed to have no difficulty with that piglet. Unfortunately, pigs 3,4,5 and 7 were also breech and were each difficult in delivering. The whole process was over around 3:30 am and I turned in for the night. Peaches seemed pretty tired out but curious and attentive to her litter. After all was well, John finally called it quits at about 5:30am and came in for some shut eye.

Day two was a good one also. After a difficult farrowing process, we were very pleased and reassured to watch Peaches start eating again, moving around well and portraying excellent mothering skills. So far the piglets, 4 males and 3 females, are all healthy and nursing well.