Babies coming soon?! Nope.

UPDATE: After a month of going back and forth..."Will she?!? Won't she?!?" I decided to take Winnie to the vet for a pregnancy test. No babies on the way yet. :( Of course, I still have a sense of hope because Dr. Simpson said that a pregnancy would only show up on the test after 30 days. And wouldn't you know it-I saw Winnie and Val in a "romantic interlude" about 20 days before the test. So...maybe she just got pregnant? Please?!

Here is what I saw (it's not too graphic but it is about goats breeding) and why I am holding out hope for a pregnancy:

20 days before the pregnancy test, Val was doing his blubber-whine-nibble at Winnie and following her everywhere. We are all used to seeing this, so no surprises there. At best, Winnie usually ignores Val when he does this. At worst, she is forced to run and hide (usually up high on our equipment-see our herd photos for evidence of this). But on this day, she was doing more than tolerating his advances: She was throwing her hips around at him; she was lingering near him; she had her tail straight up in the air, waving it back and forth. In short, she was egging him on. When I saw this, I remembered reading (somewhere in my months worth of research) that the tail thing is called "flagging" and it means that the doe is ready and willing to... you know. I'd never seen it before, but I knew what was going on immediately. So I stayed to see what would happen, and I'm glad I did. About 5 minutes later, I saw Val mount Winnie, which he has tried and failed to do before. But this time it worked! It lasted all of 5 seconds (poor guy!). When Val got down, Winnie arched her back and her legs went stiff for a few seconds. Again, I remembered reading something else during my research phase- that this means the mating "took" and the doe is indeed pregnant. I'm pretty sure I read it on a blog so I'm not sure how scientific the info is, but it gives me hope for babies in early February, pregnancy test not withstanding.

My original notes on "Kid Watch 2015", which started in early September:

Winnie has had some...ahem....changes happening over the past week. I'll be keeping track of changes daily so that I can be ready next time. Maybe. I figured I'd make it a blog posting in case it helps anyone else. Or at least I can look at it next time she's pregnant and maybe find a pattern.

WARNING: Some details will be considered too graphic and/or gross for some people. Continue at your own risk. You'be been warned!

9/6/15: Went out to feed the goats this morning and Winnie has discharge coming out. It is the consistancy of egg white, and very white. Not a hint of color in it, and very sticky and stringy. Her vulva also looks a bit swollen and her nipples look a bit bigger than usual, but I could be imagining those signs.

9/8/15: Discharge stopped. Starting to second guess whether or not Winnie is even pregnant. She just doesn't seem big enough to have kids in there. And I haven't felt any kicking. I felt movement once, but in hindsight I think it was just her rumen I felt.

9/12/15: Discharge has been starting and stopping. Winnie's belly is starting to look a bit bigger but she still doesn't seem big enough to have any kids. I've been cleaning off her backside (she HATES it!) and checking her ligaments, but no changes so far.