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Friday, May 7, 2021

Weekly Wrap Up - More Firsts

Friday evening, Olivia got a call to begin her first "foal watch".  What this means is that the mare is showing signs of preparing to deliver, enough so that you think it's going to happen.  Horses rarely deliver during the day, so foal watch is a night thing.  You check them every hour or so for changes.  Actual delivery takes 30 minutes or less.  Even with checking every hour, you could still miss it if the mare has her timing worked out.  Interestingly enough, mares can stop labor if they feel it's not the right environment.   I dropped Olivia and her sleeping bag off around 9pm.  We had crazy high winds, and the temperatures dropped really low overnight, so the watchers slept in the tack room to keep warm, and rotated hourly checks.

Saturday morning I picked Olivia up at 5:15am from foal watch.  We went to farms #1 and #2 for the morning shift, and then she came home to nap until the 12:30 shift.  She did her usual 4-7pm shift, then came home to rest before heading back to night #2 of foal watch.  It was warmer, and the mare had made more progress during the day, but this was not the night for a birth either.

Sunday morning I picked Olivia up again at 5:15am and took her to farm #1.  We got home around 7:15am and she went back to sleep.  I let her skip church and sleep until time to go back to her 12:30 shift. The evening was slow, and everyone got to get some down time.  Olivia went back for night #3 of foal watch around 8:30pm.

Monday morning I picked Olivia up at 5:15am and took her to an extra shift at farm #1.  Then we ran by the house so she could change and freshen up before heading to the HR department at her new job.  She is now officially working in the equestrian for the college whose scholarship she declined.  Once she finished her paper work, she was off to the college equestrian center to meet her co-workers and start her first day on the job.  Lindsey had an extra day of babysitting for one of her families, but didn't need to be there until 11:30am.  She had all of her school work done super early, and had time to chill before going to work.  Olivia got home around 2:30 and took a nap before going back to foal watch for the fourth consecutive night.

Tuesday morning Olivia got home from foal watch around 6:30am, changed and was back at her new job at the equestrian center at 7:30am.  Lindsey had her long nanny day from 7:30-4:30, Tom dropped her off while I was getting Olivia to work.  I spent the day working on laundry and researching used vehicles for sale in the area.  In the evening, we skipped jiu-jitsu and went to a special guest speaker service at our church.  From there we were off to drop Olivia at foal watch and then head for home.

Wednesday morning, I picked Olivia up at 5:30am and took her to farm #2 for the morning shift.  Then it was home for a quick freshen up/breakfast and then off to the equestrian center by 9am.  Lindsey worked 10:30-1:30.  Projects around the house kept me busy between drop off/pick up rotation.  Lindsey and I dropped Olivia off for foal watch at about 8:15pm.  We swung by the ballet studio to pick up payments (I'm still the bookkeeper there after all the years), then it was home for a couple of hours of processing payments and doing paperwork before I was done for the day.

Thursday morning, when I got up at 5am, I had a text from Olivia saying that the foal had been born around 4:10am.   I went to pick her up a little early (so I could see the baby).  She was so excited! She got to be there start to finish with the birth and got to help with everything.   The labor/delivery itself was about 20 minutes start to finish.  His official name, on paper name, is "In the Nick of Time" and he will be called Nicholas.


We were still home in time for Olivia to get changed and freshened up, grab a frozen waffle and get to work by 7:30am.  After all that excitement, I dropped Lindsey off at work, did the ballet bank run and then went to get groceries.  Laundry and picking everyone up wrapped up my afternoon.  Jiu-jitsu wrapped up the evening.  Olivia was very happy to get to sleep in her own bed, and I slept much better knowing she was home for the night.

Friday morning Olivia went to farm #2 at 7am and worked until a little after 8.  Then it was off to the equestrian center for the day.  Lindsey got called to babysit, so we ended up taking her charge with us to the orthodontist.  She was happy to hear that her braces come off next visit.  The rest of my days was house work, dropping Lindsey off for work, picking everyone back up and fixing dinner.

It's been a long week ya'll, and I'm tired!   Have a great weekend!



2 comments:

  1. What a busy week and how exciting for Olivia to get so see and help a foal being born.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That is one crazy, busy week. How exciting to help a baby foal into the world. That is amazing. I am so glad she found her niche.
    Blessings, Dawn

    ReplyDelete

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