I've lost my patience for the pig

I've completely lost my patience for the pig.  Yadi, our Duroc sow, was due on August 2.  Today is August 5.  August 2 was a Friday.  It is now Monday.  I'm starting to get texts from my family that she will blow any time now.  Lovely.  I have literally waited all weekend for this and now I'm at work.

Let me go back.  Madolyn was at church camp last week.  We were so bummed she wouldn't be home until Saturday around noon.  Yadi was due on Friday.  Her companion to the AI (artificial insemination) process gave birth to 15 pigs on Thursday evening.  She was due one day before our Yadi.  When we learned that the other pigs were born, we just knew that Yadi would have the babies before Madolyn could get home. Thankfully, her BFF's mom went and got her and her BFF from camp a day early, in part, so that Madolyn would be there to wipe the baby pigs off and assist in the birth.  Friday night we are so sure Yadi will give birth and we wait.  Nothing.

Saturday morning rolls around and we have things we plan on doing in the morning...and since Yadi was due to have her pigs the night before, and pigs are like clockwork, we knew we would be free to run those errands.  Wrongo.  We stick around all day watching Yadi like hawks, waiting, squeezing to check for milk, observing her behind (as I call it), and nothing.  I find things to do around the house because we cannot leave or we'll miss it.  Finally, the evening reaches us and Lane has his first football game at home (thankfully), but Jay and I are both scheduled for volunteer positions at 5:30.  So we go, thinking we will only be gone two hours and will race home.

Madolyn leaves promptly after Lane's game to check on Yadi.  About halftime of the second game, she calls and says she saw some blood, it surely will be soon.  Yes, surely, since she was due the night before and pigs are like clockwork.  If I've heard it once, I've heard it fifty times, they are like clockwork; three months, three weeks, three days.

We race home full of excitement, leaving invites to a couple friends to bring their kiddos out on their way home to see the babies.  We get home.  Nothing really major to report.  We wait.  We text friends, forget it. Jay now sets his alarm every two hours to check on Yadi.  After a good night's rest - NOT - we still have nothing.

We had plans to go to Ellis Park to watch a friend race horses on Sunday afternoon.  We cancel those plans and even skip church because surely it will happen because pigs are like clockwork.  We decide once she has the pigs, we can head out and run our errands.  Within the first hour of my morning, I clean up three separate piles of poop from our enormous sow and figure that that means she's getting ready to push 'em on out.  We wait.  I decide to find something productive to do (because I'm about to lose my mind staying at home like this) and put a coat of stain on our new back steps.  Jay mows while I stain.  At one point, I can hear Yadi snorting, groaning and kicking around and I am just sure that she will soon have those babies.

By 4:00, I've had enough of this waiting game and I go get groceries.  If she has them while I'm gone, that's fine.  We must have some milk.  And while I'm away, guess what?  Nothing happens.  I put another coat of stain on the deck and we go for a drive in the jeep with the kiddos.  We don't stay out too long because surely she will have those babies soon...because pigs are like clockwork...and still nothing.

Our friends have given up on receiving a call to come over.  We are starting to wonder if the AI didn't take and she was bred by a teaser boar, which means it could be another couple weeks.  I also entertained the thought that she is just overfed and super, super FAT...because absolutely NOTHING is happening.  She doesn't have any milk and her behind is looking the same each time we check.

As I left this morning, I told Yadi how unhappy I was that she had basically ruined my weekend (well, maybe not ruined) and that now that I will be at work, unable to see the action, she will surely have them.  And because pigs are like clockwork...and the clocks at our house run slow...she surely will.