Milking Great!

I misunderstood when to start milking Lilo.  I thought I was supposed to wait a couple of weeks but that was wrong.  I need to millk her twice a day from now on so that her milk supply will stay large.  I let the babies drink in the evening, then milk her dry.  I pull the babies off for the night.  Then in the morning, I milk her dry again and return the babies to her.  I may leave the babies with her at night for the first week or so, just to build up their strength.  Then they can go into the small pen in the shed with Zeus.

Stitch nursing from Lilo.

I had to run to the feed store this morning and get a stainless steel pail for milking.  I already had the filters.  While I was out, I went to Freddy's and picked up some glass jars with clamp-sealing lids for the milk.  Lilo did a pretty nice job standing for me in the stanchion.  I milked out 3 quarts!  It looked pretty creamy (not the yellow you would see if it were colostrum) so I tasted it.  Mmmmm...it's so rich it coats your finger with cream.  And it is sweet.  I think we can start drinking it now.

I was a bit concerned that the babies might not be nursing successfully, but when we went out to feed the bottle babies, I happened to catch the babies on mommy.  So glad to see that.  Now I don't need to worry about them.