08/11/2026
This post is officially a week late… because for the first few days, we honestly didn’t know if this little girl was going to make it. ❤️
She had absolutely NO interest in nursing, mama had a very low milk supply, AND she wasn’t particularly interested in letting her baby nurse anyway. So began a longgggg 3 days of basically no sleep, bottle feeding around the clock, and me constantly wondering if anything I was doing was actually what I was supposed to be doing. 😵💫
It truly took a village. My mom met me halfway with colostrum. My dad brought me bales of alfalfa to help increase mama’s milk supply. John and I were outside at all hours of the night—him holding the flashlight while I bottle fed this tiny baby and begged her to PLEASE just stay alive. ❤️
And Aubrynne got thrown right into the llama maternity ward too. 😂 She held mama while I attempted to milk her—which mama made VERY clear was not a service she had agreed to provide.
For three days we tried over and over to get baby to latch, bottle fed around the clock, tried to get mama’s milk supply up, worried, second-guessed everything, and basically wondered if any of what we were doing was actually right.
Then FINALLY… she nursed. And even better—mama actually let her without kicking her off! 🙌
Of course, I still didn’t trust it. 😂 So naturally I put up security cameras and spent an entire day running a full-blown llama surveillance operation, watching to make sure she continued nursing and wasn’t showing any signs of dehydration.
Once I was finally convinced she had figured it out, I set them free.
And today this stubborn little girl is ONE WEEK OLD! 🦙❤️
She’s nursing, she’s thriving, and apparently she had every intention of living… she just wanted to make sure we REALLY earned it first. 😂
P.S. Young girls… get ya a man who will get out of bed at all hours of the night and stand outside holding a flashlight while you bottle feed a baby llama in 43° weather. THAT is love. 😂❤️
At one point in my sleep-deprived delirium, I walked outside in FLIP FLOPS with no coat.
John brought the flashlight.
I brought the bottle.
Neither one of us brought any common sense. 🤣
But she made it. ❤️🦙
