I read where she had three possible matings, and the due date on the first two have come and gine; the third mating puts the due date at March 25, so we shouldn't have to wait too much longer!
April was really moody tonight for treats and feeding. Corey was in tonight and while he was cleaning the pen, it looked like April was in a bad mood and Corey was keeping a safe distance. She was all rubbing her head on his face when he first came in, but after he did belly check, she wanted him to just go away.
Dr. Tim said that he saw in his check this afternoon that she appears to be getting milk in one side of her udder and that is a good sign.
I was amused to see that the enrichment feeder worked out this time and how much April was enjoying hers.
ToysRUs is a new sponsor of the giraffe cam and some people from the company are up at Animal Adventure Park for a visit (or they were a day or two ago) and they brought a camera crew with them. They did a fantastic interview video with the caretakers and owner and a short video interview with Dr. Tim during his afternoon check-up explaining what he does and what he looks for. These are on AAP's Youtube page and I really enjoyed getting to watch them and get to "meet" the staff, whom it feels like we know from watching them take care of the giraffes for so long.
Still no baby yet, but I find just watching the giraffes really relaxing and will miss them after April has the baby.
Still no baby! Dr. Tim posted the evening update tonight and was joking about enticing her into labor with the offer of a taco (and an attached picture of a crunchy taco shell with a carrot and lettuce leaf in it). Of course he was just joking and was never actually going to give her a taco - though she did get the carrot and lettuce - but it sounds like they are even more excited and anxious for the arrival of the baby giraffe than all of us who have been watching the giraffe cam.
He did say that it is looking like it will be sooner rather than later based on the mammary growth and discharge they are witnessing, and that all conditions are falling into place for it to be the right time.
Nugget, LOL! I totally agree. Dr. Tim has posted updates that he still believes that it could be any time now based on the medical conditions being just right for labor to start, but that he isn't completely surprised that she is still keeping us waiting. I don't know what I'm going to do with myself once she has the baby and they take the giraffe cam down.
Nugget, My dad posted a meme on my facebook profile of a picture of April standing at on of her feeders that's in the corner right under the camera, from the keeper's perspective that says "So, who wants to chip in and get this giraffe a C-Section?" Apparently we are being laughed at for "still waiting". The memes that I've have come across so far have been fairly clever and accurate, though not all of them, but most were in good fun and not mean spirited.
Yay! April finally had the baby! She had a boy and he is the cutest little thing. Quin woke me up yesterday morning about 3 minutes before she had the baby and we got to watch and then watched while April cleaned him up and he worked to get his legs under him and finally take his first steps. It was so adorable. He was so wobbly still today when we were watching him, but he was also really rambunctious and "running", which was more like fast hopping since he is still learning to walk and the running looks like it will take a bit longer to get a hold on. I love baby animals and I've been enjoying waiting and watching for this one since February. I learned a huge amount about giraffes in the process.
I hope that they will leave the giraffe cam up for a while so we can enjoy the cuteness of the new baby.
Nooo! Today's afternoon update said that they will be taking the giraffe cam down sometime between Wednesday and Friday, but no definite time. I understand why they have to, though. They are working to get the park ready to open and have a huge amount of work to do and the people watching the giraffe cam aren't all considerate of the staff there. So, every time the cam feed goes down, or April trips over the baby and turns her leg a bit, or there is a mouse in the pen, or whatever other randomness happens, the park gets inundated with tons of emails, phone calls, and other attempts to contact them and they are then pulled away from preparing the park for opening to have to attend to all of the contact attempts and it sounds like it is really overwhelming them. And that is frustrating, because the park owner has asked so many times for people to not contact them every single time the camera glitches, but too many people still do it anyway. He has been spectacularly polite about it, too. I would have lost my damn mind at all of the frustration.
So, the giraffe cam is coming down on schedule, but now with no possibility of convincing them to leave it up for any little bit longer.
Nugget, That doesn't surprise me. I was telling Quin about it and she said that this is why we can't have nice things. It amazes me that people would be that ridiculous. I appreciate how much it meant to many people to watch the giraffes and keepers and coming to feel connected to them, but to call 911 and not just trust the the staff and Dr. have things well in hand astounds me. It was the same thing every time, the camera glitched: overload the email system, the feed lagged for a second: overload the email, April ate (or tossed) all of the hay out of the shared feeder: overwhelm the email system and facebook message box. Every single time.
So, I understand why the staff of the park need to have a break from it so that they can focus on getting the park ready to open. It has to be incredibly frustrating to them to have to stop everything and devote time and resources to fixing the email box and answering phone calls and everything else they get stuck with instead of just getting the park ready to open without the distractions that are above and beyond what they already will deal with in normal daily duties and animal care and construction and whatnot.
I have to admit, I teared up a bit watching the goodbye video and on the youtube stream when they all came in and waved, held up a thank you sign and then went offline. We've been watching for so long, the staff and giraffes have become almost like family - as silly as that is - and I hated to say goodbye and now I am lost without a giraffe cam stream to watch.
I know! I saw that on the update today and was so excited that the giraffes aren't gone forever. It was funny how quickly I got invested in watching and waiting for the baby. It was so nice to check in throughout the day to see the giraffes, I found it rather comforting and soothing to just watch them.