04.22.2012 02:04 PM

The typical spread-legged stance to improve (or rather, just maintain!) balance. Ceilidh continues to monitor all proceedings.

Highlight's first offspring (Ceilidh's third, second living) is off to a perfectly normal start with only nursing left to accomplish for the baby, and passing the placenta for Ceilidh (no photos of those events; I was operating on a few hours sleep and was beat!).

The baby probably would have gotten up before this, but for the last half-hour, I gave her a different kind of "leg up" by blow-drying the bulk of her body and neck. This is essential for winter and bad-weather births (which in turn is how I got into the habit of doing it); this time of year it does conserve baby's calories — most baby llamas lose up to a pound their first day; most baby llamas born here do not lose weight, and some even gain slightly during their first 24 hours.

There's mixed opinions on whether blow-drying is beneficial for later handling. My take is that it can't hurt, and might help, but there's so much new going on that most baby llamas' intellect likely isn't getting very involved at this stage.