So very true about NEVER giving up, even when all looks lost. Fate is fickle and sometimes things will flip your way if you just believe....
Bargain, I read your blogspot and it was very touching. Several years back I had an aged (19 y.o.) broodmare on the farm who managed to get with foal. The pregnancy was progressing nicely when a couple of weeks before her due date I came home and she was walking in the pasture backwards trying to escape the pain she was in. I shot her down to the vet clinic and an abdominal tap was full of blood, meaning that she had bust a gut and was not long for this world. Her blood was all contaminated and so the foal was compromised, but -- dang it! -- something good has to come out of bad. I decided on a C-section before euthanization, even though the chances were slim-to-naught of a good result from this disaster.
Out came 100 lbs. of fighting premature foal who spent the next weeks at UC Davis' Neonatal ICU, first being tube fed and monitored until her body caught up to herself. She was a horse born who wasn't ready to be a horse yet. She was a mess with horrible gas levels in the blood (lots of bloat those first weeks), infection, and quite a bit o' steroids in her to stabilize the organs. But if there's a will and a slim chance to live, you gotta take that chance. Of the 52 neonatal foals at UC Davis that year, only she and a mini walked out the doors.
She was a bottle baby lucky enough to be adopted by another aged mare and graced my ranch until she found her forever home. She grew into a lovely show horse and she has procreated the next generation of her bloodlines. The vet bills were horrendous, but the story and lesson therein learned are priceless.
Sorry to go off-topic here, but I have a soft spot for things that hatch late.... Don't give up! Those eggs may pleasantly surprise you.