Even BH, with his 50-odd years of experience, is on edge until he sees a new calf sook, especially if mum has large teats / misshapen bag / teats low to the ground.
If he's not sure, he'll halter / tie up mum and get the calf onto the teat himself. And/or milk mum and bottle / drench / tube the calf to make sure it has its colostrum within the first 6 hours.
A lot of his long experience was with Charolais, and they are particularly prone to being daft. Calfie doesn't latch on properly, mum gets fed up and irritated - I'm so glad we have an Angus bull and mainly Angus X, Hereford X and Blue Grey cows now!
But I'm with you oor willie - an experienced mum knows calfie has to sook, so if mum's happy it's probably going ok. And the looking for calfie pee and poo is a top tip, Rosemary