Maddox and Mommy Moviestars!

So today I got a call from my Dr. office, the OBGYN group. I figured they were calling to check to see if Mr. Kies had decided to turn around but that wasn't the case at all. They were wondering if Maddox and I would be willing to come into the office to be videotaped for some footage for an update to their website. I already had a very busy day scheduled but figured this would be a once in a lifetime experience so we headed over to the office after my 7th chiro visit ( still heads up...ugh). And, boy did we have a good time. Maddox was an angle, course everyone whooed over her and she had many people to entertain her. It turned out they took several shots, some with just myself and the Dr, some with myself and the midwives, and then some with Maddox and I and the Dr/midwife. Now.....the WAY cool thing was that there wasn't any audio being taped, it was all just photo footage but they wanted me to ACT like I was talking to the Dr's and midwives....so what do you think we talked about.....WHAT TO DO WITH BABY KIES!!! It was the best hour for me to gather information to help decide what ( if anything) we are going to do to get Mr. Kies to turn to avoid a c-section. I got to meet with 2 experienced Dr.'s and 2 midwives. It was sort of like having a panel of Dr.'s at my disposal to discuss the options to try to get Mr. Kies turned around. Soooo....the verdict is......we meet with one more Dr. Friday AM, ( one that wasn't here today at the photo shoot so I'll get yet another opinion). But definitely the consensus today was that I should go ahead and have the external version and to do it as soon as possible. The odds are better since this is my second child, and really to avoid a c-section the Dr's I met with today said it is definitely worth a shot if I am open to it. I told all the docs and midwives today what I've been doing for the last 2 weeks ( chiro, ice, heat, ironing board, inversion table, accupuncture scheduled for friday afternoon) and that nothing has worked so far but they were still optimistic that the external version could work. One of the docs today said that if possible they would schedule it for Friday afternoon...YIKES.....because one of the possibilities is that the external version will set me into labor and I"ll have the baby!! But, at this point in time I am 38 weeks so it is definitely fine for him to come now. Sooooo our little photo shoot turned into a GREAT informational session for me....just what I needed to hear to help me/us decide what to do about Mr. Kies. I really don't want a c-section as the recovery is MUCH longer and with Maddox being a little as she is, she still requires quite a lot of care so it would NOT be ideal to be unable to pick her up! We'll see what Dr. Aronson has to say Friday AM but it is looking like I'm going to try the external version on Friday afternoon, pending scheduling availability. I'll keep you posted and I"ll let you know when they get the video on the website so you can see! The pictures/video are from our last visit to the park. This time Dad got to join us!

"Outside....Walk..."

These are Maddox's two favorite words right now. She is always asking to go outside and she is always asking to walk after you take her out of her car seat INSTEAD of just going directly inside the house. However now she would prefer to walk on her own rather than ride in the stroller but we can still get her to go in the stroller for short distances. She LOVES to be outside and today was a great day for it. ( It was a good day for a trip to Pancheros and Dairy Queen too!!) We spent the majority of the day outside, right up until we came in just before bedtime at 7:45! And she must have been tired because she didn't fight me to come in which is a rarity!! Grammy found us a cool Little Tikes picnic table sitting alongside the curb in her neighborhood ready to be be picked up by the garbage man. It had a little split in one of the seats but we taped it up with some brightly colored duct tape and it was good to go. Maddox thought it was pretty neat. She LOVES to play in the rock beds....much to our new plants disliking. She goes straight over to pick up rocks and tosses them to a new bed and carries them around the yard. We are always careful to make sure ALL the rocks end up back in the beds to keep Dad and the lawnmower happy! I can definitely see 2 teeth on the bottom and she hasn't been quite so whiny in the last few days which has been nice. Mr. baby Kies is being very stubborn and is still heads up despite my daily visits to the chiro this week to receive the tried and true Webster Technique as recommended by my dula. I even went 2 times on Friday but he just seems to be happy up where he is. I saw my midwife on Friday and advised her that we are hoping he will still turn around with the continued chiro visits but if he doesn't then we'll just go ahead with a c-section. So that means next week for my normal midwife visit I get to meet with one of the Dr.'s instead. They sort of do a meet and greet and pre-op visit and talk about the c-section etc. since the midwifes can't actually do the c-section one of the Dr.'s has to. So Eric and I'll do that next Friday. We are still hopeful that he'll turn but I don't know....he moves out of the 'up' position for a bit, not totally turning 180 degrees, but then he seems to float back up to where he has been the last couple of weeks. He is sort of in charge it seems right now...funny how that is....as he isn't even on this earth yet! I am still using Grandpa Jim's inversion table ( thanks for bringing that over Dad!! ) and putting ice on my belly where his head is every now and then but it does not seem to be very effective....but we'll keep on. He sure is kicking a lot and getting bigger so the prospect of having a c-section a little early doesn't sound all that bad. His little feet seem to dig right into my bladder sometimes....little stinker. We are happy to have him whatever way is going the be the safest and healthiest for he and I.

A Visit from Aunt Brooke & Cousin Carter

Maddox, Eric and I got to meet Carter for the first time this past weekend. Aunt Brooke and Carter flew into Moline from Denver on Thursday afternoon for a whirlwind tour of IA, IL, and IN. Boy is Carter a GOOD baby and smiley. So happy, so content, really mellow ( compared to Maddox when she was that little :) ) and such a great sleeper. He turned 4 months yesterday, along with Maddox turning 20 months, and he is in such a good routine already. Maddox thought he was pretty neat......although she needed a LOT of supervision around him. Poor guy I think he got stepped on at least once and his forehead met a few of her dropped toys. But, all in all I think she thought he was pretty special....course he left after just a couple of days so we'll see how her attitude differs with baby Kies. She gave him lots of hugs and kisses and shared her toys with him and even handed him his pacifier when he was having a bit of a fussy/crying session ( which were VERY few and far between). It was so nice to see them interact and I think as Carter gets more mobile, he and Maddox will have a good time playing together. HINT HINT Uncle Tyler, why don't you find a job in the Quad Cities and move on back to the midwest?!! Would sure be nice to have the cousins be each other's best buddies. Having Carter around was a great learning experience for us. We are definitely going to have to set up the pack-n-play downstairs for baby Kies as a safe haven from tossed toys and pointer fingers. We're also going to need a changing station downstairs too to avoid going up and down the steps almost hourly to change someone's diaper. Maddox is getting to be such a big girl. She has slept EVERY NIGHT in her own bed since we implemented the big girl bed several weeks ago. She STILL just sits on the bed waiting for us to come and get her in the AM and after naps not even attempting to get down from the bed. We have officially transitioned off of the pacifier during the day. She just uses the paci during naps and at night and is starting to get pretty good at taking it out when she gets out of the bed, giving it to Mrs. Purple bear and lady bug night light to watch over until she returns. I am so proud of her!! She has become very interested in coloring and getting herself dressed. She is pretty good about staying on the paper but luckily we have the 'washable' kind of crayons. Yesterday AM I left her on our bed to 'clear' out the laundry basket. I had washed all her new summer clothes from Target so they were all in the laundry basket waiting to be put away. She made it her GOAL to get everything on her entire body. It was so funny and kept her busy for about 20 minutes!! She was very proud of herself when she finally got up with all the clothes around her legs. She is probably ready to potty train. She is actually starting to indicate to us when she is going to poop BEFORE she is going to poop and I think we could probably rush her to the potty chair to do her business. It isn't 100% that she'll tell us but pretty darn good. I"m not sure Eric and I are ready for the full on teaching....but we could probably do it. Pee pee isn't quite the same. She is good about telling us AFTER she pees. She has been having some very whiny days lately......getting at least 1 tooth for sure and I'm pretty certain we are going to see more pop through in the coming weeks. It seems all her little gums are swollen and on her more painful days she is not the most fun little girl to be around, especially since we discontinued the use of the pacifier during the day....maybe not the best timing but oh well. Yesterday was a good day and she was so happy and fun and saying so many words now...too many to even remember. Her little brain works so fast now she is pretty darn smart, but then again I am a little biased. As most of you know baby Kies is heads up instead of heads down and is STILL that way as I write this. I"ve been to the chiro one time and will return everyday this next week for her to do the Webster technique which is a special adjustment that is supposed to get the baby to turn. She is hopeful it will work but encouraged me we may need to do the technique daily until the last minute as it doesn't always work the first few times. Time will tell I guess. I am going back to work on Thursday to avoid using more of my vacation time. I am 37 weeks tomorrow which puts me out of the 'danger zone' if I had the baby early. So at this point he can come anytime. Eric and I both have our bags packed.

Bye Bye Pacifier!

So let's see what have we been up to?? Last week Maddox developed a cold...the first one she has had since the middle of January...which is a TRUE record! Unfortunately, unlike the last one, this one developed into an ear infection (her last ear infection was december of 2010 so that is a good run too). So Eric and I had Maddox to the Dr. on Saturday AM after an EXTREMELY long and unpleasant Friday night for all three of us. But, she is always quick to respond to the antibiotics and generally speaking she was doing better by Sunday. Eric and I decided we needed to get to business on getting rid of the pacifier before Baby Kies arrives. Maddox has become literally OBSESSED with the thing. And basically both Eric and I really have nobody to blame but ourselves for creating the behavior of 'whine until Mom and Dad can't stand it and they'll hand over the pacifier!!' Somewhere between like 16 and 18 months she started absolutely loving that thing and really wanting it all the time. ALTHOUGH, interestingly enough, NEVER using it at Kim's. Kim quit using the pacifier back in January...not even for nap time. So both Eric and I knew it was definintely a behavior we had created, so of course we have to be the ones to break it :) So yesterday after her afternoon nap we left the pacifier up on her pillow, which is it's new home, when she is not sleeping. I am ok with her having it while she is sleeping but this business of seeing it sitting up on the counter or standing at the 'pacifier' drawer stomping her feet and throwing a tantrum until we go get it for her during the day, has got to go!! So far it is definintley a life changing event for her, HOWEVER I will say she is MUCH more willing to go down for naps and took a 3 hour one this AM and she is going on now almost 2 hours for the afternoon one. She is probably up there suckin' the life out of that thing before she wakes herself up :) I did put her on the potty chair today too. She is really getting good at pointing to her diaper ( front and back depending on the duty being performed) so I thought I'd try it. She indicated to me this AM she was going to poop so we hurried into the bathroom and I got her all undressed and set her on the potty chair and I seriously thought she was going to do it....!! But, then she got bored got up and started running around the house naked. Of course I was quick to get her clothed again and like 1 minute later she pooped! So we'll give that some more time and practice. Changing too much in her life in one week will probably backfire anyhow. I have been having lots of contractions lately so my doctor and I decided I shouldn't see patients for the next couple of weeks. reducing my risk for going into labor early. I'm still working out with human resources if I can go in to the office and do paperwork/chart audits. But, for now I'm just home for the next 2 weeks. Planning to go back AFTER I get closer to full term. We had a nice relaxing Mother's Day yesterday...happy mom's day to all you moms..... Eric ran the Quad City 1/2 marathon and Maddox and I went over to cheer him on. He took almost 20 minutes off of his St. Louis time.....who hoo!! Go Daddy. I took a nap while Maddox napped in the AM and then we grilled kabobs for dinner. It was a very relaxing day. Enjoy the close up shots....take care. She's got her new summer PJs on in one of the pictures...it was SO HOT here today and even HOTTER tomorrow. They are a little big but definitely cooler than the footed kind.

A Trip to Washington

Maddox and I went to Grandma Jean and Grandpa Jim's in Washington over the weekend. Eric was up in Minnesota at a workshop so Maddox and I thought we'd take a little trip over to the 'farm'! Grandpa and Grandma have all kinds of grassy hilly land, barns, wild kitties to feed, and tons of neat looking birds....not to mention a big John Deere tractor that Maddox rode once around the house and a big Harley motorcycle!! ( All kinds of new things to explore) It is not really a 'farm' per se but much more than the ol' Kies residence. Luckily we had planned this little getaway for Maddox and I because I sure enjoyed the extra sets of hands. I've been having LOTS of REAL contractions in the last week or so and my midwife told me Friday that I needed to take it easy and get my feet up and even offered to write me a letter for work!! I declined that, but was very happy to have Grandpa and Grandma to help out all weekend since Eric was out of town. Maddox had a fantastic time. She barely whined or cried the entire weekend...!! Course the grandparents provided almost full time entertainment complete with bubble makers, new books, sidewalk chalk, a pin wheel and cool squishy ball....but she's not spoiled is she :) Grandma Jean's school carnival was Saturday too, for added entertainment. Maddox was really too small for the actual games but SHE LOVED socializing with the hundreds of kids that were roaming around the school and meeting all of Grandma's co-workers. She was SO FUNNY, she practically ran from classroom to classroom exploring and saying HI to anyone that would listen. She acted like she knew exactly what she was doing. Every now and then she'd look back to make sure she saw someone she recognized, either myself, Grandpa or Grandma, and then she'd tear off down the hallway looking for another game/another set of kids in a different classroom. Then Grandma Jean got us into the 'little kids' playground. All the equipment was just the right size for her. She loved the slide despite it being a little wet from the morning's rain. Luckily the sun came out that afternoon and it was nice and warm. We had planned to go fishing while we were there but the weather just DID NOT cooperate on Sunday so we'll have to return. We got to visit with Great Grandma Reta Saturday evening and Maddox even ate an entire piece of Casey's pizza sitting at Great Grandma's big people table! She LOVED Deuce this time. At Christmas she was still pretty scared of him. But this visit she loved on him and would pat him and pet him and point to his nose and occasionally right INTO his eyes. Luckily he is a very relaxed lab and tolerated all her poking and prodding. We had a great time! Unfortunately I didn't go with a fully charged camera so I missed out on a TON of great photo ops but the ones I did get turned out pretty well. The school carnival had a Hawaiian theme! Luckily the outfit I happened to bring for Maddox fit in perfectly. Maddox and I ( and hopefully Eric the next time) are definitely looking forward to our next visit to Washington. Thanks Grandpa Jim and Grandma Jean for one fantastic relaxing weekend. We'll be back soon.