Baby Clayton: 36 Week Update

A lot has happened since my last update on Baby Clayton at 33 weeks!  I had a regular appointment at 34 weeks which went great.  The doctor confirmed that Clayton was in head down position and everything looked like it should!  I was scheduled to go back at 36 weeks.  When I did I was VERY caught off guard when Dr. Brabson said he was pretty sure that Clayton had flipped and was head up! WHAT?!  He said it felt like his head was up against my left ribs and he was bottom down.  He wanted to get an ultrasound just to be 100 percent sure.  As soon as they flipped on the ultrasound machine, it was obvious he was NOT head down any more!  I was so frustrated! 
The doctor told me I still had time to flip him, and he didn't seem too concerned.  He said there was enough fluid to get him to move, and he thought I could do it on my own.  He gave me a lot of crazy stretches/exercises to do to try to get Clayton to flip.  Almost all of these involved being upside down.  There were stretches where you put your knees on the edge of the couch and hands and head on the floor stayed like this for 30 seconds at a time repeating this a few times and several times a day.  The kids LOVED getting on the edge of the couch and doing this one along with me.  Then there was the crazy ironing board exercise.  I had to lay the ironing board against the edge of the couch, put my head on the floor and legs up at the top and basically lay upside down on the ironing board for 20 minutes three times a day.  This was the most uncomfortable, but I will say, this would make Clayton move a ton!  (He's already really active, but something about being in this stretch really, really got him moving!)  BUT it didn't make him flip.  I also tried making him move by flashlight, music, and a cold ice pack at the top of my tummy (apparently they want to move away from the cold)...none of these worked.  There were some other stretches too.  Finally the doctor also mentioned that if I had access to a pool, doing handstands in the pool really gets babies moving and he has had many patients flip their babies this way.  This was the one I was the least excited to try, but I decided it was worth it.  So I went to the gym pool and spent an hour doing handstands (you know, while people were being totally normal and swimming laps).  Not one person asked me what I was doing...which I think would have made me feel better-haha!  Anyway, after an hour of handstands at the Olympia pool, I was exhausted and could still feel Clayton's head near my ribs! 
The doctor wanted me to try all these for 48 hours and then come back to see if he had flipped.  I went in knowing he had not flipped, and I was right.  The doctor decided to give me the weekend to keep trying to flip him, and then I was supposed to come back to see him AGAIN on Monday.  IF he hadn't flipped by Monday, the doctor said we would talk about and schedule an external version which has to be done in the hospital.  You're hooked up to the monitors and they keep an ultrasound on the baby while the doctor pushes on the baby externally and moves him to the correct position.  This is not guaranteed to work, but the doctor thought that I had a good chance of him being able to flip Clayton.  I was determined to flip Clayton over the weekend.  I continued doing the exercises and stretches. 
On Sunday evening I couldn't feel Clayton's head under my ribs like I had been able to, but I could still feel something.  AND I hadn't felt a HUGE move like what the doctor and nurse had acted like I would feel when he did flip.  When I went back to the doctor on Monday morning, I said I thought he might of flipped, but I didn't know.  The doctor pressed on my stomach and said Clayton had flipped! He wanted to see his exact position on the ultrasound just since I hadn't felt a HUGE movement.  Sure enough...I saw it on the ultrasound screen...Clayton had flipped to the head down position over the weekend.  And not only that but he also rotated to be facing my back which is the perfect position for him to be in!  This was such a relief! I am so thankful that he flipped without having to do the external version.  For most of the 36th week of my pregnancy with Clayton I was consumed with doing these stretches, googling more ways to flip babies, and thinking about and praying that he flipped!  I am SO relieved and thankful that he flipped.  I feel like we can carry on enjoying this pregnancy now. Whew!
I guess this just goes to show that every single pregnancy is different!  The doctor said that if you're going to have a breech baby it's usually people's first babies but rarely their fourth.  I guess Clayton just wanted to give me something new-haha!  He flipped so I won't complain.
Other than worrying about him flipping and having a little bit of a sore back for a couple of days (from laying on the ironing board), I now feel great again!  I really haven't been that tired or had much swelling (like I did with Carter).   I really have no complaints. 
In terms of getting ready for Baby Clayton, we have been really working on our "to do before Clayton" list.  We have finished our bathroom renovations which I said HAD to happen before Clayton was born!  We have also finished Nora Kate's big girl room...another MUST before Clayton is born!  I have finished decorating Clayton's room, and I have almost all of his baby clothes, blankets, and linens laundered!  I plan to include pictures of Clayton's nursery in my 37 week update, so stay tuned.  Today is actually the last day of my 36th week, so that 37 week update will be coming soon.  We have also checked off a lot of little items off our to do before Clayton list too.  I hope to check a lot more of these items off my list this week!  Ideally, I will have the list complete by 38 weeks, but we will see how this goes with all of my "helpers" haha!
So after all that writing, here's a picture! Here's what baby Clayton looks like at 36 weeks!

Remember that Carter takes all the pictures?!

Well, he took my request of taking a picture of Baby Clayton seriously and just got Clayton and not my head!

But then we tried again!

So here's the official 36 week picture with Clayton.

After I had Carter take my picture, Nora Kate said, "Momma, now take a picture of me and my baby!"  She walked over and posed just like this on her own!  How could I not take a picture?!  My sweet little girl!

Then Carter wanted his picture taken.  Of course, he chose a silly pose! 

He always loves to make me laugh!

Nora Kate Update: TWO AND A HALF

Until the time Nora Kate turned two, I did a monthly "Nora Kate Update," as you may remember.  After she turned two, I decided that I would only do an official update every six months.  Nora Kate is now two and a half, so it's time for an update!  John and I cannot believe we have such a big girl!

Sometimes I think that there has never been a 2.5 year old so full of opinion!  Nora Kate cares about stuff the boys would have never thought twice about at this age, and she's not shy to let you know it either.  She started very early having a preference about which clothes, pajamas, and even panties and socks she wear each day...this has not changed!  It's not bad, she just has a lot of opinions.

We moved Nora Kate from her toddler bed to a twin bed the week after Christmas, and she has continued to do AMAZING!  She never gets out of her bed on her own.  When she wakes up she yells for us, and when we come in she will then get out of bed (or sometimes she will hide under her covers and giggle and wait on me to find her after a silly game of "where's Nora Kate? does anyone know?!").  We laugh each night because when we put her to bed, we then get to listen to 10 (or more some nights) minutes of Nora Kate recounting every.single.thing she did that day.  Speaking of bed...she goes to bed between 7:30 and 8 each night and wakes up at 7:30 each morning.  Every afternoon she naps from 1-3ish.  She still sleeps with her "Lovie" along with a few other stuffed friends which vary from time to time, but Lovie is the constant.

Nora Kate loves bathtime, and it's wild!  The kids have really gotten into Fizzy Bath Colors this winter which makes bathtime even more fun.  But Nora Kate is the splashiest, rowdiest kid in bath!  She loves it! I can't wait to watch her in the pool this summer.

Nora Kate and Carter have grown even closer in the past six months.  A big part of this is that Dawson is at school 5 days a week so those two play together -just the two of them (and me)-a lot!  Part of this closeness is also because they're more on the same level, doing the same things than before.  Carter has a clearly established role as being bigger than Nora Kate, and he loves to remind her.  At the same time though, Carter is SO good to help Nora Kate without even being asked.  He loves to show her things and play with her.  Having two kids so close in age is not always extremely easy, BUT it's so, so rewarding to watch them playing together so well and enjoying each other!

I definitely don't want to leave Dawson out, because Nora Kate has a sweet relationship with Dawson too.  She gets SO excited when he gets home from school or is off for a snow day or the weekend.  She will ask Dawson to pick her up and carry her.  Dawson thinks he's so cool that he can lift her and carry her.  (They just do this in the house so it's not as dangerous!)  

Nora Kate LOVES both of her big brothers.  Probably her very favorite thing to do with them is run through the house and play rowdy.  When they do this, she's easily the rowdiest one of the three.  She laughs and squeals the entire time she's playing like this with the boys!  The other night I was talking to Nora Kate and asked her, "How many brothers do you have?" (I wanted to see if she would include Clayton in her count and say 3 or if she was just thinking of Dawson and Carter.) Her response was, "A lot!" Hah!

Speaking of Clayton, Nora Kate talks about him A LOT!  She loves to talk about "what's him doing in there?" (my tummy).  Then she will make several guesses.  She loves to talk to my tummy at him.  She talks about how she wants to hold him, etc.  We have always told the boys that Mommy will have to go to the happy part (not the sick part) of the hospital and the doctor will get the baby out when it's time.  This is what we told Dawson when I was pregnant with Carter and what we told the boys when I was pregnant with Nora Kate.  Never ever have there been questions about this!  Until Nora Kate!  She will ask me, "How's the doctor gonna get him outta there?" And on, and on.  She is excited and asks a lot of questions about Clayton.

At 2.5 years Nora Kate's favorite things to play are Mouse Trap, doll house, littlest pet shop, my little pony, play kitchen, read any book-but her favorites are Fancy Nancy books.   Nora Kate's favorite snack is yogurt and favorite food is probably mac n cheese.

Nora Kate's hair is getting longer and longer (she's come a long way from the bald baby!), but you wouldn't really know that it's long because it's so curly!  Her hair is perfect little blonde spiral curls.  I'm really interested to see if her hair stays curly as she gets older.  It is SO, SO curly now that it's hard to imagine it straightening out, but you never know.  I think the curls suit her though. 

Nora Kate has a sweet personality and loves to give hugs and kisses.  She's also quick to get up and run rowdily through the house with the boys!  She has a fun-loving personality.  I love watching her interact with her brothers and with John.  She has a special relationship with her Daddy too.  She acts much sweeter and cuddlier with John than the boys ever did.  She has this silly routine where she can't stand for John to come in from work and leave on his socks or coat.  She will repeatedly ask if she can take off his socks for him (then she runs them to the hamper), and she does the same with his coat.  She's always so proud of herself for asking and doing these things for her Daddy.  Nora Kate is really sweet with me too.  She often says, "We're the girls, Mama!"  (like we have to stick together! haha).  Oh, and the "Mama"....the boys always called me and still call me "Mommy," but for the last couple of months Nora Kate has started calling me "Mama."  I love that she has started calling me what she wants, and I love hearing her sweet little voice say "Mama" too!

Nora Kate, we cannot believe you're already two and a half!  Please stop growing up so quickly!  You're our only little girl, and we love you so very much!

 

Here are a few pictures I took of Nora Kate about a month ago that I just love because you can see her personality so clearly in these!

She LOVES lip gloss!

Look at those curls

 

And here are her traditional pictures I always take of the kids in the chair.

Nora Kate 2.5 years.

Carter 3.5 years.

Dawson 6.5 years.

 

So big! TWO AND A HALF!

 

 

 

January 2016

January was a month full of basketball, snow, and playing inside for us!

 

Dawson's 2nd basketball season started at the beginning of January (they started practices in December).  He is number 14, and his team name is the Eagles!  His buddy Carson is on his team again this year, and he has gotten to play against a lot of other friends which is making it even more fun for him.

 

This was the first game...

 

 

 

 

Dawson's school started their One Book Blitz where the entire school reads the same chapter book for a month.  This year's book was The Mouse and the Motorcycle.  We REALLY enjoyed reading this book as a family each night.  Carter got into it just as much as Dawson!  To celebrate the first week of the One Book Blitz there were a few dress up days.  The first dress up day was Surfer Day (since the book takes place in California).  This just so happened to also be the coldest day of the school year so far!  So Dawson wore his surfer attire over long sleeves and pants!  We listened to the Beach Boys ("surfer music" the kids called it) at breakfast before school, and I told Dawson some surfer words to say...surf's up, hang ten, etc.  Dawson reported that he didn't say any of these at school; Carter, on the other hand, kept saying HANG TEN all day to Nora Kate haha!

 

Then we had our first snow day!  We woke up and there was only a little on the ground, but it was still coming down.  I tried to convince the kids to wait until there was more snow to go out and play, but everyone was too excited so we went on out and played in the small amount of snow.  Then later we went back out to play when there was a lot more snow!  (You can tell by looking at the pictures which ones were the morning snow play time!)

 

 

The second basketball game of the season...

 

We have built LOTS and LOTS of fires this year in the fireplace, but Dawson requested an outside fire to roast marshmellows on.  John decided to build a small one, and Dawson was SO happy!

 

 

Dawson had also seen a wooden ladder some construction workers had built out of scrap wood.  He requested one, and John had it built in no time.  The kids have had so much fun with this ladder! haha  Here's Carter eating a s'more on the ladder!

 

Watching the snow come down!

We had a playdate at our friend Harper's house, and Nora Kate cannot get enough of their cats!  Thankfully the cats are pretty patient, because Nora Kate REALLY REALLY wanted to try to hold them!

So big!  She love's this vest!

John and Grandad took the boys to another UT basketball game this month!

They had a lot of fun!!

We went out to Steak and Shake one Friday night in January to celebrate Dawson's excellent report card....BUT Dawson was the one who refused to take a selfie with us while we were there!  Too cool, I guess.

He did, however, have a blast eating burgers and shakes and wearing the hat!

We went to the library several times this month.  Nora Kate always LOVES the big doll houses at the library!

This is WAY out of order, but I was REALLY missing Dawson on his first day back to school from Christmas break at the beginning of January.  I had gotten so used to having him home, it seemed so lonely without him here.  When he came home from school, he pulled this card out of his bag and said he made it for me during indoor recess!  SWEET BOY!

Every other month this school year I have been the teacher for the kindergarten Sunday School class at church.  I have really enjoyed being with such a sweet group of kids!  This group especially loves arts and crafts, and so we've done a lot of fun little projects.  Here's Dawson's net that "full and breaking" from one of our lessons in January!

oops another one out of order...but this was Carter taking a selfie on the UT Bus after the basketball game.  The way he talked about getting to ride the "orange bus" after the game was possibly more excited than how he described the game! Haha!

Dawson has been doing awesome with his sight words (and all school work in general this year).  His teacher is GREAT!  In January he got this certificate because he knew all of the sight words through MARCH!

 

We were playing in the snow and Carter REALLY wanted to give the slide a try.  Between there being a little bit of ice on the slide and his slick snow pants, he FLEW down the slide!

look he's still in the air in this picture coming off the slide!

He thought it was hilarious and fun!

These two conned me into a cookie from the cookie company during a quick trip to the mall.  Carter informed me, "Daddy always gets us a cookie from here!" Haha, well I will not be outdone!  And, let's be honest, baby Clayton wanted one too!

 

The kids have been REALLY into games lately which is perfect for all these cold days!

 

Don't Break the Ice is always a favorite

They like the game Fibber because of the glasses and noses even though Carter and Nora Kate don't really get the concept of this one yet!

As I mentioned, Dawson had a few dress up days for the One Book Blitz.  They partnered with a school in Texas for this, so one day they were supposed to wear their Western Wear!

Carter is an amazing counter!  And this is a favorite "game" lately too! 

Also, notice the mismatched pajamas...this is SO Carter.  He LOVES to wear his pajamas (all day if I will let him) AND not just any pajamas usually mismatched pajamas! 

These two are still in their pajamas but it was a dreary, cold morning and we needed to get out some energy so I stole an idea from Dawson's teacher and pulled up Go Noodle on the ipad.  Dawson's class uses this especially for indoor recess to get wiggles out...well it worked great with these two too!  You can tell they're mid-jump here following the instructions on the ipad!

John got to go to a special breakfast at Dawson's school just for Dads and their kids on (early) morning in January!  Dawson was SO, SO excited for John to go.  They had to be there at 7:10, but Dawson didn't have a problem getting up early at all because he was SOOO excited!  They sent me this selfie from the breakfast!

Nora Kate is REALLY into getting her nails painted these days.

Look at those sweet hands!

I was following these two up the steps and caught a sweet moment between them.  I had my phone in hand and was able to snap this quick picture.  Carter is always such a good helper.  Nora Kate was carrying a doll up the stairs, so he was helping his little sister...without being asked!

 

More snow pictures!

Dawson's tiny snowman he just had to make before it snowed very much at all.  We had more snow after this, but he was pretty proud of his little snowman!

While Nora Kate still doesn't like the cold weather, she is so much happier to play in the snow this year than last year!  It makes it a lot more fun for everyone. 

Dawson got two days off from school for snow mid-week, so we made the most of these rare snow days and played out in the snow A TON!  We also had to build a few fires and sit by them in our pajamas drinking hot chocolate!

The playset is even more fun in the snow!

And we made snow cream for dessert one evening!

Our driveway is always horrible in the snow!  John finally managed to get parked at the bottom of the driveway out of the road and walk up, but then the next morning the driveway was still covered.  Thankfully, Dawson likes to help shovel the snow!

One of my new favorite pictures of these three...they're so happy together.

Our house in the snow

Our house in the snow!

The boys REALLY wanted to walk down to the creek to see if it was frozen!  They threw a big stick in to try to break the ice!  They're such boys!

Then we had some more snow on the next weekend!  This was perfect because the roads were clear this time, but the kids and I got to enjoy the snow fun with John!  (and John was home to shovel the driveway so we weren't trapped at home!)

The following week Dawson's class celebrated 100 days of school! I went to volunteer for their party, and it was lots of fun!  Here's a creation they made with 100 cups!

His 100 Party hat!

The class secret pal came while we were out of the room doing 100 day activities, and the kids were SO excited!

They each "signed" the promethean board for 100 days!  Here's Dawson signing.

This makes me laugh every time I see it!  The kids put together an adobe voice thing on the ipad.  They used an app to make themselves look old (see the wrinkles, saggy cheeks, and gray hair?) and then told what they would be like when they're 100 years old...Dawson's said when he is 100 he won't be able to walk!

The boys have been doing amazing with their new chores for this year.  They each earn $4 a week for doing them and are so excited!  We have been encouraging them to spend a little bit of their money here and there.  It's fun to see what they pick with their money.  Carter was SO excited to buy this volcano kit with two weeks of his money!  It was really involved but he LOVED it!  Here we were making the mold.

The next day we painted the volcano.

And that evening we made it erupt orange lava.  Unfortunately this ended up being a little messy so I couldn't grab my camera for the final step, but Carter LOVED this entire "spear-mint", as he called the experiment!

Dawson's school had kindness week, and Dawson wanted to make a poster board to thank the cafeteria helpers.  Here is his poster which was hung in the cafeteria. I like his drawing at the bottom of the cafeteria!

We try to go eat lunch with Dawson at school 1 or 2 times a month.  Carter and Nora Kate ask to go every.single.week, but I want to make sure Dawson gets time with his school friends too.  They just love going to eat with big brother.  This particular day, Dawson didn't want us to get a picture with him while he was eating, but everyone loved it because we sat at the table with his whole class instead of a booth where visitors usually sit.  All three kids thought this was AWESOME!

They love the puzzles at the library!

Nora Kate has discovered a new favorite book series...Fancy Nancy!

Dawson had perfect attendance the first half of the school year, but in January he got a sinus infection he just couldn't shake.  I kept him home one day to take him to the doctor and let him rest.  He was so disappointed not to go to school, but when I told the kids they could all make "nests" with their beanbags, blankets, and pillows, and watch a little tv every (including Dawson which is SO RARE) laid down to watch tv.  Even though Dawson protested staying home, I knew if he was laying watching tv he must not be feeling great.  Thankfully his medicine and rest helped and he was feeling great in no time!