It worked!

The Littlest Tackett has a future in gymnastics. She/he successfully flipped and is now comfortably head down. More details soon...

Batting average

Dr. Bathgate, who will perform the version, says we have a greater than 50% chance that the procedure will be successful. The chief resident, whose "batting average" is around 30%, says Dr. Bathgate is the best is the DC-metro region. Batter up....

Still breech

We just met with our doctor, who did a sonogram, and the Littlest Tackett is still breech. The version will begin shortly. We're all feeling great!

Independent Thinker

I had a 35 week doctor's appointment yesterday (we're a week off of the "typical schedule") and found out that Maya is not the only Tackett child trying to exert his/her independence. The Littlest Tackett is breech. For some reason, the evolutionary/biological factors that convince 97% of babies to turn upside down in preparation for delivery don't seem to matter that much to the Littlest Tackett (which Larkin swears is proof that this baby is taking after his/her Grandpaji, Gene.)

In the big scheme of things, this isn't that big of deal. The baby is healthy, I'm healthy. And those factors won't change. Finding out that the baby is breech just adds another wrinkle to our plans. We've decided to have our OB perform an external version next Friday, April 30th. In this procedure, which will happen in the hospital and should take a couple of hours, the OB is going to try and physically "convince" the Littlest Tackett to turn. There is about a 60% chance that it will work. In the meantime, my OB referred me to the GW Center for Integrative Medicine, where I underwent acupuncture and an incense treatment yesterday. I figured I might as well as try all avenues....

There is a very small chance that something could go wrong next Friday and that I'll end up having an emergency c-section right then and there. Neither Larkin nor I are prepared for the fact that the Littlest Tackett may arrive next week, but we will be by next Friday. It is a small risk, but one that we need to at least prepare for. Luckily, Chelsea and a group of my dearest friends from UVA are already planning to be here next weekend, so IF the baby arrives, we'll have plenty of help, visitors, etc. to tide us over until Mom and Dad arrive.

Most likely, though, the baby will flip, and I'll be able to have a regular delivery when the Littlest Tackett is ready to come out. In the case that the version doesn't work (or that the baby flips back over - which is entirely possible if this baby inherits any of my stubborn Klingler genes), we'll schedule a c-section at some point in May (we do have the option of trying a breech delivery but I don't think I want to risk it). Although I don't want a c-section due to the recovery period, being able to plan when this baby arrives does provide a bright spot in the whole thing.

And, of course, there is the possibility that in spite of all that I'm trying over the next 10 days or so, the baby will wait and flip whenever he/she decides to... in which case, I will be certain that the baby is mine!

St. Louis and DC in the Springtime

Sorry for the delay in posting pictures over the last couple of weeks. Somehow we have gotten to the end of April - not sure how that occurred! We started off the month with a fabulous weekend in St. Louis with all the Klinglers. It was an early celebration of dad's 70th birthday. We had perfect weather, lots of great food, wonderful conversations, and Maya - as usual - had the time of her life with her cousins. Thanks for hosting us, Kathy and Doug!

Friday night was dinner at Aunt Katherine's house with cupcakes for Papa's birthday.

Saturday we went to the Magic House, an incredible children's museum, had lunch with Becky and Mac, and then took pictures back at Aunt Katherine's.


Afterwards, we went to a dinner out - thankfully, we had a semi-private room! Jackson and Maya's special bond continues to grow....


As does Maya's love for ice cream.

Sunday, we celebrated Easter with a fabulous brunch. Maya wasn't too sure about the Easter bunny...

But she had no problem grabbing an Easter basket and going through it with Ali and Frankie!
Mom and Dad came up to DC the following to enjoy the spring weather and the cherry blossoms. We had a wonderful picnic on the mall with the Savios on Saturday.

(Not sure why Maya was sitting on the path at that point... apparently, we were boring her!)

On Sunday, Mom and I went to Itsy-Bitsy Yoga with Maya after a wonderful brunch with everyone.

This past weekend, we went to Charlottesville so Larkin could run his 11th marathon (where he set his PR.) We had a great time visiting my friends from school on our road trip, eating Take it Away by the Rotunda, cheering on Larkin after eating Bodo's - a wonderful trip. (We have no pictures as we are horrible with the camera.) Wendy comes this weekend for a visit - we are looking forward to hosting her.

I'm at 35 weeks; crazy to think that at some point in the next 3 - 6 weeks, we will become a family of 4. We are getting really excited about meeting the Littlest Tackett (and I'm getting really excited about not being pregnant anymore!)