Meo's first dentist appointment (age 2 and a half)

At 2.5, Meo finally had his first dentist appointment. We had tried to take him when he was 1.5, but when we got to the appointment we realized Meo wasn't on our dental insurance yet so we had to wait until he was added during open enrollment. Then I made one after open enrollment but had to reschedule because he wouldn't technically be added for another month. Then I had to reschedule AGAIN because he threw up all over my bed a half hour before his appointment and ended up being sick all day. So, we had been looking forward to this appointment for a year.

This dentist office is awesome (Southern Maine Pediatric Dentistry). They have the coolest waiting room I have ever been in. It's bright and colorful, full of toys, puzzles, books, video games, and cartoons.  There is even a big fake tree with a bench all around it to sit on. The actual check-up rooms are fabulous too. Meo's room was full of colorful butterflies: on the walls, and even on the ceiling tiles. There was lots of toys to entertain him, and they had a tv on the ceiling for him to be distracted while the took care of his teeth.

Meo's dental hygienist was wonderful. She was so sweet and nice to talk to and she was fantastic with Meo. She knew just what to say to help him feel relaxed and have fun. She even got down and played with him while he slid rubber ducks down the exam chair while waiting for the dentist.

Mattimeo did so great during his appointment. Even thought he was hungry and it was nap time, he was extremely cooperative. The hygienist was easily able to check each of his teeth and clean them thoroughly. She even let her floss his teeth. He was great for the dentist too while she examined his teeth thoroughly. We are proud to say that Meo has almost perfect teeth! He had super hard, beautiful enamel and almost non-existent tarter. They said that our regular brushing habits have paid off and he has beautiful, healthy teeth. We are so happy!

In case you were wondering about our twice daily routine, this is it:

Morning- have him lay with his head in our lap and thouroughly brush using Weleeda (fluoride free natural toothpaste). Then wipe his teeth, gums and tongue with a homemade xylitol rinse (see recipe here: http://ouvrezvosyeuxjdr.blogspot.com/2012/11/xylitol-rinse-for-you-and-baby.html). 

Night-  have him lay with his head in our lap and thoroughly brush using Tom's of Maine  (fluoride natural toothpaste). Then wipe his teeth, gums and tongue with a homemade xylitol rinse.

After today's appointment, we have also started flossing his teeth. The dentist said he has good spacing in between his teeth so flossing isn't necessary, but it is good to get in the habit if we want.

Teeth Brushing for Meo

brushing our teeth!

For someone who has never had a cavity in her whole life, dental hygiene is very important to me. So when I was at the dentist office last, I asked my dentist how I should care for Meo's teeth (at that time he didn't have any). He said that we should wipe his teeth and gums after meals with xylitol wipes. Xylitol is a sugar naturally occurring in birch trees as well as other plants. The cool thing about this sugar is that it consists of a five-carbon ring that plaque-causing bacteria cannot digest. Thus, xylitol aids in preventing cavities. Unlike other sugars, xylitol doesn't elevate blood sugar like other sugars, so it is healthy for babies to ingest. 

Once Meo's first tooth appeared, we bought some xylitol wipes. We decided to go with the Spiffies brand. They come in yummy flavors; Meo really likes the apple flavored ones. My dentist said you can just make your own with gauze and xylitol (you can buy it at some health food stores in solid form); perhaps we will try that in the future. We also got him a little Green Sprouts tooth brush, which has a silicon ring near the brush so that he can't jam the toothbrush into his throat.

We now have a daily tooth care routine. In the morning, after breakfast, Meo and I go in the bathroom and brush our teeth together. First I wipe his teeth and gums down with the xylitol wipe, then we both get out our tooth brushes and brush our teeth (I don't give him toothpaste). He loves this! He likes to stand in front of the mirror like I do and watch himself, he's so cute.

Meo brushing his teeth in the mirror

Meo brushing his teeth in the mirror

When we are done brushing, I used to just take the toothbrush away, but that would make him cry because he loves it so much. So instead, I hold him on my hip in front of the sink, then take the toothbrush and tell him about how I am rinsing it off and putting it away for next time with Mommy and Daddy's toothbrushes. This gives him some closure and works like a charm.

At night, after Meo takes his bath, Robbie does the same sort of routine. He wipes down his mouth with the xylitol wipes then lets him have his toothbrush. Hopefully we are instilling good habits early and protecting his teeth so they will grow strong and healthy!

Birthday and the Dentist and Influenza and More!

I have had a busy past few weeks and unfortunately haven't had a chance to write about it until now. So please bear with me as I go through some highlights of the last several weeks!

On Saturday March 5th, my birthday celebrations started early with a little get together at Dad and Sue's with Brian, Nicole, Bryce and Sam.My birthday isn't actually until March 13th and Sam's isn't until March 14th, but Robbie and I were going to be out of town that weekend so they wanted to celebrate early. Sue made some yummy eggplant Parmesan and after opening presents and watching a movie we had some yummy birthday cake (angel food cake with a cool-whip-like frosting topped with fruit; I don't like sweet cakes). Dad and Sue were very generous and bought me lots of much needed maternity clothes. I got a few bottoms and several tops including a green sweatshirt which was much needed because all my regular sweatshirts have become belly shirts and aren't particularly comfortable anymore!

19 weeks wearing a new birthday outfit

19 weeks wearing a new birthday outfit

19 weeks wearing a new birthday outfit, glad to not look terribly pregnant from behind!

That Monday I had my regular six month cleaning at the dentist. Getting your teeth cleaned while you are pregnant is a pretty important thing; pregnancy and it's associated hormones can do awful things to your teeth! My dentist has a new test where they take rub a swab around my teeth and gums and put it into an instrument to determine my susceptibility to getting cavities. The instrument spits out a number, and if that number is greater than 1500, you are at high risk for cavities. Thankfully my number war really low (in the 300's) and the dentist said my teeth look great. It felt good to have them cleaned and polished, hopefully I can keep them healthy!

Later that week (my 20th week of pregnancy), Mom took me shopping for some more maternity clothes. This time we stuck with more spring/summery things like tee-shirts and shorts since spring is fast approaching. I am really excited about all the outfits I have now, and I don't think I'll have to buy anything for myself for the remainder of my pregnancy besides maybe a sundress or two this summer. I have been so lucky to have my family get so much clothing for me, it has saved us lots of money and we really appreciate it!

On my birthday weekend, Thursday 3/10 - Monday 3/14, Robbie and I went on a little trip paid for by his work (IDEXX). Robbie had signed up for a Java conference for that weekend just outside of Boston, and since it was my birthday, IDEXX agreed to pay for my room and board as well, and allow us to stay a couple of extra nights in a hotel of our choosing. For convenience, and because the hotel looked really fancy, we decided to stay where the conference was being held (which was in Danvers). Robbie really enjoyed his conference and I enjoyed room-service, swimming (they had a sweet pool with a lane dedicated for lap swimming), and exploring around Danvers. Friday was a really rainy day and I decided to venture to Salem. I had never been there before and it was only 20 minutes away so I thought it was a good opportunity. There wasn't much open, but it was cool to walk around the little city in the rain. I went to the Salem Witch Museum and learned about the Salem witch trials and history of witches which was pretty interesting. I also stumbled upon this cool bookstore where all new books were 50% off. Apparently the guy who owns it buys books from big book stores that are going out of business and sells the books at a huge discount. He says he makes a lot more money selling the books for cheap. I was pretty excited because the books were even cheaper than they are on amazon so I got a few New England classic children books for Mattimeo: Blueberries for Sal, Make Way for Ducklings, and One Morning in Maine. Robbie had never read these books, so we took turns reading them to each other that night. On Saturday, Robbie got out of his conference a little early and we headed down to Boston to visit his sister, Jess. We went to her studio at Mass Art to check out her latest prints and paintings and had yummy home-made Thai food at her apartment for dinner. We also got to see our friend Ryan for a bit which was nice. On Sunday, which was my actual birthday, Robbie was away at his conference for most of the day. I decided that I wanted to spend sometime outdoors and ended up at Bradley Palmer State Park. It was beautiful there! It has miles upon miles of trails, and since I had never been there before I just picked a direction and walked until I got tired. There was lots of horse tracks and dung on the trails which made me miss horseback riding so much! It was wonderful to have some quiet time in the woods to think about the past year, the year to come, and finally just to revel in the peaceful, bird-song filled present. Usually I am afraid to be alone on my birthday, but this time, it felt like it was exactly what I needed to do. I suppose technically I wasn't alone, since I was carrying little Meo around in my belly! When Robbie got back to the hotel, we went out to dinner at this amazing, romantically quaint Italian restaurant called I Pazzi. I had the best meal there! We shared capresse (Fresh homemade mozzarella cheese served in combination with fresh sliced organic red and yellow tomatoes and a touch of roasted red peppers, Greek Kalamata olives and basil) for an appetizer, and I had an arugula salad (Organic baby arugula mixed with sliced heart of pal, fresh strawberries, crumbled Gorgonzola cheese and toasted pine nuts with extra virgin olive oil and aged red balsamic vinegar) with my delicious four cheese ravioli (Fresh Ravioli served in a light cream sauce and Parmesan cheese). Robbie had linguine alla puttanesca (Linguine pasta sautéed with black Kalamata olives, gourmet capers, olive oil, garlic, and fresh basil, in tomato sauce). I cannot rave about this meal enough, I think it was the best birthday meal I've ever had!

Robbie watching tv in our room at the Crowne Plaza

The rest of our hotel room

The bookstore I went to in Salem

My new maternity bathing suit

I wish I could wear maternity clothes forever, this bathing suit was so comfortable

Buffet breakfast

Bradley Palmer State Park

Bradley Palmer State Park

Bradley Palmer State Park

Bradley Palmer State Park

Last week, at 21 weeks pregnant, I reached a new milestone: the need to buy new bras. My other bras had finally gotten too tight and were leaving red lines around my torso. As I am planning on breastfeeding, its really important for me to to take excellent care of my breasts, so I decided to get more suitable bras. With lots of help finding a decent size from the fitting lady, I finally settled for a deliciously comfortable 100% cotton, wireless bra from Victoria's Secret. Hooray for happy boobs!

This weekend was quite event filled as well. First of all, on Wednesday and Thursday I did a lot more dog walking than I usually do because I needed to cover for the West end in addition to my usual East end pack. Luckily Sam was there to help me in the rain on Wednesday, and Mom helped me on Thursday. Unfortunately by the end of the day Thursday my back and abdomen was killing me from walking (stress on my ligaments) and I managed to slip on the one patch of ice I walked on all day. I called the midwife when I got home and she told me that I should be okay. She told me to drink lots of fluid and take Tylenol, and to call back if I started bleeding, had intense pain, or had cramps like menstrual cramps. Luckily I didn't have any pain from the fall and I felt the baby kicking so I knew he was okay.

I ended up going to yoga class that night because I felt fine. Unfortunately someone who had been out for the past 3 weeks with ammonia caused by a virus showed up coughing, and I may have caught her virus. That night my whole body was in pain and I tossed and turned and was dripping in sweat until about 6 am when Robbie got up and got me some Tylenol and I finally managed to get some sleep. By 10 the next morning I tried to get out of bed, but I was in so much pain all over my body and completely freezing.Just walking to the kitchen to try to find something to eat caused me so much discomfort that I started crying. I decided to call my midwife and she told me that I probably had influenza and that I needed to stay in bed. She told me to drink tons of fluids, to take Tylenol, and to not walk any dogs for the next several days. She also told me I should call Robbie to come home and help me since I couldn't get up to make myself food, and needed to be taken care of. So I got people to cover for me at work, and got Robbie to come to my rescue and work from home. The midwife told me to call or go to the ER if I started coughing or felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest. We also knew that I needed to go to the ER if my temperature got above 100.4. I'm not sure I've ever felt so sick, I was so uncomfortable, tired, achy and shifting between sweating profusely to shivering all day. At one point my fever got up to 101, but Robbie made me take a "luke warm" bath (he said it was warm, but to me it felt very cold) with Epsom salts (for my soreness) and that fortunately brought my temperature down to 100.3. Apparently a temperature above 100.4 starts to break down the babies proteins and is really dangerous, so I'm glad that bath worked so effectively. From that point on, though I still was sick, I started improving.

By Sunday I was completely back to my old self. Today I still didn't walk dogs even though I feel great because it snowed all day and I didn't want to chance a relapse from being out in the cold for a long time. I am so glad that my case of influenza passed so swiftly. I am sure I would still be sick if Robbie hadn't taken such good care of me, and I didn't have the loving company of my boys!

Pi brought me one of his monkeys

Theta laying beside me