Need ped, delayed vax, preschool/daycare, winter moving recs for Madison, WI

[binga]

It's official!  We are moving to Madison, WI at the end of December 2011.  Several questions for locals...

- I need a delayed vax friendly pediatrician, we will have standard UW family health coverage available to us.

- We need to find a place to rent a decent 2-3 bedroom in a family friendly neighborhood.

- Suggestions for good preschools/daycare.  My two girls will be 15 months and 3 yrs 3 months when we arrive. Montessori?  How is the Wharton school? Good in home daycare resource for organic food/ cloth diaper friendly spots?

- I'm from Virginia originally but we will be moving from New Jersey to WI in the middle of winter.  What do I need to do to get my girls prepared for the weather there?  Any suggestions on moving there in the winter?

Thanks ahead of time for any suggestions!!!

[binga]

Wrote that late at night...I meant Waldorf school!

[Amy@STL]

Hi there, 

Did you not get any replies???!!

I am moving to Madison July 5th and was going to post the same questions. Surprised to see no replies!

[binga]

Nothing here.  Check out Moms in Madison.  I posted the same there but only got a few replies... I think I asked too many questions at one time!  In any case let me know what you find out when you get there if you get a chance.

For peds the recommendations were:

Wildwood family clinic. We use Dr. Middlefort, but I would recommend any
doctor there!

http://www.wildwoodclinic.com/

and

Dr. Sarah Kreckman at 20 S. Park Street. Though she might still be on
maternity leave at this point, she might be back by December.. She is vax
delay friendly, but some of the nurses are not

For day care:

Honeybees does organic/natural parenting stuff. Small class (8 kids) and
mixed ages. That's where my daughter goes, but I have no idea what kind of
openings they have:

http://denisemirkinhoneybees.com/default.aspx
 

[Amy@STL]

Thank you! That's surprising that mamas here don't respond.

I will start with your suggestions.


Again thanks!

[Monzie]

Very late with this reply but I have a little info for you two...

Many Madison doctors are open to delayed/selective vaxing. The crunchy parent community here is pretty large and enough families follow the Sears vax schedule that the clinic we use (UW Health Odana Atrium) has it already set up in their system. We see Greta Kuphal at that clinic. She's a family med doctor, not a pediatrician, but she's really great with babies and so are all of the nurses we've dealt with there. And it's an "Integrative Medicine" clinic, so they are very supportive of alternative therapies. Wildwood Clinic, which you mentioned above, is also great but may not be covered by your insurance. We have Unity HMO and can't go to Wildwood.

I don't have any first-hand experience with the Montessori and Waldorf schools in Madison because my 3 year old has special needs.  You might try contacting Lea Wolf, one of the owners of "Happy Bambino"...the natural parenting store in the east side. Her daughter attends The Madison School (which is the Waldorf school on the far west side of town) and I know she likes it a lot. She's a great resource for many things AP in Madison and her store offers a bunch of classes and events that you might find helpful. It's also a wonderful place to buy natural toys, clothes, cloth diapers, and babywearing and breastfeeding supplies.

As for adapting to winter, I'm not sure what to tell you. I grew up 300 miles north of here so I consider the weather to be pretty mild down here in Wisconsin's "Banana Belt"...