Bittersweet

Littlest’s first day at daycare went well.   She had a little bit of a hard time in the morning and she would only nap when being held.   Miss B said that for a first day, Littlest did wonderfully.   I had one tired girl on my hands when we got home, but she was in a good mood and well fed.  She even managed to get on her hands and knees all ready to crawl later in the evening.  Then she slept straight from about 8:30 pm to 5 am - bonus for Mommy!

Daddy sent me an email today that had this in it:
when I saw this it made me think of you and your daughter Littlest: that kid loves you!

Okay, I know health care costs are out of control, but this is absolutely ridiculous.  Littlest gets Synagis shots and is scheduled to get another as soon as possible.  She had one in the NICU before she was discharged and that was the end of the RSV season.   So now it’s a new season and she needs to start them again.  I got a financial disclosure from the specialty pharmacy to sign.  Get this - One dose, 28 day coverage…..once again get this $3840!  That is rounding up to the nearest dollar.  One dose that lasts 28 days! INSANELY EXPENSIVE!  Luckily we have met our deductible and out of pocket maximum so it’s covered, but otherwise our expense would be, after thedeductible, about $615. She will need a shot every 28 days until about April.   Unbelievable.  I’m just in shock!  I want her to have it and she needs the protection, but $3840!!!!!  BUT, in January we are starting over with the insurance, so it will be almost full price
……………………………………….(blogger fainted).

A little about Synagis taken from their website:

Synagis is the only FDA-approved medication to help protect high risk babies from severe RSV disease. Even though Synagis is given as a shot by your healthcare provider, it’s not a vaccine and it works differently. Each Synagis shot provides a dose of virus-fighting substances called antibodies that help prevent RSV from infecting your baby’s lungs   Preemies are often born before getting enough antibodies from their mothers to help fight RSV and other viruses. But preemies are also at greater risk for severe RSV disease because their lungs are less developed and their airways are narrower than those of full-term babies. Synagis helps preemies by providing more infection-fighting antibodies to help protect their vulnerable lungs from RSV.

I think we have the video that will keep Bug occupied if we absolutely need to.  “Happy Feet!”   We rented it this weekend and of course all the singing and dancing has her dancin’, singin’ and clapping.  Lots of “Ooooo’s” and “Whoas” too.  Even Littlest was kickin’ her feet to the music.  When we would pause it, she would say “Uh oh.”  If we stopped it, a fit would be thrown or she would keep pointing at the TV, grunting, and then more vigorous pointing.   I haven’t watched the whole thing, but I know there are some kinda scary spots to it.    Now we just have to get our own copy of the movie.

Littlest enters a new phase of her life today.   Her first day of “school” is today.   She is going to go to daycare for the first time to stay and not just visit.   Everyone has been asking when she is going to come and the day has arrived.  I have mixed feelings.  I still want to protect her, but yet I’m kinda excited to have her finally interact with other children.   Bug loves, loves, loves daycare and is very social.  Littlest is a little bit more reserved.   She will only be there about 5 hours and she will be in Miss B’s room.  I know she will get excellent care. 

Friday turned out to be a very, very good day.   Littlest had her NICU follow up appointment at Doernbecher.  It was at the unfortunate time of 8:15 a.m., but amazingly the traffic was light and we arrived half an hour early!  Enough time to get a venti nonfat Chai to keep Mommy going.   The appointment lasted about 2-1/2 hours.  During that time we first sw the OT/speech pathology team.   They asked what seemed like hundreds of questions, most of which I’m sure  an observant, non-sleep deprived, normal person could answer.  Fortunate for me, Littlest was on her “A “game and proceeded to show the team everything she could do and threw in a few new things too!   I was amazed.   They were so happy with her progress and reminded me how lucky I am that she is doing so very well having been such an extreme micro preemie.   After they left, we had some downtime and Littlest had a snack and had just fallen into a deep sleep when the doctor came in.  We had seen him the last week of Littlest’s DNCC stay.   He is a bit hard of hearing and definitely old school.  I think his doctor’s bag is probably older than you and I put together!  He was pleased with Littlest’s progress as well.   Her height and weight were great, she is now 15 pounds 4 oz!  At first Littlest was still half asleep and wouldn’t do anything for him.  Oh Great!   Now he will say she needs some sort of therapy…I could see it coming.  All of a sudden, Littlest woke up completely and got her performance on and outdid herself again.  The only thing we came away with was huge sense of relief and pride and a prescription for antibiotic for a little ear infection.  Go Littlest!!!   As an added bonus, they were giving away free pumpkins in the lobby, so we finally got pumpkins for our pumpkins!

Size-wise, Littlest is catching up with her sister, she is less than 10 pounds smaller and only about 3-1/2 inches shorter.   


Riding the new old doggie rocking toy we got at Goodwill

Oh yeah….the pimp hat.   We were in the dollar store and Daddy found this pink fuzzy pimp hat and plopped it on Bug’s head.  She had a grand time wearing it around the store, so we just bought it.  For a dollar, we have had more fun with that hat!  Bug is so funny with it.  She puts it on rather rakishly and starts strutting around.  Littlest and even the dogs have had it on. 

I’m sure we will have more pimp hat picture to share.

Some of you may have noticed I added a new button on my sidebar for Free Rice.  It has an addictive game that every time you get a correct answer, they supposedly donate 20 grains of rice to feed the hungry.  It has several different catagories like grammar, word meanings, art, math, and language.  I’m hooked.  I’ve probably fed a whole country already!   Try it out!

Also, don’t forget you can contact me by clicking on the “Contact Me” on the sidebar.  It creates an email to me - try it, you’ll like it! 

That’s booty as in pirate’s booty, not bootay!

Last night Daddy watched the girls and I went to Bingo Night with the local Pampered Chef, Stampin Up, Silpada, Creative Memories, and Arbonne demonstrators.  It was fun!   I never win, but I won a door prize (I chose the Pampered Chef mini serving spatula, Season’s Best cookbook, and the vegetable peeler), then another lady won the Arbonne bingo, but already had a bunch of the stuff, so she had the  demonstrator give it to someone else and she picked me!   It was a small makeup bag, lipstick case, a lipstick, and eye pencil.  I also did the card make and take.  There also were more samples (even baby samples) of Arbonne, catalogs (with ideas from Creative Memories), display tables with all of the products, and candy.  I had so much fun - it was a nice break.  I never win the bingos, but it’s that thrill of the game.  There were people there who were serious bingo players - they brought their bingo daubers even!

 

I made the mistake of calling home before I ran to the grocery store and that woke Bug up, so she was up and running around when I got home.  Littlest also was awake and crying and Daddy was pulling his hair out.  I went into mom mode while Daddy went to take care of his mom’s cat and such.  I got Littlest changed and asleep, picked up the house, made a cup of tea, helped change the bed, washed up Bug and helped her brush her teeth, we jumped into bed, read a few nursery rhymes, snuggled, and she was out!  Then it was a load of laundry to wash and a load to dry, get clothes and such ready for the girls for the next day, my stuff ready for the next day, take a picture of my booty and upload it, read a page in my book, checked on the girls and was in bed by 11 and laid awake for a while.   Whew!

Bug was funny when I picked her up from daycare.  They were outside playing.  She saw me and said, “Mommy!” and then ran away to play.  I let her play for a little bit, but then it was a job to lure her away so we could go home.  There is a sweet little boy who I want to be her boyfriend.  He has a head of golden curls, is so sweet because when Bug spills her cup or drops something, he picks it up or just takes care of her.  I got to watch him play for a bit…I’m starting to rethink the prearranged marriage part.  This boy likes to walk around or ride around with the bucket on his head.   Huh?!  The daycare ladies said they have two boys like that.   We will have to keep an eye on that behavior. 

Daddy’s mom hasn’t been feeling well lately and was put in the hospital.  They were going to do a minor surgery on her Monday and she wanted Daddy there.  The thing was, he couldn’t take Littlest into the hospital room.  What to do, what to do!    Vancouver Mom called Little Miss P’s Mom (check the sidebar to see link to her blog).  Arrangements were made and Daddy dropped off Littlest.   This is the first time Littlest has been watched by anyone other than immediate family.   I didn’t expect her to have any problems with it, but she did amazingly well.  Then again, I totally trust the Mom and had no worries about Littlest’s care.   Littlest got to go to school, deliver cookies and then have lunch there.  Of course she had Little Miss P there and  I’m sure that she enjoyed not having Bug grab and poke her, try to touch her eyelashes, and all those other tough love things Bug does. 

By the way, I need to manifest a double stroller…any ideas?

Life sucks.

*The “Dear Diary” is taken from Miss Tri-Met Bus Driver Lady*

I can’t you can, please help

Littlest has a new favorite thing to do.  She will do it for what seems like hours.  The other night Daddy apparently had Cops on and I kept hearing Littlest blowing raspberries.  I looked over and she was watching the TV rolling back and forth grabbing her feet and blowing raspberries.  Happy as a clam!

Silly girl!