Doctor's Visit today...

With an actual doctor. Not a midwife. I am very glad I chose to go with the midwives. I don't think they're as... panicky.

Yesterday I called in because I had some more than usual weird swelling, and the nurse line just moved my appointment to this morning instead of Friday. I was fine with that. But then... I was with Dr. So-&-So and she got all excited. My blood pressure was higher than mine normally is, but still in the normal range on the charts. The baby's heartrate was a bit lower than his normally is, but also still in the normal range on the charts. And I had a very slight headache, which I am sure was just a coincidence.

That's it. And then crazy Doctor insisted I needed blood tests, another pee test (in case my first one wasn't good enough? I don't know.) and made me another appointment for Monday. Great. Exactly what I need with my insurance problems. My biggest beef is that hse put me on "bed rest" until my visit Monday... I have too much stuff to do! I'm pretty sure my midwife wouldn't have cared half as much about those things. Stupid doctor. How am I supposed to get my house cleaned?

Also...

My to-do list hasn't gotten much shorter, but I did:

-Find a nursing bra. Trust me, its a beaut.
-Launder Babyzilla's clothes and sheets.
-Organize Babyzilla's room.
-Cut glass for the table inlay.
-Receive a vacuum cleaner. (Thanks O&O! It works great!)
-Change the oil in my car.

I still need to:
-Figure out exactly the baby's insurance. I've got a good idea, but I still need more research.
-Set up my internet. I don't know whether I should buy the expensive stuff or try to hold out longer.
-Contact my parent's cable guy. He still hasn't gotten back to me, and I think I lost his number.
-Install the carseat. I TRIED! Honestly, I did. The problem is that the carseat does not fit in my car. Oops. I'll have to find a way to remedy that.
-Start stocking meals in the freezer for when BZ comes.
-Get all of Jared's stupid laundry washed, sorted, and hopefully give away some of it. This is more of a thing that I have to bug him about, than something I have to do. He has TONS of clothes. Most of them happen to be in a big heap on the floor.
-Reorganize the bathroom so that I can put away all of my shampoos, lotions, etc.
-Install the childproof locks.
-Install the curtains and wall stickies.

There is more, but right now those are my priorities. Feel free to do any/all of them for me.

I may not be in debt after all.

I finally may ahve figured out a solution to all of my insurance problems. Minnesota's medical assistance will most likely come through for me and pay for all of my expenses, but it probably won't come through until after the delivery. This means I might have to foot the bills until then, but I'm not exactly sure. I've got a meeting with a person frmo my hospital on Friday to see how long we can get my bills to be put on hold for. Things will work out somehow, I'm sure of that much, I just don't know the details yet.

That doesn't mean that I'm done with the U, though. They caused me a lot of work and worry so I want to make sure that something gets done to rectify the situation. I'm still meeting with student conflict resolutions just so I can at least get a formal complaint into the system, and then maybe later down the road another girl can be helped out by all of my efforts. I've gone back and forth between a lot of different feelings, and it was a horrible thing to go through. I even had Jared and my family to help me - I can't imagine what it'd be like if I were trying to do this alone. Something has got to change.

At first I was just pissed, because the mistake of one office worker could have potentially cost me thousands and thousands of dollars. It still might. I blamed her for being stupid and leading me astray. I still feel kind of stupid myself for taking her word so easily and assuming that everything would work out so smoothly. I know there was no way I could have known that what she told me was incorrect, but its an easy thing to "what-if."

After getting over being pissed, I started to worry about how we'd be able to pay even though I knew our families would come through to help us... Its just a horrible feeling to feel like you can't afford to get yourself medical care, and it was even worse to think that the baby wouldn't have any coverage either. Just sitting and waiting for every insurance worker to get back to me and being sent from office to office was exhausting... It was incredibly hard to lay my case out in front of everyone and then listen to them all reject me. By virtue of sitting in their offices begging for help, I felt like I was some sort of low class trash or something. I could tell most people that I met with didn't think I was worth their time, and that hurts no matter who you are.

Even after I started finding ways to get financial assistance, I still wasn't happy. I felt like I should ahve been happy and relieved but I wasn't really. I was upset about being on the charity end of Catholic Charities after being on the donating end my whole life. I was even scared about switching doctors and hospitals, even though I knew it shouldn't be a big deal. I'm glad that I'm probably going to be able to stay with my provider, but I'm still pretty bitter that the university did this to me.

BUT anyway... Other news.

I've gotten a lot of work done at the apartment. My friend Jess came to visit me for the shower/brunch and then stayed to help me rearrange things. We've got the baby's room almost all finished, it just needs the curtains hung and the wall decals stickied into place. All of the baby laundry is fianlly done. We got a few boxes unpacked and organized some of the space I was currently using. It actually looks a little worse in smoe areas, but its actually a lot better. My table is actually a table again, because I got the glass panes to lay into it. As soon as I pick up the little odds and ends, throw out the garbage bags, and donate the donatey stuff to Goodwill it will be great.

None of that will be done today, though, because I'm tired. For the last two days my hands and feet have been swollen even from the moment I wake up. After chasing down insurance people and working so hard in the apartment, I am taking a break.

Insurance people, guess what? I still think you're stupid.

As you can see, the insurance people really have gotten me nowhere. I'm tired of arguing with people, and its hard to feel good about your negotiation skills when you're asking for a box of tissues, tears dropping onto their fountain pens & paper weights (which may or may not have cost more than my next doctor visit bill). It looks like right now there isn't much I can do... The university insurance policy just looks like it has too many things in place that are going against me right now. In order to get some coverage, I applied for health care from the state but I'm not sure whether or not I will qualify as I may not have been a Minnesota resident for their specified amount of time. My other option is to hope he decides to come out tomorrow... Then my current insurance will end up having to foot the bill anyway! Ha. So.... fingers are crossed that he decides tomorrow is a good day to be born.

Outside of health insurance problems, everything else has been pretty interesting as well. My sister's house was involved in the Minneapolis tornado debacle and her big tree kindly decided to fall on her house (and her neigbor's) and knock out her power.

(I can't but help to mention that although Christa's cable was turned back on today, she only gets one channel. I'm watching it now and its showing "Ruleta de Suerta" aka Wheel of Fortune in spanish. It is much more challenging than its english counterpart.)

My niece Josie got moved from the Children's hospital to teh regular hospital because she is doing well.

I visited my oldest sister in Winona on Wednesday. I had a nice time not sitting around thinking about baby/insurance related things, and I figure that I don't know when I'll get a chance to see her again. Mom & I took her kids school supply shopping and got stuck in the tornado warnings. Target ushered us all into the Men's department to ride out the storm warning. It was pretty ridiculous and I found the whole situation laughable but... Its not like you can disobey the loudspeaker with 3 small children in tow. Because, you know... your'e supposed to do the right thing around children and set good examples... or... something like that. I think? I'll work on figuring that one out. :)

On Sunday I'm going out to brunch with my sister and maybe a couple of others for my pseudo shower. It'll be nice to get out, and it will be even better to eat AS MUCH AS I WANT.

Jared is back at work so I'm kicking around the apartment doing little "chores" so that it seems like I'm doing work without actually doing the important work that I'm dreading. (Like unpacking my last boxes. For some reason that seems like the end of the world chore right now.) Feel free to call or offer me entertainment.

Stupid Insurance People.

Well.. insurance people are stupid. I don't raelly have much more to say than that except that I think the person I spoke with last semester was unclear of how their operations work. There isn't anything I can do to fix it until Monday anyway, though, so I'll not worry about it until then.

Other than that.... I haven't gotten really anything done. Its too hot. I'm too lazy/tired. I have boxes to unpack but I don't know where to put the stuff. I get up and move two or three things around and then I am too sweaty and tired and I give up. I feel pretty lame.

The doctor's visit yesterday was pretty boring. She did the strep test but I won't get results of that until my next visit which is Thursday. Also I'm slightly dilated, but that means absolutely nothing so its not anything to get excited about. If it changes at my next visit, then maybe I'll think about getting excited. Maybe. The last thing I want to do is get excited that he is going to come out soon and then have to wait and wait and wait... So I'll still continue to assume he is going to wait until Sept 25th - the last possible day he could come. Then I'll be pleasantly suprised at how comparatively "early" he will come.

Not much going on. Too hot. No A/C. Feel free to call me fi you want to entertain me.

Lucy the dog crushes my legs while I post.

I'm back at my sister's house for a time, so I thought I'd use her internet to update you all on my riveting life. 

My sister was discharged from the hospital yesterday and is doing well. She can't drive yet, though, so I'm going to hang out with her today in hopes that she'll get some stuff done. Josie is doing well - they took out her vent and a lot of the lines that were going into her, so now she is able to start feedings. She can't quite suck/swallow yet, so she's being fed through a tube but its still a big step forward. I got to visit her and touch her on Tuesday. She's super soft and super small. I was kind of scared to touch her, but thinking back on how the nurses handled her I was probably scared for no reason. She is tougher than she looks. Josie is overall in a lot better shape than most of the other babies there, and she looks a lot more human. I was scared that she'd look monkey-ish, but she is pretty cute for how skinny and covered in medical wires, bracelets, baby singlasses etc she is. If Elisa says its okay, I'll try to post a picture of her for you. I think tahts one of Elisa's to-do list items today, anyway.

This morning Jared's phone arrived in the mail so I can relax a bit about getting in touch with him should I need to. I don't have the number quite yet, but for those of you out there who want it feel free to call/email and I'll get it to you.

Tomorrow will be a busy day for me. In the morning I've got a doctor's appointment, and then I hope to get my correct insurance forms to fill out so they don't discontinue my coverage. I went yesterday, but the girl in the office didn't know what I was talking about so I decided I'll go back tomorrow when the regular person will be back. I've yet to figure out what exactly needs to be done for the baby's insurance, much less which insurance policy he is going to be put under. I've always had problems understanding/figuring out insurance so its actually a rather daunting task to me. I'm  just going to power through it and tell myself that the relief I'll feel after getting things figured out will outweigh the suckiness of talking to representatives and being put on hold. Maybe my dad can help me figure  some of it out.

After my appointment and the insurance company visit, I'm going to meet Jared's father & grandparents at the airport. They're flying in for our defunct little shower. I'm glad they're coming to visit because Jared is always glad to see people from back in FL. He was a bit bummed that he couldn't make it home this summer, so its nice when home comes to him. (Plus, you know, I also like them. Most of the time. :) j/k! ) 

Just so that y'all can hound me about getting onto my chores, I'm going to post my to-do list here. Writing things down gives them more power, right? I hope so. If you want to help me out, feel free to pick any task and have at it. I'm not above asking for help!

To Do:

- Figure out whose insurance the baby will go under.

- Find another nursing bra, no matter how hideous it may be and how many I must try on.

- Set up internet.

- See if my parents' cable will work at my place.

- Launder all of Babyzilla's clothes, sheets, etc.

- Install the carseat.

- Start stocking some meals in the freezer.

- Organize Babyzilla's room.

- Reorganize my cupboards/pantry.

- Cut glass for my table insets.

- Buy a vacuum cleaner.

- Change the oil in my car, and wash & vacuum it if its lucky.

- Go to a laundromat to get all of our laundry done and put away.

Thats all I can think of for now, but I know there is more.

Busy week(s) news.

I know I've been gone a long time, so sue me. I'm back now, at least for today.

Things have been pretty busy - some is good busy, some is bad busy but overall things are good.

I'll start with the bad news first and then move on to the good news, otherwise people might be tempted to skip out on this post as soon as the good is over. I'll go in chronological order.

My friend Robbi's son was hit by a car and suffered some pretty severe injuries. They replaced part of his skull with mesh because his brain was swelling so much, and he's been intentionally kept in a coma since then. They're working on waking him up, but its a slow process and they don't know exactly what will be in store for Ian when he does wake up. This has been hard for me, but I've been thinking good thoughts for them because they are good, kind people and I know that good is going to come back to them somehow. Even though he is only 7 (I think) he has the best chance of any kid I know at beating this thing. Ian has an awesome older brother who will lovingly take care of him, and Ian's parents will fight to give Ian everything he needs to recover quickly. So, if you read this - keep Robbi, Ian & her family in your thoughts or prayers or whatever your beliefs are.

Also this week, I found an old yellow lab limping around in the street outside my house. I felt so sad for that dog, but also I was scared to go near her lest she be infected with rabies or something and bite me. My kind neighbors called the dog out of the street and gave her water, and since hse seemed nice enough I brought over the dog food my parents had in the car for Bentley and gave her a nice scratch. We called the humane society and found somebody to come pick her up, but for some reason I keep thinking about her and wondering if she is OK. I had nightmares about her last night. I know its just a dog and that it doesn't matter, but I just can't get her out of my head.

Last, but not least, my sister Elisa was checked into the hospital because her water broke and she was only 29 weeks along. But...

That actually sort of belongs in the good news section, because this morning the baby was delivered via cesarean section, and all things considered, seems to be doing well. Her name is Josephine Evelyn, and she weighs a whopping 2 pounds and 4 ounces and is about 14 inches long. She'll probably be in NICU for 6 weeks or so (I think) so we have some time to get her home ready for her.

More good news:

Jared's friend Rob came to visit, and we had a good time doing mostly stupid things. It was nice to take a break from doing boring house stuff, and Jared enjoyed seeing his best friend from back home.

Jared will have a cell phone as soon as he fixes a minor problem with his order. It will make me feel a lot better knowing that I can get in touch with him should I go in to the hospital or anything like that.

I've been feeling pretty well lately, aside from the usual sleepy and round-ness feelings. The CNM has me going in every week now, so between helping out my sister, getting things ready for Babyzilla, and running to my appointments I'll be busy. Better busy than bored though, right?

I feel like I have a lot more to post but at the moment nothing is coming to mind. I'm at my sister's house, so I'm going to use her shower while I can. For some mysterious reason, our apartment's shower no longer gets any cold water so we're waiting for that to be fixed now. Christa's shower is nicer anyway, so I'll think of this as a mini vacation from my own death trap tub.

If you're dying for more details of my life, well.. you'll have to call me, because I don't know when I'll get back to posting regularly!