Rachel

We had a request for pictures of Rachel. She doesn't have much of her father in her does she?








I've also included a video of her playing hide and seek. This seems to be her favorite game right now. So far you can always find her under the table.


She is doing great. Rachel just turn 3 a couple of weekends ago and seems to enjoy life right now. She is very sweet and usually is willing to give anyone a kiss or hug. She has her "green moments" with Tyler, but usually its things like talking jiberish and whinny towards us. She loves to play with her castle and princesses. How I got a girly girl is beyond me.

Heath Insurance, Bad for your Health!

The dark side of having a child with a lot of medical history is the inevitable insurance issues. Over all our insurance has been superb. Tyler is rather close to being a 3/4 of a million dollar baby and we haven't had to pay much at all in the grand scheme of things.

Today we get a call about a bill for the breast pump. Our insurance has denied claim to it because it was made out in Tyler's name and not mine. I now have to figure out how to get a new prescription for the pump in my name dated 8 months ago as well as a doctor's note on my condition for needing the pump. Anthem policies based in the state of New Hampshire wants the pump to be in the name of the child. While in California, Anthem wants the pump to be under the mother's name. Technically the provider and the doctor here filled out all the information correctly for the NH Anthem. We have Anthem based in California because that is where Ben works. The California Anthem is not happy about the paperwork and is refusing payment because it's not to their policy. I called California Anthem to try to figure out this problem and was rudely explained that this was my fault and they will not do anything until the claim is in my name. This is a case of too many standards for a industry that shouldn't be for profit in the first place. The providers and the doctors can not keep track of all the different procedures to file claims for all the insurance companies. In our case, it's hard to know what the procedure is for different state branches of the same insurance company. Another notch in my "The health insurance of this country needs major reform" stick.

The state medicaid program isn't much better either. They have graciously decided to back date and pay for claims up to August 17. What I now have to do is call every single provider and get a list of charges that I paid, match it up to my receipts, get doctor's approvals for all these past visits and send all this paperwork in separately to one lone lady who works only in reimbursements for the whole medicaid program for the state and wait close to a year before I get an answer. Another lesson, when a hospital say fill this paperwork out and get it in to start the process, listen. We waited primarily because Tyler went back in for surgery in August and then September and time was rather short.

Again in the grand scheme of life this is all minor inconviences. The worst part of it is the annoyance of dealing with it instead of other things.

Good Reports

This week we had some really fantastic visit with various Dr's. We saw the eye specialist and got a cool we will see you in April. The 4 or 5 actual eye MD's I've met have been not talkative. You get a few grunts, a few to the point questions, lights go out and flashlight stuck into your eye, then a time frame of when they want to see you again. Sometimes it's really hard to get the info out of them. After roping the assistant, things look good other than high eye pressures for Tyler. His mother has high pressures and most likely he will have routine eye torture all his life. He and I will have fun with it.

We also had our monthly visit with neonatalogy for his RSV and flu shots. Again they were amazed with his growth and development. Another cool thing they said was "He doesn't have that preemie look to him!" Having spent a lot of time in the ICN, we got to see a few graduates and meet with them. Some of these kids were small and very thin and looked "preemie". So it was a huge thing to hear he does have the preemie look! February we go up to Lebanon for the next monthly visit (we have been fortunate to be able to go to Manchester for most visits). The other great thing I heard was reassurance about his tummy time development. I brought up Tyler not pushing his head and chest up into that nice 90 degree angle and having difficulty putting weight on his arm. "That is a normal preemie problem and by the look of him sitting I'm not worried about it." was the response I got. They want him to put weight on his arm and to crawl, but it doesn't sound like they are concerned about Tyler's skill level at it yet.

MICE also paid Tyler a visit this past week. MICE works with his vision and comes in with Early Intervention. We see her once a month and the therapist was very excited with the progress Tyler has made. He is actively trying to draw the wondering eye into alignment on his own. He has even figured out some tricks on his own to help him. It is easier to bring your eyes in when you look at something at reading a book level. Tyler lifts his chin up to give his eyes the added advantage of this to help look at something that isn't at book level. She also said it looks like he is using both of his eye equally which is good. The biggest problem with wandering eyes is one eye will have weaker vision or could go blind if not treated early. If Tyler keeps working at it and we keep doing the exercises with him, he may not need a patch or glasses for as long or at all.

We also saw the pediatrician for a weight check. He is 14 pounds and 10 ounces! No wonder he doesn't look like a preemie. Again nothing but amazed with his progress. He is doing so well that we don't have to go back until the end of Feb for his 9 month wellness check. Hopefully I can cut down the number of pediatrician visits now. Seems like all they need to do is pass him around the office just to hold a baby. A very good problem to have.

Pheww!

Knock on some wood before you read any farther. So far this year is going much quieter than last. This time last year, Zoey has been in the doggie hospital twice and then was in for a week. Rachel and I were brewing up some pneumonia to which no doctor would treat. I realized I wasn't going to lose the the pregnancy before 3 months and better do something about it. And mostly, I can see dirt this year. By this time last year, we had 2 feet of snow on the ground. So, 2009 is already treating me better.

Tyler overall is just fine. He has the case of the grumps this week, but I think teeth are moving combine with the 1/2 year mental break down. A lot of kids will have a personality shift at their 1/2 years for development. Once that passes usually you see some break through s with their development.

Tyler hates to be on his tummy, a lot. So I'm having a hard time convincing him that he needs to be on his tummy without screaming and shooting his arm way out to the side. He still isn't really pushing up yet. He can hold his head up and move it side to side but he isn't using his arms to push up. So he hasn't started rolling over without the help of the couch incline. I'm starting to get very nervous that he doesn't do these things and then I have to remember he really is only 5 months old gestationally and has a lot of medical set backs to compromise the strength in his neck and upper body. I also have remember Rachel did not push up much either. She much rather sit and later learned to crawl from a seated position. Looks like Tyler has the same idea. He loves to sit and I can make him lean on his arms a little to build up the strength he needs there. Early Intervention still only comes out every other week. If he doesn't start making big progresses on pushing up onto his arms, I wonder if they will come out more often to help him and me.

Yet Tyler is excelling in other places, like sitting and able to support his weight on his feet. He will stand up if someone will keep his balance for him. He and Rachel love to play in the exersaucer. He sits in it watching her play with all the toys. They both usually are giggling their heads off. Tyler will also reach and grab a toy when he's on his back or in a seated position. A lot of toys he can manipulate how he wants it to go into his mouth. This child will be one that puts EVERYTHING in his mouth. Both hands will do this which is great. He is also doing really well eating cereal. He opens his mouth really big and his tongue doesn't push an excessive amounts out of his mouth. Usually I can't shovel it in fast enough. Last night I gave him a teething biscuit while I was eating dinner and it really cut down on his frustrated "I want some of that" sounds and moves.

It's funny, his next development appointment at DHMC is 2 1/2 months away and I'm already starting to get nervous about it. I know in my heart he is doing fine and coming along beautifully. I know the early roads we took didn't give him a good start. As I look at him I'm constantly amazed on what he has accomplished in 8 months of life that started so rocky. I know everyone will be very pleased at his accomplishments. I just scared that I'm missing something. I'm scared all the progress so far will be somehow undone. It's one of the most irrational purely emotional fears I have and logically I know it's silly, but emotions are not logical. I'm finding parenting is a lot of irrational fears and emotions. But it's also fun and amazing journey to watch them grow and learn.

So let 2009 be a quieter year with more triumph and as few set backs as possible. Let this year shine with two extremely happy and bright children. Let's face it, they are cute. I'm just along for the ride.

The last thing we need is a longer 2008 !?!?

The boys in France has decided that the earth is running slow in its annual slog around the sun. So now 2008 needs to be made one second longer by adding a leap second. [The official notice] How on earth they did not notice that we have had enough of 2008 is beyond me. Wouldn't it be just as easy to add a second to the beginning of 2009?

I don't think they make words to describe the kind of year that this has been (At least none that I would want my mother or grandmother to read). We have all been through the ringer in so many ways it is hard to know where to start. I have looked over this blog from time to time this past year. Every time I end up with the strangest feeling. The events behind the posts comes rushing back, as does the sinking feeling. It's a great way to remember where we have been and an important reminder of what we still have in front of us.

Tyler is doing great! He's is really starting to like the rice cereal. Sharron took his monthly "Penguin Picture" today and sure enough he's still growing like a weed!


Rachel giving Tyler a kiss.


Despite not liking 2008, I am reminded everyday that the events as awful as they were at the time developed into the kindest sweetest little boy. I may never want to do that again, but I also wouldn't trade Tyler in for anything.

Festive Holiday Photo Update

It has been a while since our last post. Overall things are going well. Tyler is doing GREAT! and growing like a weed. His eyes are tracking better every day and he's even tried rice cereal.

Between the ice storm and the holidays we've been running flat-out for a few weeks now. We were without power for 6 days and out of our house for 7, it took an extra night to re-start our house. As of Dec 23 PSNH still reports 2,000 homes without power.

I thought it was about time to do another gratuitous photo update so here goes.

This clip was taken the the morning after the ice storm. The sky is clear and what you see falling is the 1/4" of ice coming off the tree branches. Almost all the ice was off the trees by the afternoon, but the damage was already done.



On Christmas Eve Day Rachel and Dad went out to build a snow man and ended up building a "Snow Castle". It was quite a hit!



Christmas Eve we made cookies.



Christmas day was amazing Rachel knew what was going on this year and really got into it.



Tyler didn't have a clue what was going on, but really likes his Giraffe.







This was the year of the Penguin, Aunt Lys made Tyler his own stocking.



Rachel and I went out sledding after the Christmas festivities had wound down.
And the ever popular "Walking off into the sunset" pic.



Happy Holidays to all!

Lots of Ice.

We're now working on our fourth day with no power at home. The ice storm took out most of the region on Friday. New Hampshire had almost half a million customers without power at the peak of the outage.

We have been camping out at the compound. My grandmother has a generator so we have been able to keep Tyler warm and comfortable. We hope to have power back today, but the same could be said all weekend. PSNH (The local Utility) reports 138,000 homes still without power, with slow and steady progress. Once we get power back I expect it will take 6 to 12 hours to get the heat started again and then we have to clean up all the clothes and dishes used on our adventure.