Thursday, March 22, 2012

sneakily

This is stolen time. I should be sleeping. Titus woke up at 5 am for a feed and I just put him back down. I have not slept more than 6 hours total in one night for a couple of weeks, yet the desire for a little alone time trumps the need for sleep on occasion.  We have been dealing with what they call the 4 month sleep regression.

Its a quiet Spring morning but you wouldn't know it. There are a couple of inches of snow outside. It will turn into slush just in time for the morning commute. We had no snow to speak of this past winter but now in March these mornings of unseasonable snow.

It was a year ago today that my husband and I discovered that I was pregnant. At that time, we had a house full of foster girls. A sibling group of 3. All 3 of those girls had special needs, including medical issues. The year went by in a blur of extreme fatigue and doctors appointments. I had a sort of complicated pregnancy. I would be pleased to never see the inside of a doctor's office again. That is not to be. Titus has a surgery coming up in June. To correct his hypospadias with chordee, which is a birth defect of the penis. I would like to tell you about my recent troubles with our insurance but its too long and tiresome. In a nutshell, our HMO referred me to  hospital to give birth that isn't exactly within their network. I had to have Titus there because their regular hospital had no NICU. In turn, that hospital referred us to the medical school hospital for specialty care that isn't otherwise available locally. A pediatric cardiologist , a pediatric urologist. The HMO denied to pay the claims from the medical school hospital. Now I must waste my time appealing these claims when it was a bureaucratic snag up on their part.The bills have already added up to thousands of dollars. It gets better and more complicated when you add the fact that the urologist actually works for my HMO one day a month when hes not teaching/ seeing patients the medical school. I wonder if we lived in the UK if we would have these sorts of problems. Likely not.

My husband is from England. He moved to Oregon in order to marry me over 7 years ago and has not been home since. In 2 weeks time we are going for a 2.5 week visit. His parents can meet the baby and we can meet his nieces for the first time. It will be a bit of what Brian calls a "bus mans holiday".  More obligation than vacation.  I am excited to see his family but apprehensive about taking a 5 month baby on such a long trip. I get ill just about every time I fly. Something about the recycled airplane air. I worry that he will too. I worry that we will both get a virus and that it will ruin our trip. Of course there is also jet lag to be concerned with when dealing with a small infant with an already slightly erratic sleep schedule. I have actually considered wearing a mask for the 10 hour flight from Portland to Amsterdam. That would probably look totally crazy.

Next week is Spring break for the local public school children. My foster daughters are now living with the people that we hope will be their forever family. The eldest one ( she turns 7 tomorrow) will be with me all day long over the break while her younger sisters are in daycare and her parents work. The poor thing had her appendix out a couple of weeks ago. It ruptured. Luckily her adoptive mom was quick to realize that the vomiting seemed out of the ordinary and rushed her to the ER. She is recovering nicely. Kids can bounce back so fast. I am looking forward to having the company. We have lots of play dates set up. Going to see The Lorax on monday. Then as much as we can do with a baby in tow for the rest of the week. Probably a lot of lunches in with friends. Some amount of baking.

I should probably use the rest of my stolen hour to tidy up the kitchen and switch the laundry.

2 comments:

  1. I get excited everytime you mention that you are coming to the UK! But then I remember that you are seeing Brian's family and the chances that I can convince you that a trip to Yorkshire is probably zero.

    I'm glad to see you've set up your new blog, I'm excited to hear more about your parenting!

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    1. oh, I would like to go to yorkshire. Maybe I can sneak away! Brian just told me that his best guess is that its 4 or 5 hours drive from his parents place. Thats nothing to an american but, I wouldnt drive over there if you paid me! Wrong side of the road and such. Maybe next time when we can take a little more time.

      x

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