Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Happy Birthday, Avery!



Although I didn't get a chance to post yesterday, it was Avery's 3 month birthday! That is unbelievable to me! She is 1/4 the way to her 1 yr old bday party! (Omg, better start planning!)
: )

I don't think she had a very good birthday - she had to have immunizations. We waited for 2 hours there, it was ridiculous. (Not to mention it was the THIRD attempt to get her shots done). We went to this health clinic where someone told me it would go really fast. We don't have the option of doing them at the doctor's office, which infuriates me. If they want to make it cheap for people - fine - they can go to the health clinic and wait all day with a bunch of sickly people. If I want to opt to go to the doctors office and wait in the well baby waiting room and file insurance and pay the rest out of pocket - i should have the option! UGHHH! I am really getting disgusted with this whole 'system'. The other day I had a WIC appt to see if we could get approved. The lady said it would last 2 hours. I called right before the appt to check the income levels, and if I could use just my income we would make it, but with Charlie's we're over by a lot, so I told the lady to cancel my appt. Later that day, someone from the WIC office called and asked me if I was coming (no one told her I cancelled). I explained that I didn't want to waste my time and hers if our income was well over the limit. She asked if I got Medicaid and I told her we have private insurance and also make too much for Medicaid. She (the lady who is employed by our state to make sure that ppl don't cheat) told me what I needed to do was go to the Medicaid office, don't tell them about my husbands income. She said after I'm approved they'll pay any extra bills from any doctors, hospitals that aren't covered by insurance (which at this point is thousands). She also said once I'm approved for Medicaid, I automatically qualify for WIC so I can get the free Preemie formula (also expensive) AND I may be eligible for an SSI check b/c Avery was 2 lbs when she was born. I was blown away. My tax money pays her salary to screen ppl so that the state isn't ripped off and she called my house from her state office to tell me how to cheat - and not only how to cheat WIC but how to cheat Medicaid and Social Security. So, one little white lie and I have doctors bills covered, formula, milk, cheese, etc paid for and possibly extra income! I told Charlie all of it and we agreed: at the end of the day a lie is a lie. And whether or not the state practically told me to do it, when God says Thou shall not lie, he means even the little white ones. This is not to say I'm not cringing at the thought that they're taxing our checks out the WAZOO and every other person in the state is getting WIC and everything else- believe me it makes me CRAZY. Our system is so, so broken on so many levels. But I just can't see blatantly lying to get money and then praying that God will continue to take care of Avery?

Last night was pretty hard Avery was extrememly fussy and inconsolable after the shots. I slept in her room, well I wouldn't call it sleeping but I laid in the bed in her room with her until 5:30am and then I made Charlie take a turn! She seems fine now though, thank God!

Well, Early Steps came today. I thought the therapist was coming but it was more stinkin paperwork! For the third time they came to my house (this time with 3 people) and I just signed, signed, signed! They still didn't even look at Avery. I was a little concerned because she still isn't smiling socially, cooing, lifting her head for long periods and a few other things on the list. But I have to look at it this way: When she was born she was the size of a 27 week gestation baby. So that is 13 weeks early. 13 weeks is about 3 months. So basically she is 3 months behind and yesterday was her 3 month old birthday, so she is basically a newborn. That makes since because she is still just about 7 lbs, average newborn size! Its just hard to accept that, I really want her caught up on the developmental charts but I need to just take a deep breath and relax I guess! Oh well, sorry for all the ranting...I'm done now! :)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, I know that you are worried about Avery and her development, trust me I know how you feel. I was looking in Ava's baby book and she was weighing about 7 lb at 2 months old and then at 3 months old she was weighing 10 lb. After that she was gaining about a pound every month. She is now 11 months old and weighs 17 lb. Ava's first smile was at 2 months old. She was really behind with laughing and rolling over, she didn't do that till she was 4 months old. and she didn't sit up till she was 7 months old. She just started crawling 2 weeks ago. I understand part of the stress that you are going through with you baby being behind in everything. Ava is still in the 5th percentile for her age. The highest she has ever been was in the 25th percentile. I just wanted to tell you that our babies are going to be behind in everything, you just have to work with them everyday. Thank goodness Ava is going to a great daycare. They have really worked with her in everything and that has been a big help. I know its hard but keep your head up. Avery will do everything when she gets ready to, Ava did. You know the Lord has blessed us with such beautiful babies. I feel that he picks certain people to love, nuture and protect these preemie babies and he picked us ( what a blessing ). Avery will surprise you one day and she will start doing everything. Just remember she will do it on her on time.

Nicki Kennon said...

I love Jenna's comment! Even though Cameron was not a preemie, I still find myself worrying about his development, but like Jenna said babies do things on their own time. I can't tell you not to worry, cause it's almost impossible not to worry with a baby, lol, just try not to drive yourself crazy and I can't wait to see you guys soon! I hope you can still make the trip to Vidalia!