Family picture day

We got some coupons from Sears portrait and decided to go get our first annual family photo. It started off pretty well. We picked the earliest session, which happened to be when the store actually opened so we were waiting outside for a little while, and then they spent the first 15 minutes setting up their computers and whatnot. Really, if we hadn't lost those first 15 minutes the whole thing would have gone rather smoothly. Well that, and if they didn't force you to change up your pictures. We went in for a family photo, but apparently its against the rules to only take different poses of the whole family, they are obligated to take at least a couple poses with just some or one of the family members so that they can try to sell you additional packages with more than just one pose. If you could just take multiple poses of the kind of picture you came in for then you could pick the best one and be on your way, but if there's an adorable mommy & baby, or daddy & baby, or mommy & daddy, or just baby picture in there and you want one of those too then the cost triples and they're a happy store. Anyway, I vainly tried to get the girl to just take full family photos since that's what we wanted and wasted a few precious minutes there too. Pretty soon, Aubrey had reached her time limit and was no longer a happy camper. At that point we apparently had to take one more pose. Hmmm, screaming baby and hurried parents, that's a keeper. After trying to get them to just forget the last pose, also a vain attempt, Jarom jumped in front of the camera and they snapped a very drivers-licensesque picture of him and we ran off to find the mall's family lounge.
For good measure, the family lounge was at the exact opposite end of the mall. It was a very nice set up though I must say. There was a main room with a tv and 4 curtained off stalls with comfy chairs, side tables with magazines, and low lighting for feeding, and 4 changing stations with depressed areas in the counter for changing, wipes warmers, sinks, and diaper pails. I am now contemplating going to the mall daily.
After Aubrey was content I strapped her too me with the Moby wrap (love that thing) and we trekked back to Sears. When we got there the lobby was filled with a family apparently about to take their annual Husker fan picture, their little girls were decked out in cheerleader outfits and all. Maybe we'll get one of those before we leave Nebraska... We ended up settling on a pose where Aubrey wasn't fussy or looking like she was about to cry and when it was all said and done we made it home after 2 hours. I envisioned a 30-45 minute deal, but at least now I know for next time.

Holy crap!!!!!

So I just got my insurance statement from my hospital stay when I had Aubrey. Thank goodness I had reached my deductible and I'm not seeing this in the form of a bill. Not counting the roughly $3000 my OB charged for delivery, the hospital bill came to $16814.65. It costs nearly $20,000 just to give birth!?!?!?! (to a healthy child no less, imagine what people have to pay if, heaven forbid, their child needs special care!) The biggest chunk is over $8000 for the operating room, which I was in for under an hour. 3 days in my semi-private room and board only cost $2900. I am kid of wondering what "Ancillaries" cost me, or rather luckily my insurance, $3350 though. Must have been the digital thermometer they used on Aubrey and subsequently sent home with us. The most disturbing thing to me, even more than the charge for the ominous ancillaries, is the fact that the hospital has worked out a charge of $3400 for the operating room with my insurance. Not a "oh sorry thats over the covered amount" deal either, thats all they bill my insurance and its under the covered amount - sorry suckers without insurance, you have to pay more than twice as much! So I guess sans-cesarean it would be a lot cheaper, but still frightening.

ortho wive's club

Aubrey and I just got back from a lunch date with some of the other residents' wives and their children. Since we're the only ones who waited a while to have kids, Aubrey is the only siblingless child. When I got there it was like the zoo's monkey population exploded and they sent the overflow to Culvers to forage for fries and ice cream. Between the 4 other moms there were 10 kids, the vast majority under 4. Aubrey did good for about a half hour until an 18 month old started screaming for kicks and giggles. I was aware that kids screamed for a variety of reasons, I however did not know that they did it repeatedly in increasing volume just for fun. While her mom was trying to calm her, a 10 month old had been through enough of it and he started crying. Aubrey was not a fan of the chaos so we excused ourselves. Brief though it was, it was nice to get out of the house.

Happy 2 months!

Aubrey is two months old today! She will celebrate by getting a thermometer stuck up her bum every couple of hours and trying to spit out the acetaminophen drops she gets when the fever gets too high. She seems to be in good spirits though which is nice for me and my over-worrier nerves.
Sister Haws and her 2 girls came by and brought a whole storage bin of baby clothes for Aubrey. Her wardrobe has just doubled. With how baby clothes get passed on and around, its a wonder how the baby clothing industry survives.

This will hurt me more than it will hurt you

We just got back from the doctor's office for Aubrey's dreaded 2 month appointment. I think I did cry more than her, and while she's sleeping now I still hurt inside. Since we held off on the Hep B, the Hib, which is normally mixed with Hep B, got mixed with another injection instead of being on its own, and she only had to get 3 instead of 4 shots which was nice. I also wasn't assailed for refusing the Hep B, a little eye rolling maybe, but the doctor agreed she's not really at risk and sees no problem with waiting until she's older. Aside from the vaccinations, I brought up a couple other worries and the doctor told me we know too much for our own good. Specifically about osteogenesis imperfecta. It's one of those awful conditions that happens to affect the teeth too so we know about it's other symptoms, one of which is blue-gray sclerae (the 'whites' of the eyes). I wont get into the reasons why they look that way, but suffice it to say I know now that for similar reasons, normal infants eyes can look that way too. And Aubrey's sclerae are not blue enough to worry the doc. It must drive pediatricians crazy when they treat the children of other health care professionals, they have the non-doctor kind like us who know enough to worry about things normal people don't think about and they have the doctors who probably have their own conclusions about everything and treat the pediatrician as a second opinion.
Anyhow, it's done with and I get 2 months of peace before having to put her, and me, through that again. And with Aubrey actually sleeping, I should probably try to get some much needed sleep myself!

Oh bla dee

Not much is going on. I did manage to successfully run my first errand yesterday. I had ordered some photo items from walmart.com to be shipped to the store, some memory books and a calendar, and they arrived so I had to go pick them up. So I strapped her to me with the Moby wrap which is basically a 100 foot long piece of fabric you wrap around yourself in various ways and thusly strap the baby to you. Now Aubrey is one of the cutest babies (who am I kidding, the cutest baby) in the entire world, and she's still so tiny, so she gets a ton of stares. Well all of the women milling about walmart on Monday morning were adoringly staring at the baby, and it takes you back a little to have everyone one you pass stare at your chest and smile even if it is because of the baby stuck to you there. Anyhow, part of the order was wrong and part was missing so I had to go up to the front and return and get a refund and reorder the mixed up part. The poor girl was new and it took her a while and a couple managers and in the end she mistakenly tried to give me a refund for the entire order so she had to start over. Well thanks to the Moby wrap Aubrey slept through the whole thing and going to walmart became the most exciting event of the past week. That sounds so sad! It does give me hope though, Aubrey is starting to get a schedule and is taking breaks in her feeding so I am getting an hour here and there to accomplish stuff.

Less exciting is Aubrey's 2 month appointment coming up tomorrow. She has to get a million shots which is just killing me. She's a very calm baby which is lucky for me because it tears me up inside when she cries, so I might just have a nervous breakdown after this fateful day. And if Aubrey's pain and suffering won't be enough, I've heard stories of mothers being treated as abusive and neglectful parents for refusing vaccinations. I'm only opposed to giving an infant the Hep B vaccination (she'll get it when she's older) so we'll see how that goes. *Not to say I think the Hep B vaccination is unsafe, I just have my reasons. When they tried to give it to her at the hospital I said we were gong to wait on giving her that until she's older and they said "okay, at the 2 month appointment" and wrote that down. Oy.

Life since Aubrey arrived

It's been almost 2 months now and I think I'm finally starting to adjust. Aubrey was born July 20th at 10am and I think I've gotten a total of 4 hours of sleep since that day :) My mom, Aubrey's Nana, was here which was really great. She also got to come out about a week and a half ago along with Aubrey's Papa and Uncles Michael and Tyler (Uncle Jason is at the MTC), and her Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Rick and Aunts Naomi and Heather. Everyone was here for Aubrey's special weekend. She got sealed to her Mommy and Daddy at the Winter Quarter's Temple and had her baby blessing that Sunday too. On top of all that we got to celebrate her Daddy's birthday too. And the icing on the cake for me was her first enthusiastic smile for me. I got a huge grin and cute squeal and big bright eyes staring right at me. I cried. What a great weekend!
That's right about where she is developmentally right now, social smiles. She also rolls to one side when you try to give her tummy time (which she hates!), but she's been doing that since about 2 weeks. She tracks objects really well and is trying really hard to talk, its precious!