Friday, October 28, 2011

I did it. I am the mother that…

Dropped my baby.  Yes, I said dropped my baby.  I know some of you are pulling out your phone to call DHR, but he is ok.  He was only dropped a few inches.  No injuries.  Now my husband makes comments like “Victoria, are you sure you want to go with mama..she might drop you.”  Or “David, you mom is the one that dropped you.”  As much as he likes to make these comments, he isn’t completely innocent in this.  See, he was the one that took the babies out of the car seats earlier that day.  He left the handle down (which I hate I might add.)  There had to be a perfect combination of events and David and I hit them perfectly.  I went to put him in his car seat and when the handle is down it makes the car seat rock.  As soon as I put him down, he jumped, the seat rocked and splat he was on the floor.  I squealed which caused alarm for Ranita and he loudly exclaimed “Rhonda” as if I dumped my baby out on purpose.  If you would have been a bystander I am sure you could have gotten a good laugh.  David screamed but quit as soon as I picked him up.  No injuries, just a shock.   I on the other hand took hours to recover.  I am not kidding…hours. So yes, in the future when David wants an excuse for his bad grade or something he can really say….”It’s because my mama dropped me when I was a baby.”



Smiling at her brother on the floor.


He is fine.  My proof.


Thursday, October 27, 2011

When all you can do is laugh...

Ok.  So I decided today was the day I would actually look at all the medical bills I have received for Victoria’s, David’s and my hospital stay. I have so many I was thinking about for Halloween, I could pass out a bill to everyone that comes for candy. J  Let me explain some of the experiences that I had while in the hospital with my health insurance company that will remain nameless at this time.  I was admitted to the hospital on Thursday evening.  They held off the birth of the baby until Sunday morning.   With a C-section I am approved by them to stay in the hospital 4 days and add the complications that I experienced before the birth, I wouldn’t be able to leave early at all.  So Monday morning around 9 am while I was on the phone with them, they informed me that I must leave the hospital immediately, that I had stayed longer than the approved amount.  I advised them that I was hooked up to and iv and it has not even been a whole day since the surgery was completed.  Let me remind you that I had blood pressure issues  during the birthing process, so it was important that I didn’t have any stress or anything that would increase my blood pressure.  She quickly informed me that if I didn’t leave immediately that they wouldn’t cover my stay.  I kindly advised that I am on an iv and I wouldn’t be leaving and disconnected the call.  My 15 minutes had passed between blood pressure checks and the nurse came in and was mortified at my blood pressure reading.  I quickly advised that I just hung up on my insurance company and that they said I had to leave immediately.  She decided that she wasn’t going to record that blood pressure and come back the next 15 minutes and check it again.  I promptly got on the phone with my Brookwood case manager Valerie who was wonderful I might add.  She advised not to worry that she would take care of it and she did.  So a few days later, I got a letter from BCBS that advised that David had to leave the NICU (although he was hooked up to a breathing machine) 2 days before the letter was sent.  Valerie once again came to the rescue.  She called them and asked about the letter, because she was on the phone daily with them to get everything that was done approved.  The person at the insurance company said she didn’t know who sent the letter even thought it was their letterhead and signature, they have no record of the letter.  Then a few days later, I get a voicemail from the insurance company advising congrats on the birth of my two daughters and they wanted to offer condolences that one of the girls died.    Since I was sitting in the NICU at the time spending time with my daughter and son who were both living I decided maybe Valerie needed to hear the message.  She was mortified that they would even leave a voicemail like that.  She called them and they again denied that they knew anything about the call.  I am thinking that this company has many employees with amnesia.  I also got several calls from a nurse at my insurance company wanting to talk to David to discuss his plan for his healthcare that was needed and answer any questions he might have.  I told David to call them back, I can’t believe he didn’t.  I mean after all he was 5 days old by then.   So back to opening my bills today.  I had a letter from my health insurance that advised that they had reevaluated my case and decided that a C-section and NICU stays for my baby weren’t a necessity and that they would have to deny the claim and I would owe the hospital $600,000.  So I was laughing at the letter, what else is there to do.  I mean I won’t make that much in my lifetime, so it made me laugh.  But I quickly got in touch with my case manager and again she called them and they have no record of the letter and they have actually already paid the bills.  My portion that I owe is around $5000.  Thankfully when I got my taxes back I had just found out I was pregnant and had prepaid some of it, so I currently owe around $2500.  So again Valerie to the rescue.  There are situations that we face on a daily basis.  We have a choice on how we are going to deal with it.  So I have decided that I am going to choose to laugh.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Sleep..who needs it?

I do.  I think the twins had a talk yesterday and decided that they were going have a party all night and stay awake.  I like to go to parties, but I didn’t want to be invited to this party.  So at 3 am when Ranita finally convinced V that she wanted to go to her bassinet, I quickly handed him D and ran off to bed.  I know, you might think that I am mean to not let Ranita go to sleep.  Yes, you are right with his work he needs to be rested and alert.  I understand that if I were to fall from my chair, I would recover, but if he were to fall from scaffolding, it would be different story.  I am very sorry to admit, last night I thought..we have insurance.  They can put him back together if he were to fall.  I must blame that thought on my lack of sleep.  I do love my husband very much, and I do try to let him sleep and I stay up.  I must admit he does it more for me, but I don’t ask him to.  I have found that lack of sleep does cause crazy things to me.  I mean this morning I had to write my last name, and I couldn’t remember how to spell it.  Yes, it is an easy name to spell and it is a short name, but that is the truth.  I have to say that God knew that he couldn’t give me a colicky child and I survive.  So my friends out there that have a colicky baby, I have a lot of respect for you.  I seem to become a crazy person with lack of sleep.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

October 23 Fall Festival








We had a busy day today.  We had Church.  After chuch we rushed off to Ranita's soccer game with Upper 90.  They won...yay!  We then headed to Valleydale for the fall festival.  We helped with our class both frog flipping.  It was fun.  To our surprise, 2 sweet lady bugs showed up. (Anna and Charity).  Anna was very excited to see my two pumpkins (David and Victoria), but Charity once again informed me that she didn't like my pumpkins.  Mom and dad worked the cotton candy then we all got to eat together. 

October 16 Baby Dedication

Today is the day that we were a part of the parent baby dedication.  This is a very special day for our family.  We are so blessed with 2 beautiful gifts from God.  Ranita and I both feel so humbled that God would entrust these 2 with us.  We have been so blessed and we know that we don't deserve it.  Our goal is for these babies to grow up and have a personal relationship with Christ and know that they are His children.  We pray that they will listen to God's plan for their lives and that they will allow God to use them. 

After the service we had a celebration at mom and dad's.  They cooked for all of us and we had a great time of fellowship.  Tana Lee and Stanley Thigpen came.  They are so special to us.  They always step in for Ranita's parents and we love them so much.  We were so excited that Caley was home for fall break and was able to come.  With Caley being home that made all of the US cousins were able to come.  Anna, Charity, Caley and Cason.  My brother Randall was sick and wasn't able to make it, but Nancy was able to come and celebrate with his.  Thanks to her sprinting Anna and Charity actually made it into the service to see the dedication.  Anna loves V and D so much, but Charity told me to take them back.  But we know that she will one day grow to love them.  We also were grateful that Karen Garcia, Kara Chism and Brandon were able to share with us.  They are all very special to us and to the babies.

October 18. Back to work

I went back to work today.  I was sad to know that my stay at home mom time had come to an end.  We are adjusting and sleep is getting better a litte each day, and I made it my first day of work. The picture is how my day actually starts.

October 15 Spit up and poop

Today we had an experience that felt like a conspiracy between the twins.   We decided to go to Kids Market on their big markdown day.  We had just gotten in the door and Ranita said that Victoria smelled, so he took her out to the van to change her.  But he quickly found it was all over her clothes as well.  I am the always the over prepared mother with 2 or 3 extra outfits anytime I go somewhere, but today...my words were.."we are just going shopping and coming right back.  I am going to take the small bag with a few diapers and an extra bottle for each."  Needless to say that was a mistake.  Ranita calls me and lets me know that she has no clothes on.  I told him to go ahead and wrap her in a blanket and bring her in.  You wouldn't believe the stares we got.  At least the peoples judgemental stares were at him and not me. :)  Then I was in the middle of a sentence telling Ranita that David hasn't spit up when here it comes all over my shirt.  We then decided it was time to go home.  Twins 2- parents 0.

October Girls night out

Tonight I had girls not out, while Ranita had daddy time.  We had a good time.  This weekend was full of team spirit.  This weekend was also Alabama's homecoming.  Every year my roommate from college comes and visits for the weekend with her family.  This year we had lots to celebrate.  She is pregnant with her 3rd child.  We had a great weekend together and we always look forward to it every year.  And it wouldn't be complete without our picture in from of the green door.








September 26, First time to big Chuch

We decided today that we will go to church.  Mom was sick, so we met dad and sat on the back row.  They were pretty good.

September 11 V is coming home



The wait is over.  Victoria gets to come home. 

September- Game Day

Today is Alabama's first game of the season.  Went to the NICU this morning to get Victoria dressed in her Alabama clothes.  After spending the morning with V, off to the parents house to watch the game.

August 31 Victoria gets to wear clothes

Today Victoria is now big enough to wear clothes.  We are so excited that she has made it to this milestone.  We know this means that coming home time is getting closer!

August 28 David is coming home







David gets to come home today.  We are so excited. 

August 18 50 years and still going

Today is mom and dad's 5o anniversary.  We celebrated a little early because we knew the babies might come a little early.  Thanks for being such a great example to us mom and dad.


August 17, 2011 Surprise

 
Today we went to a cookout for Builders for Christ and they surprised us with “showering” us with gifts. They always surprise us with their love for us.

August 14, 2011 2 week Birthday

 
I got to feed David today and Ranita got to hold Victoria while she was being fed by a feeding tube. Ranita will get to feed David his next feeding. They are such a blessing.
 

August 8, 2011 Diapers and clothes

Today we got to change diapers for our babies. Today also was David’s first day to get to wear clothes. He looked more like a baby now and we were so excited to see the clothes.
 

August 7, 2011 Let’s celebrate

Today one year ago is the day I married my best friend. We spend the day at the NICU then we decided to go to Firebirds for dinner and then back off to the NICU to celebrate with our babies. We got to see our babies get their first bottle today. They still would have the feeding tube, but a bottle was progress.



 

August 4, 2011 Going home

 
I get to go home today. It is sad to leave my babies, but I know they are in good hands. It was nice to sleep in my bed again. We got to go home to a nice surprise. Since Ranita was busy with me and I was on bed rest with no intentions of delivering that soon, our house was a mess. Mom and Dad surprised us with getting someone to go and clean up our house and get it ready for our return.

Are the bags packed?

You need to have your bag packed when you come next week.  So we were in shock.  Why do we need our bag packed next week?  Don't we still have 3 months?  Ranita..it is ok if you want to play soccer today.  I am in shock too.  That was the conversation home that day.  3 weeks later.  Honey, I have the bag packed are you sure you sure you don't want to take it?  Decision was made.  There was no reason to take the bag.  We still had 2 months before the babies were due.  My husband decides to drive.  My face was swolen and I could only see my cheek out of my right eye.  By the end of the appointment, my wedding rings were stuck on my hand and my feet began to swell.  The doctor...did you bring your bag with you today.  Next thing done...mom can you go by my house and get my bag for me.  My concern was my shower the next day.  I wanted to go to my shower.  The doctor said if I wasn't allowed to leave the hospital we could bring my shower to the hospital.  The test results would be in at 9 pm. Test results came and I was admitted.

Last Hoorah

Off to the beach we went.  It was our last trip before our life changed dramaticly. Unfortunatly for my  husband it wasn't a vacation for him.  My babies decided that they loved each other so much that they wanted to be on the same side of mama and on top of the muscle that affects walking.  My husband had the pleasure of pushing me around in the wheelchair.  But we did get to go out to the beach some and that was the first time I felt a kick.  I was sitting in the chair in the edge of the ocean and both babies started kicking.  We still had a fun trip, and we had fun playing games with my parents.

Life as a queen

Yes, I know what you mean.  I understand....I am to go to bed and stay in it for how long???? How long am I allowed to get up during the day.  So that hour means that I can go out to eat?  That was my conversation with my doctor on June 26.  I understood that after I went on bed rest there was a storm everyday, and I was so glad I wasn't at work.  Bed rest for me meant shopping for the kids online, learning how to sew when I get off bedrest, reading to my babies, and learning the daily tv schedule.   I understood that bedrest was what was best for my babies.  My husband did everything.  Cleaned the  house, laundry, bought the groceries, and anything else that made me happy.   Between my husband and family, I was treated like royalty.  If I had a want, someone was there to fulfill it.  I have amazing parents and husband.

Showers of blessings



We were so blessed with friends and family that wanted to celebrate with us.  Our first shower was with my life connection class girls.  We got our first diaper cake and some really nice gifts. 


Our second shower was with our Hispanic friends.  They had me and Ranita race to dress some bears and yes...I won.  Ranita now knows the difference in the front and back of the diaper and that you can't hold a baby upside down between your knees while dressing them.





Our third shower was with my work.  They made us very special and loved.



Our forth shower was celebrated without me. But I heard it was a lot of fun and I know the gifts were great.