And he flipped again!

Hubby's  been on vacation from UPS (his 3rd shift job) all week this past week and so he's been spending more time with Jay, working on him flipping.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, he can flip from his tummy to his back and is doing it regularly.

This past week hubby's been putting him on the floor on his back, trying to get him to work on flipping from back to tummy... and this morning he finally did it!

He's been close for weeks, trying ever since he started flipping the other way. And this morning, while I went to go make his rice cereal, hubby watched him in bed and he flipped back to tummy twice!

Hubby said he did it this afternoon too while I was work... unfortunately I have yet to see him do it (I've only seen the aftermath), as he couldn't quite get the final push over when we had him on the floor to show me tonight. Hopefully I will soon though!

His main hang-up is getting his arm that's underneath him straightened out, as he often rolls back onto his back when trying to pull that arm out from under.

He's also eating his sweet potatoes regularly - the first and 2nd night, for dinner, he ate half the jar and then the 3rd night he ate the whole jar!

So proud of him!

As far as the insurance fiasco, I spoke to a lady the other day who was real helpful and she talked to her supervisor about the fact that when I called on March 17 and asked that I was told the children's hospital in Madison was in our network so they said they would look into and pull the call and find out what happened and told me that and why and get back to me about it sometime this week. She also looked it up and was able to confirm that there are no pediatric urology specialists in our network within 30 miles of us so she told me what we can do is apply for Gap Exception Coverage so that we can get the in-network rate for whoever we see for that as there is none nearby in our network that we can go to. When I called to apply for that they told me it has to go before a review so we won't know til sometime after his appointment on Monday if they'll give us the in-network rate or not, but I guess we'll just go and find out and see. Hopefully they will though as it's not like there's a closer option for us.

They also seem to be finally giving me actual hours at work this week, plus they've used my on-call hours twice this week as well, so I'm working like 3 shifts a week now, up from 1! Guess I'm doing something right!

And call us crazy, but Jay sorta has his own smartphone now! Hubby's day job is working for a premium Verizon Wireless retailer and he got a Droid Incredible that can't be activated to use as a phone as it's missing an ESN or whatever. But you can hook it up via WI-FI to download apps and watch videos and do stuff online. Since Jay loves the Multi-Touch Visualizer app as well as watching Sesame Street videos on Youtube, we made sure those are both on there. It's pretty amusing, lol...

4 Month Check-Up and then some!

4 months old already!

Just realized I haven't really posted too much on here lately.

Honestly, there hasn't really been much to post about.

Jay's still flipping from his tummy to his back and he's been working on going back to tummy and getting pretty close! He gets stuck on his side though, as he doesn't seem to be quite able to get that last push over.

He's fascinated by our smartphones still - hubby found this app, Multi-touch Visualizer - where when you press the screen a colored circle and line crosshairs pops up. You can touch several fingerrs to the screen at once to get multiple colors. Jay loves it.

He also loves this Youtube video of Elmo playing "Elmo's Song" for Big Bird and Snuffy, although he tends to get fussy when Snuffy's on screen and Elmo isn't, lol...

He's still working on that first tooth coming in so not really much progress there.

Today (Wednesday) we had his 4 month check-up. He's up to 13lbs even, which means he's doubled his birth weight and is in the 25th percentile. He's also 25inches long. Doctor said he's looking healthy and was impressed by how well he was holding his head up and keeping control of it, as well as how strong the rest of his muscles seemed.

He said we can start him on the rest of the solid foods, as it seems like he's eating just fine, so we gave him some sweet potatoes to eat for dinner. I think what we'll do is give him the full serving of rice cereal he's been eating at breakfast, bottle for the afternoon, sweet potatoes for dinner and then just a bottle before bed. He seemed to like the sweet potatoes pretty well though, eating about half a jar before not wanting anymore and just drinking the rest from the bottle.

He also got boosters of the shots he had last time, which he wasn't happy about. Took a good minute or so to get him to calm down afterwards - I let him cuddle with me, Elmo and his binky for a minute or so before I get him ready to leave the doctor's office. He's been sleepy most of the night, taking a long evening nap and going to bed a bit early - we're pretty sure it's just the shots making him sleepy.

But the doctor said he's doing well, which is good news, and he said the only issue we seem to have to worry about now is just his kidney blockage as his growth and eating are just fine!

Also, tomorrow I have to call our insurance company and maybe bitch them out.

A week or so ago we got a rather high bill for Jay for the testing on his kidney they did up at the children's hospital in Madison back in April. We were a little confused as we had already met his out of pocket expenses this year due to the week long stay in the hospital back in February, but today we got an "explanation of benefits" notice which explained it. Apparently, the children's hospital in Madison is out of our network! The problem, is that when Jay's urologist wanted to send us to one of the nearby children's hospitals to do the testing they had me call our insurance and find out which of the 2 nearby (Madison and Chicago) were in our network, as they would prefer us to go to Madison, but said that for some people it's out of their network so we could do Chicago instead if that was the case. So I called when we got home and the male representative I spoke with confirmed that the children's hospital in Chicago was in our network but had to check the one in Madison. He spent a minute or so pulling up the information and confirmed that both were in our network so going to either one was fine.

So yeah... not sure why they're saying suddenly it's out of network now when I had called and specifically asked if it was and was told that it was. Obviously if it wasn't we would have gone to the one that was! Kinda miffed... and right now I don't know what we're going to do about his appointment up there on Monday as his urologist in town is now referring us to the one up there since Jay's case is a little more uncommon - if this new doc isn't in our network I'll have to cancel and let the urologist's office here know that and have them set us up with a doctor in Chicago (despite the fact I had *just* confirmed his appointment on Monday earlier today! Grrrr).

Oh and his doctor said we can give him water or pedialyte too while we're out to keep him hydrated, as he said he doesn't have any problem with that.

So that's how things are with us!

Loans, jobs, cars, and labor

It's been a busy last couple of days!

Wednesday hubby and I went back to the bank to see where we were at with our credit and getting pre-approved for a home loan.

Well, we're close - VERY close.

If it weren't for stupid Chase we would have gotten it and been signing paperwork for a home-loan on Wednesday ><

We figured out that the problem was that on my credit report, Chase was correctly reporting the balance each month, but on hubby's they hadn't reported it since January so it still showed him with a balance of like $1300 which is NOT what the balance is. So basically, Chase shows up for him, but isn't correctly giving him credit like it is for me, which makes all the difference in the world as with the correct balance on it, hubby's score is just over the 620 that we need it to be to get the loan.

Here's what happened:
I opened the card about a year ago when I started Mary Kay to purchase my inventory and hubby and I had discussed putting him on the card as well so he would have some revolving credit as the bank lady had suggested we do for hubby as he had no revolving credit. Well, we went back to the bank 3-4 months later and met with a guy that time as we couldn't remember the lady's name and couldn't find her card (I found it after the fact) and he said that because the card was so new, it was hurting hubby's credit a lot and that it would be best to take him off that. So I called Chase and requested he be removed. Then we went in this past September and met with the original lady again and it showed that hubby was still on the Chase card, but since it had been almost year, the balance was a lot lower and counts as revolving credit it was actually helping his score - we figured the girl I talked to at Chase was just an airhead and didn't actually take him off when I requested it, but we decided it's working in our favor now so whatever.

So they took his name off the Chase card but reported the $1300 balance that was on it last January when they took him off to the credit bureau and haven't reported any activity in his name since!

Our bank lady said that since it's already under his credit, adding him back on won't hurt his score at this point as all it will do will report him monthly along with me with the updated balance and will help his score.

So I called Chase as soon as I got home and explained it them - they confirmed hubby is not on the card/account and said we could dispute it to get it completely off his credit, but instead I told them just to add him back onto it and they did. They said "big" changes to the account like that would report quarterly, which won't be til January, however it is possible it'll start reporting for him on this cycle.

Regardless, we're just going to wait to go back in in January - hubby's swamped with work in December so we wouldn't even have time to house hunt together.

Hopefully the next time we go in, all will be good and we'll be signing paperwork!

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In other news, The Children's Place called me back on Wednesday - I start Saturday morning, just to go in and do paperwork and that sort of stuff you do on your first day. I'm pretty excited though as I'm looking forward to having something to do and somewhere to be!

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Also, Progressive called us on Wednesday morning to inform us that our car was ready to be picked up and that the rental needed to be returned by 6pm Thursday otherwise we'd have to pay $30 for each additional day.

A little annoyed, as it was a bit last minute and nearly a week earlier than expected, but we were able to figure something out and I drove the 300miles down to St. Louis yesterday with my mom to keep me awake and help with driving on the way back (it's a 4-5hr drive one day, which is A LOT of driving for a preggo lady to do in one day!). I needed to be back in town just after 6pm too as hubby and I had our childbirthing class at 630pm too so we had to leave by 8am to allow enough time. We did it though and the car looks pretty good!

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And as mentioned, we had our 2nd childbirthing class last night.

This portion of the class consisted mainly of going over the different stages of labor. We got to watch several birthing videos - hubby admitted, that's something he probably could have done without ever seeing, as he's not planning on standing near that end of me when Jay pops out, lol...

I don't want to say I'm scared, but ouch! That's going to hurt - I'm not really looking forward to that part!

It was pretty informative though as they explained some more about contractions and that until they're a minute long, 3-5 minutes apart and last like that for at least an hour then we don't really need to rush to the hospital yet and can work on distracting ourselves at home... unless of course my water breaks, then they want us to come in right away.

I'm still not sure about having an epidural vs. natural - I guess I'm leaning more towards natural, although it might hurt more, but yeah... still not decided which is okay as I should have a good 2-3 months still til it's time. We're going to be talking/learning more about epidurals and all that stuff next week.

Quad Screen and Insurance Stuffs

So at our next appointment on September 20 we have the optional Quad Screening which is a blood test that can determine if baby has spina bifida or Down's Syndrome among a few other things. Hubby and I were talking about it and right now we're leaning towards skipping it.

While it is covered under our insurance (which is a $250 yearly deductible, with insurance covering 85% and with us having to pay up to $2000 out of pocket max), we decided it's not really worth the extra expense - I'm only 26 now, as is hubby, so I'm at low risk; from what we've read, a lot of the time the tests come back with either a false positive or a false negative; and honestly, even if our kid does end up having a deformity or is a special needs baby, what difference is it really going to make?

Hubby and I aren't too keen on abortion (hubby has his personal reasons for it, so he's extra sensitive about the topic, whereas I think it should only be a valid option in the case of rape as I don't feel the victim should be forced to live with a constant reminder for 9 months or in the case where carrying the baby to term poses a serious risk to the life of the mother) so it's not like if the test comes back positive for anything we're just going to terminate it - neither of us feel right about that at all.

Since we're delivering in the hospital, it's not like there won't be someone nearby to help with whatever when kiddo is born, so the only real benefit of knowing ahead of time is to mentally and financially prepare ourselves, but no matter how much you prepare mentally, it most likely won't hit ya until kiddo is actually here and you're "dealing with it" ya know? And financially... as cliche as it sounds, if it happens, it's in God's hands and help us provide.

I also read that if there are any major defects, like a missing limb or whatever, it'll show up during the later ultrasounds and that the further along you are, they can tell via ultrasound by looking at certain facial features and stuff whether or not baby is developing Down's Syndrome.

I have no problem with people that decide to do the Quad Screening, but for us, we just don't really think it's that necessary and we're both fine with not doing it.

I'm a little confused about the upcoming anatomy ultrasound though. I called our insurance today to ask about whether the Quad Screen was covered and asked about the anatomical survey too, as our doctor said that since it's not a necessary required ultrasound, some insurance companies don't cover it and when they mentioned having a few cervical ultrasounds they said our insurance is a pain about things like ultrasounds even though they'd get it approved for us. I asked the lady about the anatomical survey being covered and she said it wasn't coming up in the computer and said my clinic would have to send over the procedure code so they could find out and look into it. But then later when I said it was an ultrasound she was like "oh, well all the ultrasounds are covered under your maternity benefits."

So I guess that means the anatomy ultrasound is covered...?

That one isn't until closer to the end of October so I think I'll mention it when we go in for our appointment on the 20th and ask them about sending our insurance the "procedure code" for it just to be sure. We both want to know what we're having, but it would be nice to know if insurance is covering that one or if we're going to have to pay out of pocket for it.