snores, chores and big-time bores

Sleepy Bean -- Post Bath-Time

It was too dark in the room, so the shutter speed was insanely slow. 

I kinda like the look though.

The line down her chest is her heart surgery scar.  The two scars above her right arm are where drainage tubes came out.  The marks on the front of her right shoulder is where the central line was in.

All her battle wounds look amazing!

We received a few callbacks today.  There's a state agency that called me back, the 'Inclusive Child Care Program'.  It's a program for people who require a higher level of childcare, and if you qualify, they assist you with a portion of the cost.  Even if I lost my job, we still wouldn't qualify for assistance to help us pay for anything. I've renamed it, the 'Exclusive Child Care Program', as according to them, we're living in the lap of luxury. *insert sarcastic laughter here.*  I totally understand it, but another part of me is annoyed that none of the services in place, thus far, seem to be open and available to help us - because we make more money than deemed allowable. I'm thankful to be on this side of the fence, so I refuse to complain.  However, it's worth putting it out there, so people consider all levels of parenting we're experiencing.  Luckily, we have a great insurance program through my job.  Otherwise, we'd be financially ruined.  The cap on hospitalization stay alone was something that saved our finances.  Can you even imagine?  But don't get me wrong, we're still knee deep in expenses, between my c-section hospital stay and Andi's cap, we're out $3,200.  On top of that, there are all the labs, co-pays, med's, hearing aids, and now, the cost of getting someone here to help us.  If I were to go back to work in the office just two days a week, that would run us about $400. a week. So, although we don't qualify for any financial assistance to help us out, which -- again, I understand and am actually not complaining... I think it's important to point out the financial impact, and exclusivity of services out there to help people, some people.

In any case, another place called me back and they too weren't able to help us.  What they did was something that didn't work for us, and honestly, I don't even remember what exactly... it's been a long day that started at 4 a.m. with a good ol' upchuck on my bed as I laid the Bean down with me - to try to stretch our sleeping schedule out a little bit longer.  By 4:10 we were upstairs getting clean, and my underexercised butt knocked a glass off the coffee table and into a lot of lovely pieces onto the rug.  Yippie, getting out the vacumme cleaner at 4 a.m. is always a treat!  After cleaning that up, I made some coffee while Andi entertained herself by staring at herself in the mirror... as she does every morning, and a good portion of that pot of coffee ended up spilled all over the kitchen counter.  It just was one of THOSE mornings!!! 

The audiology dept. at Doernbecher's called to schedule our appt. to get Andi her hearing aid fitting. 

-->  November 30th.  <--

Yes, November 30th.  That's HOW MANY weeks away?  I vocalized my disapproval, but they're booked up solid.  I put us on the cancelation list, and given our first two hearing tests happened rather quickly - due to cancelations, I'm hopeful we can get her in there lickity split.  I hope so as I'm honestly running out of patience.  Sorry, but when the ENT Dr. told me more than two months ago, 'the sooner we get her hearing, the sooner her brain can start processing sounds.'  I know everything will be fine, but I can't help being impatient to want everything to happen NOW, especially after all she's already been through.  Naturally, you want the best for your kids, and when you have a Bean... you're going to fight to give her everything and thensome, delivered on a silver platter.

So, it was a long, long, l-o-n-g, l-o-o-o-o-o-n-n-g day... the Bean snores and the dishwasher hums.  Andi is going to light up and smile big when she sees Daddy come home. She's very smitten with him, just like most girls are smitten with their Daddy's.  At least we have clean sheets onto which I will likely drool with exhaustion.