Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Fishies!
There is a park near our house that has a couple little ponds with lots of froggies and fishies. Nick thought it would be cool to take Tristan over there and let him catch a few fish. He had this small rod his mom had sent him awhile back, and it is perfect toddler size. So we went and stood on the dock and let Tristan try his luck. He caught a few, but mostly Nick would hook them and let him reel them in. Tristan, needless to say, had a blast. He is his father's son!
Monday, October 28, 2013
Way Ahead
When Tristan was a baby, I was convinced I was doing something wrong. Like I wasn't teaching him everything right and he was behind because I wasn't a great mommy. Now that I have Aramis, I can actually see that Tristan was delayed because of his neck, that little babies are supposed to hit certain milestones on their own without anyone showing them how.
For instance, Tristan wasn't able to sit up on his own until he was 9 months old. He wasn't even able to lift his head until he was 6 months old. Aramis? He could lift his head at just a few weeks, and he is already sitting up by himself, and he is only 5 months! Now, I'm not comparing them, it's just weird to have a baby who is probably going to be crawling before he is 9 months old.
Tristan is completely caught up now, at least physically. His speech is still a little behind, but I guess that is a common thing with little boys. He's starting to communicate a lot better, and we are able to understand the way he says certain words. I just can't wait until we can actually have a chat and I can know what is going on in that little head of his! Aramis, he's starting to chatter all the time. He loves to talk, and Tristan loves to talk with him. I will hear the two of them going "ah-goo" all the time, haha it is super cute. And Tristan is also trying to teach him things. He will hold up toys for Aramis and tell him what they are, and say "Miss, look, [frog]!" It's really cute that he calls him "Miss".
Oh, and this one is really funny. Whenever we drive my the golden arches, Tristan calls out "Hey Mom, fwiez? Beeger? okay!" We have to fix that one, hahaha
For instance, Tristan wasn't able to sit up on his own until he was 9 months old. He wasn't even able to lift his head until he was 6 months old. Aramis? He could lift his head at just a few weeks, and he is already sitting up by himself, and he is only 5 months! Now, I'm not comparing them, it's just weird to have a baby who is probably going to be crawling before he is 9 months old.
Tristan is completely caught up now, at least physically. His speech is still a little behind, but I guess that is a common thing with little boys. He's starting to communicate a lot better, and we are able to understand the way he says certain words. I just can't wait until we can actually have a chat and I can know what is going on in that little head of his! Aramis, he's starting to chatter all the time. He loves to talk, and Tristan loves to talk with him. I will hear the two of them going "ah-goo" all the time, haha it is super cute. And Tristan is also trying to teach him things. He will hold up toys for Aramis and tell him what they are, and say "Miss, look, [frog]!" It's really cute that he calls him "Miss".
Oh, and this one is really funny. Whenever we drive my the golden arches, Tristan calls out "Hey Mom, fwiez? Beeger? okay!" We have to fix that one, hahaha
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Iowa Sunset
Fun family outing one night was to go and take pictures of the sunset. We didn't find the perfect place, there aren't really any high points to get to. But it was still beautiful to watch
Des Moines Zoo
Not as big as Hoggle Zoo, but way more interesting and interactive. They have exhibits that you walk through with the animals! Like birds and Wallaby's, it's pretty neat.
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Iowa Health Care
When we first moved here and tried applying for Medicaid for the kids, it was a piece of cake. Took a total of 48 hours to get them approved after all the information was in. And all they needed to approve the kids was 30 days of pay stubs! In Utah it took letters, bank statements, birth certificates, social security cards, pay stubs, assets.........yikes. So holy cow, that was super easy.
But before we got approved, we had a problem. Probably one of scariest moments of my life. Around 2 AM on a Sunday, I heard Tristan crying on the baby monitor, and what sounded like vomiting. I woke up Nick an went up there with a towel to clean things up. What I found was Tristan coughing and struggling to breathe. He was trying so hard, coughing like a bark, and barely able to cry. I grabbed him and ran down the stairs, yelling for Nick to call 911. he dispatch lady was an idiot who thought chatting our ear off was more important than sending an ambulance, so we put Aramis in his car seat, I held Tristan on my lap and we drove like mad people to the hospital. Thank heaven there was one in Nevada.
They gave him a nebs treatment and a shot of steroids, told us it was the weirdest case of croup they had ever seen, and we went home two and a half hours later. I went and got him an at home nebulizer and prednisone a few hours later. A week later, he seemed like he was doing a lot better, and we got him into the pediatrician to have a follow up. I'm not one to judge, but when the doc came in the room and started talking to Tristan like a fairy princess, I thought he might be a little.......weird. By the end of the appointment, I concluded this guy doesn't spend enough time around adults. It was very hard to talk to, explain things to him. But he did give us an rx for a rescue inhaler and more albuterol, so I was fine with it.
The next week, Aramis started having congestion, the kind you can't suck out with a bulb syringe no matter how much saline spray you use. Which meant, along with thunderstorms and other things, I was not sleeping at all. Let's just say.............it sucked!!!! But Aramis had his wellbaby visit on Wednesday, with the weird doctor, so I figured he could get checked out then. Ok, this is where it got annoying.
I tried explaining things that had been going on with Aramis to the doctor. First of all, next to being a princess, I think he is also deaf. He didn't hear a word I said. Then he told me Aramis should be on Vit D and Iron because he is breast fed. I asked if they were going to check his levels before giving him a suppliment. And he said no, so I said the office I worked at didn't do anything like that until 9 months old. And he said well, I don't know how they did things there, but it is recommended for breastfed babies. Then he asked if Aramis was up to date on shots, and I said yes, and told him what he had had. And he told me Pediarix wasn't indicated for 4 month old babies. I said that's what we gave them at 2, 4 and 6 months. And he said the office I worked at was confused and not doing things correctly. That made me mad. And he didn't even address the questions I had about starting to solid feed, about Aramis's breathing, and the need for suppliments. I asked if they could do a flu shot for Tristan, and he told me he couldn't even get into his chart because Tristan didn't have a visit. I glared at him, knowing he was lying. Then his nurse came in, by herself, with all the shots, none of them combination shots, to poke Aramis by herself. And it took a million years to give Aramis the rotateq because they aren't allowed to pinch cheeks or blow in babies faces. I told her to do it anyways, and she said it sounded like I came from a good office. GRANDVIEW I MISS YOU!!!!!!!!!!!
The next day, both boys were super congested, coughing and grumpy, which was lovely when we had to run into the basement and forgot to bring along tissue. By Saturday, after not sleeping for three days straight, I was losing my mind. I had called the office to find out how much benadryl to give Tristan, and they sure gave me the runaround before giving me the dose. It was ridiculous. Thankfully, Nick let me take a nap and cleaned up the house. (Thank you!) But when we stuck Tristan down for his nap upstairs, he started the horrible coughing and wheezing again.
I called the First Nurse line, the Iowa non emergent oncall thingy, and asked if there was an urgent care we could take him to. She said there was only one in Ames, it closed at 3 and it was already full, that we should go to the ER. The urgent care is by appointment only? I asked. What the heck?? Then she told me there was one in Ankeny, and they could take us. Great, 40 miles away and they closed at 3 too. We got the ids dressed real quick and headed out there door, getting to the clinic just 30 minutes before they closed. Turns out Tristan had a reactive airway, and a cold. And Aramis had an ear infection, and a cold. At least it wasn't RSV. So Tristan went back on steroids, and Aramis is on an antibiotic. Way to go doctor fairy princess.
When Tristan first started having problems, Nick said he thought it might be because he was sleeping near the dirty attic. I thought it might be because of mold, but Nick said he hadn't seen any up there and said we shouldn't bug the landlord about it and offend her. But, Tristan just hadn't gotten better. So Nick went an looked in the attic again, and low and behold, found a plentiful supply of black mold. He called the landlord to come see, and they decided to get a roofer and home inspector out to take a professional look.
I called the doctor's office to get a refferal to an allergist o get Tristan tested for a mold allergy. The receptionist took my number and said a nurse would call me back. Which they didn't, so I called again. And I was assured they would call me by the end of the day, and I said I was hoping to get the refferal so I could make an appointment with the other doctor before the end of the day. And they still didn't call me. So I called again in the morning, and they told me they did try calling back but they were getting a fax machine. Bunch of geniuses. They assured me they would call me back very shortly, so I waited for the call. And when it came, it was doctor fairy princess. Wanting to know why I wanted allergy testing if Tristan had asthma. First of all, he hasn't been diagnosed with asthma. So I told him about finding mold, and Tristan needing to be seen over the weekend in Ankeny. He asked why we weren't seen here, and I told him the clinic was full, and so he asked what time we would have gone, and I told him afternoon, and he said, oh yes, then we were closed. Then he asked why I wanted a blood test, so I told him it was because Tristan was on prednisone and zyrtec, and he asked why they prescribed that for wheezing. And I told him the doctor said a nebs wouldn't work because it wasn't in his lungs, it was up higher. To which he didn't believe me, said they were in the wrong and he wouldn't have treated like that. My blood was boiling at this point. "The reason I called was to get a referral to an allergist!" To which he said he would contact the office we saw over the weekend and the talk to the allergist and let me know what they thought. Wow, I just wanted to punch him in the face. But I needed a referral for a blood draw.
He called me back 10 minutes later to tell me he would agree to do the blood draw, and that I should see the allergist afterwards. Gee, ya think? So, lab work is by appointment only, go figure, and we made an appointment to go in later that morning. Then Nick's phone rang, someone looking for doctor fairy princess. We thought it was a patient, so Nick said he was a patient as well and that they shouldn't bother seeing that doctor because he and his whole office were idiots. Which Nick told the office when they called to make an appointment with the allergist. That came back to bite me in the butt when I was holding Tristan down for the draw at the lab, and one of the nurses told me it was urgent I go and speak to the doctor's nurse. They were freaked out and overreacting about Nick telling them he was mad someone had his cell number and was looking for the doctor. I ended up in a room with his nurse for 10 minutes with her explaining the call couldn't have come from them and they weren't responsible and Nick had overreacted. Can I go now?????
And then I got a call later, someone asking for Samantha, turns out they were looking for me, the doctor's office told the allergist's office my name was Samantha, and they were calling to change Tristan's appointment. I asked when the results of his test would be in and if someone would call to tell us. The girl was like, um, I can't to tell you that information. You can't tell me if someone will contact me with results? The doctor will go over them with you. It's just a blood draw, you can't call me before the appointment to tell if it's a positive of negative titer result?? WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH IOWA????
Moral of the story, this is not a good place to live if you are going to get sick. Or if you don't want to be swept away by a tornado.
But, we will let you know what the results are if we ever get them back.
But before we got approved, we had a problem. Probably one of scariest moments of my life. Around 2 AM on a Sunday, I heard Tristan crying on the baby monitor, and what sounded like vomiting. I woke up Nick an went up there with a towel to clean things up. What I found was Tristan coughing and struggling to breathe. He was trying so hard, coughing like a bark, and barely able to cry. I grabbed him and ran down the stairs, yelling for Nick to call 911. he dispatch lady was an idiot who thought chatting our ear off was more important than sending an ambulance, so we put Aramis in his car seat, I held Tristan on my lap and we drove like mad people to the hospital. Thank heaven there was one in Nevada.
They gave him a nebs treatment and a shot of steroids, told us it was the weirdest case of croup they had ever seen, and we went home two and a half hours later. I went and got him an at home nebulizer and prednisone a few hours later. A week later, he seemed like he was doing a lot better, and we got him into the pediatrician to have a follow up. I'm not one to judge, but when the doc came in the room and started talking to Tristan like a fairy princess, I thought he might be a little.......weird. By the end of the appointment, I concluded this guy doesn't spend enough time around adults. It was very hard to talk to, explain things to him. But he did give us an rx for a rescue inhaler and more albuterol, so I was fine with it.
The next week, Aramis started having congestion, the kind you can't suck out with a bulb syringe no matter how much saline spray you use. Which meant, along with thunderstorms and other things, I was not sleeping at all. Let's just say.............it sucked!!!! But Aramis had his wellbaby visit on Wednesday, with the weird doctor, so I figured he could get checked out then. Ok, this is where it got annoying.
I tried explaining things that had been going on with Aramis to the doctor. First of all, next to being a princess, I think he is also deaf. He didn't hear a word I said. Then he told me Aramis should be on Vit D and Iron because he is breast fed. I asked if they were going to check his levels before giving him a suppliment. And he said no, so I said the office I worked at didn't do anything like that until 9 months old. And he said well, I don't know how they did things there, but it is recommended for breastfed babies. Then he asked if Aramis was up to date on shots, and I said yes, and told him what he had had. And he told me Pediarix wasn't indicated for 4 month old babies. I said that's what we gave them at 2, 4 and 6 months. And he said the office I worked at was confused and not doing things correctly. That made me mad. And he didn't even address the questions I had about starting to solid feed, about Aramis's breathing, and the need for suppliments. I asked if they could do a flu shot for Tristan, and he told me he couldn't even get into his chart because Tristan didn't have a visit. I glared at him, knowing he was lying. Then his nurse came in, by herself, with all the shots, none of them combination shots, to poke Aramis by herself. And it took a million years to give Aramis the rotateq because they aren't allowed to pinch cheeks or blow in babies faces. I told her to do it anyways, and she said it sounded like I came from a good office. GRANDVIEW I MISS YOU!!!!!!!!!!!
The next day, both boys were super congested, coughing and grumpy, which was lovely when we had to run into the basement and forgot to bring along tissue. By Saturday, after not sleeping for three days straight, I was losing my mind. I had called the office to find out how much benadryl to give Tristan, and they sure gave me the runaround before giving me the dose. It was ridiculous. Thankfully, Nick let me take a nap and cleaned up the house. (Thank you!) But when we stuck Tristan down for his nap upstairs, he started the horrible coughing and wheezing again.
I called the First Nurse line, the Iowa non emergent oncall thingy, and asked if there was an urgent care we could take him to. She said there was only one in Ames, it closed at 3 and it was already full, that we should go to the ER. The urgent care is by appointment only? I asked. What the heck?? Then she told me there was one in Ankeny, and they could take us. Great, 40 miles away and they closed at 3 too. We got the ids dressed real quick and headed out there door, getting to the clinic just 30 minutes before they closed. Turns out Tristan had a reactive airway, and a cold. And Aramis had an ear infection, and a cold. At least it wasn't RSV. So Tristan went back on steroids, and Aramis is on an antibiotic. Way to go doctor fairy princess.
When Tristan first started having problems, Nick said he thought it might be because he was sleeping near the dirty attic. I thought it might be because of mold, but Nick said he hadn't seen any up there and said we shouldn't bug the landlord about it and offend her. But, Tristan just hadn't gotten better. So Nick went an looked in the attic again, and low and behold, found a plentiful supply of black mold. He called the landlord to come see, and they decided to get a roofer and home inspector out to take a professional look.
I called the doctor's office to get a refferal to an allergist o get Tristan tested for a mold allergy. The receptionist took my number and said a nurse would call me back. Which they didn't, so I called again. And I was assured they would call me by the end of the day, and I said I was hoping to get the refferal so I could make an appointment with the other doctor before the end of the day. And they still didn't call me. So I called again in the morning, and they told me they did try calling back but they were getting a fax machine. Bunch of geniuses. They assured me they would call me back very shortly, so I waited for the call. And when it came, it was doctor fairy princess. Wanting to know why I wanted allergy testing if Tristan had asthma. First of all, he hasn't been diagnosed with asthma. So I told him about finding mold, and Tristan needing to be seen over the weekend in Ankeny. He asked why we weren't seen here, and I told him the clinic was full, and so he asked what time we would have gone, and I told him afternoon, and he said, oh yes, then we were closed. Then he asked why I wanted a blood test, so I told him it was because Tristan was on prednisone and zyrtec, and he asked why they prescribed that for wheezing. And I told him the doctor said a nebs wouldn't work because it wasn't in his lungs, it was up higher. To which he didn't believe me, said they were in the wrong and he wouldn't have treated like that. My blood was boiling at this point. "The reason I called was to get a referral to an allergist!" To which he said he would contact the office we saw over the weekend and the talk to the allergist and let me know what they thought. Wow, I just wanted to punch him in the face. But I needed a referral for a blood draw.
He called me back 10 minutes later to tell me he would agree to do the blood draw, and that I should see the allergist afterwards. Gee, ya think? So, lab work is by appointment only, go figure, and we made an appointment to go in later that morning. Then Nick's phone rang, someone looking for doctor fairy princess. We thought it was a patient, so Nick said he was a patient as well and that they shouldn't bother seeing that doctor because he and his whole office were idiots. Which Nick told the office when they called to make an appointment with the allergist. That came back to bite me in the butt when I was holding Tristan down for the draw at the lab, and one of the nurses told me it was urgent I go and speak to the doctor's nurse. They were freaked out and overreacting about Nick telling them he was mad someone had his cell number and was looking for the doctor. I ended up in a room with his nurse for 10 minutes with her explaining the call couldn't have come from them and they weren't responsible and Nick had overreacted. Can I go now?????
And then I got a call later, someone asking for Samantha, turns out they were looking for me, the doctor's office told the allergist's office my name was Samantha, and they were calling to change Tristan's appointment. I asked when the results of his test would be in and if someone would call to tell us. The girl was like, um, I can't to tell you that information. You can't tell me if someone will contact me with results? The doctor will go over them with you. It's just a blood draw, you can't call me before the appointment to tell if it's a positive of negative titer result?? WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH IOWA????
Moral of the story, this is not a good place to live if you are going to get sick. Or if you don't want to be swept away by a tornado.
But, we will let you know what the results are if we ever get them back.
We call the nebulizer "penguin time"
My sick little one has been sleeping in my spot
We moved Tristan to the living room for the time being
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