Tummy Troubles

OK, Jill you asked for it.  This ended up being incredibly long and I thought I nothing to write about!  I missed my Tuesday entry because I opted to make Natalie a tutu instead.  Julia really wants to be ‘twins’ with Natalie so I’m trying to grant her request.  Hopefully, I’ll get some pictures of them together later today.

This week was doctor’s appointments for the older kids and none for Natalie!  Just check-ups for Zach and Julia.  They did great and we juggled Natalie’s feeding times pretty well too.  Zach’s got one more month on his thumb crib.  He’s not sucking his thumb anymore but chewing everything he can put in his mouth.  We decided to wait one more month just to be safe. 

Julia had her birthday checkup.  She didn’t have to get shots but had to have her finger pricked for blood to be drawn.  She’s become very anxious going to doctor visits because of her molescum bumps.  The finger prick was not easy but she got shiny silver band-aides so that made it all better.  She only had 6 more bumps to go and we are hoping the medicine we used last night will take them off.  We decided last night to celebrate today the ‘death of the bumps.’  Talking about the bumps ‘dying’ caused Zach to ask us about going to hell because he just wasn’t sure how to ‘ask Jesus into his heart.’  Wow!  We had a long discussion with both of them about how we all deserve punishment but that Jesus took the punishment for us.  Julia got very upset realizing she was always going to do things wrong.  We told her that was true but that God knew that and he sent Jesus to pay for anything we have or ever will do wrong.  When we believe Jesus came to save us, God sees us through Jesus.  We talked about asking for forgiveness when we know we’ve done wrong so we can be reconciled with God and then all prayed together.  The night ended with Zach saying maybe we should start doing family devotions.  Isn’t it amazing that God could use something like warts to start a deep theological discussion!

Natalie’s gas pain was very bad a few days ago.  She had one day of lots of inconsolable crying.  I was out doing errands with her and she started screaming.  I ended up pulling over to figure out what was wrong since it was so out of character for her.  I got her out of the car seat and she passed some gas then the crying stopped.  It happened several times that day.  Just before David came home that night, I started going through an infant massage book I’d gotten that afternoon using their gas pain relief techniques.  Natalie was practically hysterical before I started.  The first thing I tried was a pacifier.  They said the sucking releases endorphins and helps them handle the pain better.  It worked.  We also tried rubbing her back just above her bottom in a clockwise motion.  The book said it was a move to expel gas.  It worked!  I’ve been massaging her every day since then and she’s been much better.  Tuesday night she even went 7 hours between feedings.  I’m hoping to be able to take a class next month to learn more.

Had a scare with bills this week.  We got billed for the early intervention coordinator’s services.  The insurance company said it wasn’t medical so they couldn’t pay for it.  I asked the coordinator and she said it wasn’t supposed to be billed and she would check on it so hopefully that will work out.  The insurance company also said we are only allowed 30 physical therapy visits per year unless medically necessary.  Even if it’s medically necessary as in Natalie’s case, it is the insurance company’s option to pay for it or not.  Natalie will need A LOT more than 30 visits so we’d ask for prayer that it would be paid for.  We also received Medicaid for Natalie last week but only for the month of February.  They told me she could have it to cover the hospital bills.  When I called about it, social security said they awarded Medicaid starting the first full month after a person becomes disabled and that if we needed help before that, it would have to be through NC DSS.  DSS has a constant message saying they are too busy to take phone calls but they did have an e-mail address.  I’ve actually had good luck so far with getting responses over e-mail.  They are sending me an application for Medicaid through them.  So, we’d ask for prayer that we can hold off the bills that we are hoping Medicaid will pay for and that Medicaid will come through for January 18-31st.  I can see how all the money stuff could work out but right now it’s still unknown.  God has been gracious and reminded me not to worry about it again and again so we are just plugging ahead day by day.

Amy