So, one of the things that has been "let go" in new mommy-dom is housework.  Because the only time I have the energy to clean is on weekends and D works weekends and the girls want tons of attention at all times, the only real areas that I can keep up on are the kitchen, living room, and dining room.  Even then, I'm pretty much cleaning while holding a baby, while feeding a baby, while comforting a baby, or cleaning around two babies playing.  Anyway, a co-worker has an 11-year-old stepdaughter that wants to start getting some babysitting experience.  So, I've asked her to ask the SD if she would be willing to set up a standing once a month Saturday or Sunday to come over to the house and "babysit" the girls while I clean other areas of my house.  Co-worker thinks SD would be ecstatic to watch the babies and I can get caught up on my housekeeping.  (Honestly, I'm very OCD and I hate seeing all the dust/dirt on my floors/counters.)

Poor Keighly has been fussy all weekend - runny nose, a slight cough while sleeping, wanting to be held constantly.  We've just been letting everything run its course, but yesterday when I got home she had a temperature of 100 degrees, her left ear and cheek were bright red and she kept pulling on her left ear.  I called the Triage nurse and she recommended bringing her into the office this morning.  So I brought her in and confirmed she had an ear infection.

We got a prescription but will not be filling it at this time.  Because kids these days are so over-medicated, doctors are now recommending that kids be allowed to let ear infections run their course without antibiotics.  We're going to give her baby Tylenol regularly to help with pain but will not fill the prescription unless the infection won't go away.

Because all women love Tom Selleck.

http://www.cubeslacker.com/content/view/149/36/

Some content may not be horribly suitable for work viewing - luckily they can't afford to fire me right now cause they can't get anyone to take one of the two open positions as it is.

Although the Customer Support Supervisor felt the need to scream "Yeah, but they're really girls" to the rest of her department, Batman and Robin were the hit of the office Trick or Treating.  They had everyone cooing over them, especially once they got past their initial shock and broke out the smiles.  They also collected waaay too much chocolate for infants.  Luckily one woman was smart enough to know it would be the infant/toddler set in the office and brought animal crackers :)

We spent the evening working grandma and grandpa over for whatever we could.  Both girls walked out in new pajamas and full of sugar.  Oh well, it's once a year and it didn't seem to affect their sleep at all.  They both passed out on the way home and didn't wake up until late the next morning.  Keighly had to be woke up at 9 for a 10 am appointment and Audrey finally woke up about 9:30.

The only thing that didn't really sit well with me was the woman in the office who hadn't realized that I had twins or that they were so early.  D got caught with her while Audrey and I were talking to another co-worker and he wound up telling her they were so early.  We then get the inevitable "Are they okay?" Since we're not at all ashamed of the fact that Keighly has CP, we told her Keighly had CP.  She was so over the top in telling us how sorry she was and how hard it must be for us that I really wanted to vomit.  Hey lady, pity not wanted and/or needed.  This was further compounded when Keighly came home from her appointment on Thursday with her Ankle-Foot Orthosis.  I'm really going to have to figure out how to handle these morons because it is now obvious to others that Keighly is special needs and the comments aren't going to stop.  I just cringe thinking about the first "well-meaning" comment that Keighly understands.  How does one protect her little girl from the ignorance of the world?

As we approach 17 months, the girls are getting bigger, faster, and wilier.  I'm not sure how much longer D and I will be able to keep up with them :)

My mom finally got a hold of me via phone this weekend.  The conversation went something like this:

Mom - I haven't heard from you for a while.  Is everything okay?
Me - Everything's fine.  I'm just not interested in letters right now.
Mom - (crying) That wasn't me.  I had nothing to do with any of that.  (I'm a victim is implied.)
Me - (eyes rolling) Well, I don't understand why it's such a big deal if I stay with Roxy since her house is quieter for the girls.
Mom - I never cared that you stayed at Roxy's.  I told you to do what you had to do.  I was just going to see MY GRANDCHILDREN.
Me - Well, apparently that changed once I left because apparently you're depressed and it's all my fault.  I doubt grandma got that idea all on her own without any theatrics from you.
Mom - Everything's all my fault.  I can't do anything right.  (Once again, I'm a victim is implied.)
Me - Look, I don't have time for bs letters that claim dad's got diabetes because of me and that you have depression because of me.  I certainly don't have time for letters that say Roxy is a "snake in the grass" and that she's a horrible person I should have nothing to do with.  Not one of you people came when I was on bed rest and YOUR GRANDCHILDREN almost died.  Roxanne was there the day after I called and didn't leave until you finally did show up 2 f'ing weeks later.
Mom - Well, did you call me?
Me - You know what, I'm done.  I'm taking a break right now.
Click

I can't even begin to believe the gall of this woman.  Somehow it's my fault she didn't come even once while I was on bedrest because I didn't call her?!?!  I called her that Friday night on my way to the f'ing hospital with no clue what was going on.  I guess I didn't realize I had to beg her to come.

And I'm so tired of the "Tommy's Twins" and "my grandchildren" bs I could puke.  These are my children and quite honestly, they don't know you from a hole in the wall.

...when you let your child eat off the floor.  And not just anything off the floor but the half-eaten, slobbered all over by her sister frozen waffle from approximately 6 hours earlier.  Audrey managed to find the rest of Keighly's waffle from about 10 on the kitchen floor at about 4.  I watched her pick it up, briefly pondered taking it away from her, and decided it wasn't worth the fight.  She proceeded to polish off said waffle.

I've been doing Weight Watchers but I'm reaching that point where it's getting a little stale.  Then, they sent out an announcement for a Weight Loss Challenge at work.  Basically, we each pay in $22.  We then set a personal goal for the amount of weight we would like to lose over the next 16 weeks.  If we meet our personal goal, we get $20 back.  The person who loses the highest percentage gets the extra $2 and any of the money from those who do not make their personal goal.  This is perfect for me -  I know I won't be the biggest loser as I've been dieting since June, but just getting my money back will keep me on track.

We had another appointment with our Rehabilitation Doctor at Gillette yesterday.  4 freaking hours later we were on our way.  They schedule the appointment at the Minnetonka clinic which means about a one hour drive for us.  Once at the clinic, we had to wait to see the doc - Audrey's appointment was scheduled at 9:40 and Keighly's was scheduled at 10.  We finally saw him around 10:45.  During our visit with him, we decided to get Keighly's first set of leg braces - this would require molds of her legs.  It took until 12:15 for an orthotic specialist to come in and make the molds.  Now, we were offered to reschedule the molds for another day, but that's another day off and another one hour drive so we waited it out.  Anyway, our new braces should be ready in about 2 weeks and will be used mainly during therapy at first.

In good news, it's always nice to have a doctor tell you he wouldn't change anything with the girls right now.  We've got the right mix of therapy with down time going for them.  In even better news, D and the MIL have to take them to get flu shots today - mom doesn't have to go!

Well, we've started cold/flu season again.  Last year, the girls were on virtual lock-down and left the house a total of 3 times for something other than doctor's visits.  Just last month at our 15-month checkup we were told that we would not have to be nearly so strict and that the girls wouldn't even qualify for Synagis shots (RSV vaccination) this year.  So instead of being quarantined at home, we are planning on just keeping them out of grocery stores, church, etc but bringing them to visit friends and family.

Anyway, on Friday I got home to a message on my answering machine from Pediatric Home Services.  Not a big deal right?  They service Keighly's pump and provide our equipment for said pump.  Wrong!  Dr. Chawla actually wrote orders for Synagis shots and it's actually been approved through BCBS.  Shock of all shocks - a health insurance company that believes preventative measures are better than hospital stays.  However, these shots are not cheap.  The shots themselves are $1800 a month and the home health nurse visit is $200 a month.  That's per child for a total of $4000 a month.  This is billed as outpatient hospital care and is not a basic $15 co-pay.  Instead, it's 20% for a cost to us of $800 a month. 

I'm really torn right now because I know the girls need these shots and I'm ecstatic that BCBS will even cover the $3200 a month.  BUT, D and I don't have $800 a month laying around.  We have just enough in savings to cover these but it will leave us next to nothing when our next "emergency" strikes.  Am I a horrible parent if I can't get these shots for my girls?  Do I get the shots and charge them to my CC because I have no other choice?  Right now, I'm waiting for the doc to call us back since the last we heard from her was that we didn't need the shots.

EDIT:  Doc called back and HIGHLY recommends these shots.
EDIT 2:  Whew... I called Pediatric Home Services to get some clarification on costs.  Turns out we pay 20% of the home health nurse visit which is billed at $230, is reduced to $150 by BCBS, and will cost us $30 a kid per month.  We then get billed for the medication which is a $15 co-pay.  $90 a month I can handle, $800 a month not so doable.

Just got done with my salary meeting with my Director.  It went really well.  We didn't discuss numbers, but I at least got a chance to show what I had done above and beyond this year.  She seemed amazed and kept repeating that she "never would have known" if I hadn't scheduled this meeting.  She is going to convince HR to do a Market Analysis Research and was even more impressed when I handed her my research.  *fingers crossed*

Keighly needs lots of early intervention therapy.  To date, she receives in-home therapy from the school district every Tuesday at 1:15.  On Thursday mornings, she receives Physical Therapy/Occupational Therapy co-treats at 9am.  I've rearranged my schedule to where I come in at 11 so I can take her to the Thursday morning appointments.  Today, we've added Speech Therapy to the mix - not once a week, but twice a week.  These appointments will be on Mondays at 4:30 and Wednesdays at 3.  The Monday appointment is fine (I'm off at 3 anyway), but I'll have to rearrange work to leave at 2 for the Wednesday appointment.

I know that the therapy is working.  (Just this week, we've figured out how to get our left hand out of the way to army crawl throughout the house.)  I also know that the more we hit it early on, the better she'll be in the long run.  But, I'M EXHAUSTED.  I may not have project management skills at work, but that's all I do at home.  In addition to the therapy appointments, I juggle appointments with the pediatricition, the neurologist, the opthamologist, and the rehabilitation doctor on a regular basis.  I then have to figure in the "just-in-case" appointments (i.e., cardiology and audiology).  Once all of these are scheduled, I then have to decide if I can rearrange my schedule to go to these appointments, if both D and I should go, if I can't go find someone to help D go.  And now, we add 2 more weekly appointments onto this.  I can't remember the last time I actually talked to my husband let alone slept with him.  I run on approximately 5-6 hours of sleep a night.  I just want to cry.

A meeting has just been scheduled with my director for Friday.  Said meeting is to discuss my salary.  While I really can't believe I had the guts to ask for this meeting, my director was more than happy to schedule something.  She told me to bring my expectations with reasoning behind said expectations and she would bring hers.  I'm nervous/glad to get an opportunity to discuss my salary frustrations.  Hopefully all goes well!

Well, I managed to horrify my MIL last night.  (Not really, but she would just go very girly if she would have gotten to have one daughter let alone identical daughters.)  D showed her the girls' Halloween costumes for this year and I'm sure she was thinking fairies or princesses or something so pink my head hurts thinking about it  - but, D and I don't like to stand upon gender roles so the girls will be going as Batman and Robin this year.  I'm sure there will be plenty of princesses once they're old enough to choose their own costumes.

D has to work tonight, so I had to come in early instead of taking Keighly to therapy.  So D had to load both kids up and take them.  Keighly goes back and does her work and Audrey plays with the other kids stuck waiting for siblings in the waiting room.  Apparently, there's one little boy that Audrey adores.  Unfortunately, he does not share the love.  Today, when she kept getting in his face, he pushed her down and then started to cry.

Is it wrong that it amuses the hell out of me that he pushed her down AND THEN STARTED TO CRY?

D and I have decided to celebrate the girls' "Homecoming" day.  Since twins get stuck sharing birthdays (that traditional "all about you" celebration day), we figured this would give the girls one day a year where the focus was solely on each one as individuals and not on the two of them as an entity.  We're planning on keeping the festivities family-oriented and focused on how each girl contributes equally to our family.  In the future, these days will most likely be the girls picking a fun activity that we all then participate in.  However, I'd like to start some kind of fun tradition with their first.  Audrey's first Homecoming day will be next Tuesday (she's only been home for one year?!?) and I'm still at a loss for a tradition.  Does anyone have any ideas they'd be willing to share?  Also, since Audrey LOVES herself a Wendy's Frosty, would it be silly just to go to Wendy's for dinner?

D just took Keighly to another swallow study to see if we could begin to give her bottles again.  While we are not able to give her regular formula, we are able to give her a specialized bottle with thickened formula (basically 1 TBSP of rice cereal per 1 oz of formula).  Slowly but surely!

We had our NICU Follow-Up visits on Friday afternoon.  All in all, it was a good visit.

Audrey - Audrey was right where she needed to be.  She did well on the BAYLEY test and made sure to let every doc who looked at her know how outraged she was.  I don't know if it's a good thing that every doc we see says she either "spritied" or "strong-willed" but there it is - my onrey baby.

Keighly - Keighly did fabulous.  She scored exactly the same as Audrey did on the cognitive portion of the BAYLEY test (YAY).  The clinic gave us a splint for her left thumb to help pull that thumb away from the hand so she can use it more effectively.  

However, I was a little annoyed/confused by the NICU OT.  This woman just really struck me as rude and unprofessional.  First, she saw Keighly for a whopping 30 minutes.  During this 30 minutes, she's telling us all about how she could never work for the school district because they only care about test scores and don't actually provide therapy for the kids (as she's issuing a test which the school district has never done) and then tells us that she had to issue Keighly's test because her colleague couldn't handle such a hard case.  She then leaves the room to score Keighly's test and comes back to tell us our private therapy isn't good enough and we need to move to Gillette for therapy.  Now, we left Gillette because the red tape was just to difficult to work through.  Plus, Keighly's only had 3 appointments at the FAC and she's still mostly crying through them as she gets used to the therapists.  But, she has begun a little commando crawling and is using her left hand more and eating more.  We're not expecting miracles after 3 visits, but we have seen improvement and are pleased with our choice.  It just annoyed me that this woman could decide after 30 minutes that D and I are making horrible choices with our girl.

yesterday in therapy.  It wasn't for very long (once she figured out the therapist would keep moving the toy back she stopped and refused to go futher) and it was only the army man/elbows & toes kind of crawl, but still not bad for a girl that wasn't supposed to leave a wheelchair!!

My dad's sister just emailed me.  Her and her kids; my other aunt and her kids; my grandma; and possibly my mom are coming up to the cities this weekend.  I've been avoiding my grandma and my mother like the plague after the letter incident - god this sucks.  Why can't family just be normal?!?!?