Henry’s (and Halia’s!) World

A very sad news segment caught my eye this evening; a 4-month old baby had been denied medical insurance coverage for a pre-existing condition - obesity. Apparently, the insurance company in question followed the CDC percentiles guidelines, and with this beautiful child weighing in measuring in the 99th percentile for both, he was deemed a health risk.

It got me thinking about two points;

1) Why would a health insurance kick out an individual (in this case the parent) willing to pay the premiums if there goal is money-making anyway?

2) Being in the business of health, wouldn’t the better option have been to see if a medical condition was causing this so called pre-existing condition?

As I look into the eyes of my four beautiful children, I am thankfully everyday that nothing worst than the seasonal cold has befallen them, and my heart just goes out to anyone having to deal with the overly complicated health system.

Thankfully everything turned out ok, and the little one got his insurance approved, but what genius thought denying coverage to an infant would be a sound business decision?

Wow the time has certainly flown, it really does seem like I yesterday I was pregnant versus taking care of a new baby.
Going through a growth spurt this week, so it has been week of lots of crying and not wanting to sleep every evening, I am just grateful that it hasn’t bothered the family as much as I had thought, rather I have a stampede of three eager beavers at every little sound she makes :).

A few pics from yesterday’s 154 picture shoot it’s the only way I’ll be taking pictures from now on, I loved having such a huge selection to choose from.

Halia turned 5-weeks old last Friday and she is meeting every expectation, gaining well, and best of all settling into a pattern of sleep, babbling and eating.

Big H celebrated his 9th birthday last Thursday, and got to celebrate (doubly) with his teammates after 20-7 victory against the Sharks football shaped cupcakes!

Our resident diva moved up a level in cheerleading so she is learning more sophisticated cheers, and has mastered cart wheels.

My guy Henry, is just him, mischievous as ever, getting into everything his brother does, and dotes on his baby sister.

Ok I know, the two really have nothing to do with other, but I needed a break from my paper “Gunshot Wounds (could there be any more depressing paper topic in 90-degree weather and 37-weeks pregnant?!? lol).

Any who 3-weeks ago we embarked on our baby shopping spree picking up baby’s play yard and i absolutely love it! Hubby actually found it, not only is easy to break-down and put-up for easy transport, but at 20-weeks I have faithfully played classical musical from my MP3 player every night for baby, and this play yard comes equipped with an MP3 outlet, which I am so excited to try out to see how much calming it does for a fussy baby.

Our next big item was finding a compatible stroller for my Chaperone Carrier and we decided to go with the Baby Trend Snap-N-Go and love the sleekness of it to take up as little space as possible,

and finally we got a tub which unfortunately is only available at Babies R Us, but well worth the drive, it grows with baby and that is a convenience I am sure any parent will appreciate.

Now for my list of must have items for baby’s first aid kit;
* Baby nail clippers or blunt scissors
* Cotton balls
* Baby thermometer
* Bulb syringe/nasal aspirator
* Medicine dropper or spoon with measurements
* Petroleum jelly and sterile gauze
* Infant acetaminophen (Tylenol)
* Antibiotic cream
* Saline nasal drops
* Baby gas drops
* Disinfecting hand soap

In a big way!
I thought i had done pretty well preparing the older siblings for the new addition due in 4-weeks, apparently I missed something because Henry decided to take a rock and scratch the entire side of the family van :0.

Looking back at all I’ve done maybe he could be suffering from overload? He has been to most of the prenatal appointments and ultrasounds, but this past Saturday we spent a better part of the day purchasing the big ticket baby items (play yard/bassinet, stroller) and while we were mindful to pick up gifts for each of the kid’s I assume it was all a little too much for him to take.

Unfortunately I missed the last sibling class at my local hospital and the next one starts after baby arrives so I did a search of books that can be easily obtained from my local library, and hopefully that will have his cooler head to prevail.

“A Baby for Max,” by Kathryn Lasky and Maxwell Knight.
“Alligator Baby,” by Robert Munsch.
“A Place for Ben,” by Jeanne Titherington.
“Arthur’s Baby,” by Marc Brown.
“Julius, the Baby of the World,” by Kevin Henkes.
“The New Baby,” by Mercer Mayer.
“Will there be a lap for me?” by Dorothy Corey.

And a wonderful site to check out for prepackaged sibling gifts, check them out;
http://www.babygiftstation.com/Siblings-Gifts-s/41.htm