Whaaaa?!
Funnest toy ever. That tiny little head could be a tennis ball! Mum rarely approves, even when she’s laughing just as hard. She’s a very good mom.
It would be very cool if Little Pepper’s eyes stayed that colour. A very rich dark blue gray. But experience and research says this will most likely not be the case. And the mighty Irish genes make brown a pretty safe bet. We shall see. She’s got Marjorie’s ears down to the tiniest detail.
Today! We’ll brush past last night: three long three-stage feedings that really went without a hitch, and I slept like a baby (ha) between them, so other than the fact that we don’t feel particularly rested with continually interrupted sleep (hello, Geneva Convention), I have no complaints. Today Lee and I hooked up over G+ to tinker a bit with our super secret project with unnamed A-List celeb for unnamed premium cable channel, and that was good. Then I had to log off (do people still say that?) to run The Errand. Regulation size and weight breast pumps are not conveniently sized. And inside? Dude, I had an air compressor one third the size for my car tires. What, does medical equipment charge by the pound? And it’s I-kid-you-not sea foam green. I’m pretty sure the technology has updated at least incrementally since 1968, but clearly not the fashion sense. But at least (around here) they come in non-descript medical green cases. A guy like me carrying a breast pump might attract attention even in New York. And with the 7 train down again, I had to take the long way home.
Speaking of medical things, we got our hospital bill for Avery’s birth. Now, this is not counting the midwife. That’s an entirely different and not inconsiderable expense. No, this is just the hospital stay. Ready for it? Think about what you’d be out of pocket in Canada for four nights in a basic private room plus an emergency C-section. I don’t actually know, but I believe it’s zero. Please correct me if you know otherwise. South of the border here in the third world of universal health care (read: there isn’t any), the bill is $24,217.00.
Twenty four thousand two hundred and seventeen dollars.
We have insurance. It’s not cheap. Oh no it is not. But if you are thinking of having a baby in the states, and can afford to pay the deductible for a shared room (or more for private), then I suggest getting insurance first. We officially got our money’s worth. To date, anyway. I guess we have to experience a significant trauma every couple of years to make sure we’re cashing in. Man, what a broken system. No wonder people abuse it – on all sides, from patients to doctors to the insurance companies themselves. Everybody is trying to get their own back. So there’s your problem.
Anyway, gorgeous healthy baby girl. How do you put a price on that? So we’ll pay the deductible and the summary expenses and move on. Best money we ever spent, no question. I mean, lookit that face!
What a wacky little bunny. My First Duckface™.
I know I’ve got some important things to do tomorrow, but for the life of me I can’t think of them. Maybe sleep will help? I know Monday is a big day. Gotta take Avery to apply for her American passport. Woowoo! And I absolutely positively must make it to the Canadian Consulate to submit the application to renew my own passport, which expires rather too soon for comfort. So our little family will be traipsing all over town on Monday. I am glad she’s supplementing with formula. Because even though it makes diapers far more… adventurous, it does make feeding in public a pretty casual thing.
Oh, I remember the most important thing for tomorrow. Filling out all the paperwork. There is a mystifying lot of it for a couple of passports.
Hope I’m not forgetting anything else…
It actually lists “Baby” as the last item on the packing list for my Diaper Dude bag. Must be a thing that happens from time to time.
Maybe I should stuff her in there very first just to be safe?
