Friday, September 21, 2007

First car trip for pictures

We went and got our pictures taken this morning. My husband says we are crazy because we drove 80 miles one way just to get a few pictures snapped. I keep telling him it will be worth a drive a lot longer than that for the quality of pictures we will get. Jacob did great. He slept the whole way down and back. He wasn't too bad for the pictures either. A little crying and we had to stop to give him a bottle. We had to stop for some clean ups too. He was naked for all the pictures and well, things happen. We hadn't even started five minutes when he pooped on my leg. Then he the other leg got peed on a little later. She had him posed laying on his tummy and he started wiggling around. He peed again.

I was so happy to get this photographer. I called before Jake was born and they said they would have to try and work us in. They called while I was in the middle of a crying fit at the hospital to tell me they just weren't going to be able to work us in. Like I said, I was already crying and I told the photographer's assistant that I had meant to call and tell them that Jake was in the NICU and we weren't sure how long he was going to be there so we wouldn't be able to just come when they were able to fit us in. So it just seemed that was how things were meant to be. The assistant was super nice and wanted me to call and just leave a message when Jake got out just so they would know. We talked about when to make an appointment for his six month and year pictures so we would get in. One day when I was walking to my car from the NICU to go home for lunch they called and said they felt so bad they would get us worked in. She likes to get the pictures done earlier than three weeks but we will take what we can get. I was so happy. It turns out the assistant had a baby born at 34 weeks and had a 4 week NICU stay. Her baby was here at my hospital and she had to drive that 80 miles every day plus she had two other kids to care for. One of the photographer's kids had also had to have a two day stay in the NICU so they knew how miserable it feels. I just can't wait to see the pictures. They are pretty expensive but this is something so totally worth the money to me.

I get an email today that a new charge showed up on my hospital account. It was Jacob's bill. It isn't itemized or anything and it only covers the hospital, not all the doctors too. It was a horrible number but not as bad as I thought it would be. It didn't have my hospital bill on there though so I'm sure it will be much worse. It was more than I paid for my SUV when I bought it but not a lot more. Thank God for health insurance. Between the two of us we are going to have cost our insurance between 75 and 100,000 and the year isn't over. They can't drop us right?

3 comments:

Linlee said...

It's shocking what hospitals charge. Our bill plus 5 days in NICU was like $25,000. We are only getting stuck with $1500! Thank god for insurance

Kirsten said...

Let me put your mind at rest...
My total charges JUST for the girls NICU stay were just under $400,000. Together with the charges for my stay, we're looking at around $450,000. Scary. So far all I have had to pay is my co-pay for my 3-day stay, which was $1,500. Every time I get notice that a claim goes through, I am so relieved but they just keep coming. Thankfully, the NICU fees have all been paid!!
That's great that you guys already had professional pics taken. I think we are going to do our first set soon and use them for our Christmas cards.
Sounds like things are going well and you guys are adjusting great to parenting!

Keeping The Faith said...

I am so so so happy to hear that Jake and you are doing well. It had to be so scary and just horrible to go through such an awful labor. I've been reading all of you posts when I can get near a computer. I wish I had more chances to comment. Jake is so cute! I'm so proud of you... You worked up until the end and make it full term and survived a delivery that makes a C-section in my near future sound almost appealing :-)

Congrats Mommy on a job well done!

Fondly,
Faith