The bad midwife

The OB practice I go to is a pretty big practice.  They have about 8 midwives, and 8 regular OB/GYN's.  Along with 2-3 Physician Assistants or whatever they are called. 

When I made my first official "OB" appt for this pregnancy, they made it with a midwife.  I had told them that it would be a 4th c-section for me, and they said it was fine that for the first 2 visits it didn't matter who you saw.  I said ok and had my first visit.  That visit went fine. 

When I made this last appointment for my 12 week check it was also made with a midwife.  When I got to my appt and she came in I told her I had a few questions/concerns for her.  She started to look through my file and then she looked up at me and said "I don't know why you're seeing me.  I only see low/no risk pregnancies."  I said to her "Oh, well they made the appt with you because they said it didn't matter who I saw for the first 2 visits."  She gave me this questionable look and said "really? well with this being your 4th c-section there's nothing I can do for you."  I told her how I had my NT ultrasound the day before and that with that ultrasound they were sticking with my due date that I first got with this practice of November 28th.  She looked at my file and said "No your due date is December 9th."  I said "How can that be with a last menstrual date of February 21st?"  She said "we go by your first sonogram which showed you at 7 weeks." 

I KNOW that is bull crap because my first sonogram showed me at 9 weeks.  And then the NT sonogram confirmed that as showing 12 weeks 3 days.  She said "Well if they want to go by that date fine, but we're going by December 9th."

That is NOT gonna fly with me.  First of all I have big babies anyway, so if they make me go 2 weeks longer that I'm supposed to you're looking at an 11 lb baby!!  Second of all with all the complications I had with my 3rd c-section I am scared to death to go to 39 weeks at this point!!

I told her I had some concerns about the thin uterus and about if I should be seen more often as time goes on etc etc.  She said "As I said before, I don't know why you're seeing me. I don't do high risk pregnancies."

Then she said "Well since you had your NT ultrasound yesterday and in your file it says you have a tilted anterior uterus I'm not even going to attempt to hear the heartbeat.  You saw it yesterday so that's enough."

*blinks*

She then got up and left.

By the time I got to the car I was full fledged in tears.  I called my husband who started going OFF.  "How dare them treat you that way!" "we are paying them to do a job" etc etc.

I told him maybe I was completely over reacting.  Maybe it was just the hormones or whatever.

I made my next appt with the same doctor who delivered my 2nd son.  I'm really hoping for some answers and an agreement to change my due date back.  I was/am so upset by my last visit.

I found out later that afternoon hubby ended up calling the practice and speaking with the Head Administrator or whatever.  She told him it was a mistake on their part for me to ever see a midwife, but that she was completely wrong in the way she handled the situation.  She told my husband that the midwife I saw should have immediately gone and gotten me a doctor to see and gotten someone who could answer my questions.  She apologized profusely to him.

Now I'm all embarrassed that he made a stink and I have to go back to this practice for the next 6 months!  UGH.

My sister suggested I call a perinatologist and see what they have to say.  Call and see if I can get a consultation with one and see what they think about the complications I had during my last c-section and if there's anything to worry about with this pregnancy.

12 weeks!

As I said, I had the ultrascreen tests done on Wednesday.  Part of the tests is the sonogram (again I talked about that!)  Well here are some pics from the sonogram!

Head to the right, feet curled down to the left.  Hubby says the baby looks like a shrimp in this photo and makes him hungry! LOL

Tiny legs!

Again head to the right facing you.

 Profile pic.  Head to the right feet up to the left.



Next entry will be about my not so nice OB visit this morning.  :(

Nothing wrong, just a not so nice doctor.

Ultrascreen

Yesterday I went for my Ultrascreen test for this pregnancy.  This is where they measure the "skin fold" on the back of the baby's neck and it's supposed to tell them (along with a blood sample I sent in a week or so ago) about my risks for this baby to have Down Syndrome, or Trisomy 13 or 18 and other major neurological disorders.

Because of Avery's problems I've been especially nervous this time around.  I've never really been a "worrier" during my pregnancies.  Never really thought about the whole "miscarriage threat" during the first trimester, never really thought about "what if something is wrong with the baby"  Hell I don't even remember ever doing any of these disorder tests with my other boys.  It's just never been something I've thought about.  I guess the whole "It won't happen to me" mentality was there.

I've asked my OB multiple times about things being wrong.  Things that they would never know anyway.  Things that typical pregnancy tests don't test for.  Autism, Apraxia, Sensory problems, etc.  They've made notes upon notes in my chart about my youngest son.  Notes that really don't mean anything I'm sure, since it isn't something they can test for.  They can only test for "Major" problems. They don't consider anything my youngest son has to be "major".

It doesn't matter that I think it's major.  It doesn't matter that I pay thousands of dollars each year for therapy for Avery. They just keep saying "It's not something we can test for."  And I have to accept that.

So yesterday while I was on the way to this test I was so extremely nervous.  I mean if one of my kids can have "minor" neurological problems, why couldn't one have "major" problems right?  Hubby couldn't go with me, and then he really hurt my feelings when I called to let him know I got there and he replied "well don't call me with the results because I'm going to be busy."  That bothered me, I admit it.

I got there an hour early so I texted back and forth with my oldest sister a little bit and kept Avery busy with his Nintendo DS and a book I brought.  When it was time to go up we did.  I filled out all the paperwork and eventually was called back.

My heart was racing a mile a minute.  Avery behaved very well though.  When she put the wand to my belly we immediately saw the baby moving around.  "well the baby is moving so we know there's a heartbeat!" She said.  I gave a thumbs up and a sigh of relief.  Avery and I watched on the TV screen as she went around the baby looking at things "oh look there's the baby's legs!" "aww the baby has it's arm by it's head!" etc.  She took the measurements she needed.  She said the "fold" had to be less than 3mm for there to be a low risk of problems.  The fold measured 3 times at 1.1mm so well below the "danger zone."

After the sonogram she went to check on my blood test results.  When she came back in she said according to just my blood results my risk was 1 in 644. When I gave her a "wow really?" look she responded "well you are getting up there in age!"

What?!?!  Did she just call me OLD?! LOL

She said "when you add in the sonogram results your risk goes from 1 in 644 to 1 in 10,000!"

I know, there's still a chance.  But at least it's a low one.  Now maybe I can stop worrying so much?

Probably not.

A Broken Laptop means a Broken Blog!

So I wrote my last entry on Friday May 7th.  I went to bed that night and left hubby downstairs on my laptop.  When I woke up Saturday morning, the older two boys had been awake for a little bit already.  I sat myself down on the couch and was about to open the laptop to check on all my comments, emails etc.  I opened my laptop and .... nothing.

The screen was bright white, but nothing was happening!  ACK!  I tried restarting the computer.  Same thing, just a bright white screen.  I did everything I could think of and nothing helped!  I woke up my husband and said "Since you were the last one on my laptop, YOU are the one that broke it! You get up right now and go fix my laptop!!"  He tried the "I wasn't the last one on it." bit with me.  Umm excuse me?!  Went I went to bed he was on it!  After a minute he came downstairs and said I was right, he was the last one on it, but maybe the kids were on it this morning.  Very possible, but who knows.

He tried a few different things and it still didn't work either!

I started freaking out.  How was I going to survive without my laptop!!  I mean sure I could get online on my iphone, but it's not the same!

And ever since then I've been without my laptop.  Maybe hubby will buy me one for father's day?! LOL

I'm on the kids computer right now, which is SO old and slow and I just hate it!  I need my outlet back!  My laptop is the key to my sanity!

And THAT my friends is the reason for my broken blog :(

Please be paitent with me while I beg borrow and steal for a new laptop! LOL

What a week!

Wow I can't believe the last time I blogged was Monday!  It has been quite a week around here.  As everyone knows it seems Avery and Austin came down with some kind of virus last weekend.  By Monday I had taken Avery into the doctors about it.  They decided to do a stool culture and test for Salmonella and Rotavirus plus other bacteria.  Tuesday I took Austin to the doctor.  I figured if they were testing Avery for these things, they may wanna test Austin too since they had the same symptoms.

I was told to keep them home till Thursday.  Just great Monday was Avery's first day of preschool and then Tuesday he was home sick.

So let's go over this again.  The complete total liquid explosive poops started friday morning.  Now here it was Wednesday and I was still cleaning up this nasty liquid poop all day long.  I was thankful that Austin was making it to the toilet, but when Austin would throw up he only made it to the toilet once.

I called the doctor Wednesday afternoon to see if they had Avery's results in yet and was told they didn't.  Thursday morning I sent all 3 kids off to school.  I told my sister "really, what are the chances that in the 2 hours he's at preschool that he'll have an explosive poop?"  While the kids were at school I bleached Avery's mattress and steam cleaned the carpet with clorox 2.  I started spraying the carpet with Lysol and I bleached the bathrooms.  I got a phone call from the doctors that morning saying all of Avery's cultures came back negative.  I told the doctor I was completely baffled.  Why were they still having liquid poops and throwing up if everything is negative?!  It has been almost a week now!  Even the doctor agreed that most stomach virus's last 24, 48 at the very most 72 hours.  This has gone on WAY beyond that!

I went to pick up Avery from school and out he walked with his spare clothes on.  His teacher informed me that he had a "bad diarrhea" diaper.  She said he freaked out and it took her a while to get him to let her change him.  She said she ended up just taking him into the bathroom and kind of spraying him down with some water and a cloth.  She told me he would need to be cleaned better and that he "probably needs a bath".  She went on to tell me "maybe he shouldn't come back tomorrow in case it happens again, because I won't be here to change him."

What are the chances of him having one in the 2 hours he was in school?  Obviously with my luck, very good.

Spoke with the doctor again and was told if it was still going on Monday to bring him back in.

Austin was fine at school Thursday and had a normal poop Thursday night.  Obviously Austin was on the upswing!

Yesterday morning we find out someone had hacked into my paypal account and charged 320.00 worth of gaming site "coins" to my check card.  They bought playfish "cash" and pogo games and stupid things like that.  I then went to sign into my email and found they had hacked my email too and changed my password!!  It wasn't very hard since paypal has my email and the passwords were the same.  I immediately emailed playfish and pogo stating that I had never made those purchases and that I wanted them reversed.  Also went and put in unauthorized charges disputes with paypal for each transaction.  Then immediately called the bank.  Bank said they couldn't do anything until Paypal decided what they were going to do.  Got an email yesterday afternoon from paypal saying they agreed in our favor and that the money would be refunded in 2-3 business days.  Called the bank again (since I was charged an NSF fee for one of the transactions) and was told they won't reverse the charges till Paypal deposits the money.

Changed all my passwords and security questions and took my check card off my paypal account.


Kept Avery home from school today and sent the other two boys off to school.  Exterminator came today and I spent the day cleaning and disinfecting again.  Avery hasn't had another diarrhea diaper since school yesterday.  Could we be over this thing??  Could it have actually been a virus that lasted this long?  Or maybe something else that they just are getting over now and the doctors couldn't find?

Wow!  What a week!!

Avery's First day of Preschool!

Today was Avery's first day of preschool!  I spent all weekend prepping him for going to school.  I'd ask him "Are you going to school on monday?" "Are you going to have fun at school?" "You're going to school like a big boy!" Etc, etc.

This morning when he woke up I got him dressed, fed, etc for school.  I got his backpack together with his change of clothes and a bag of diapers and wipes.  I asked him again if he was going to school and he responded with a "yeah!"  I asked if he was going to have fun and he replied with "yeah!"

I also got the other boys ready for school.  Of course I was running late this morning.  I was trying desperately to leave the house and every time I tried to walk out the door one of the boys needed something else or had to go to the bathroom, or "forgot to have me sign something".  I ended up leaving the house at 9:15 and all 3 kids have to be at school (at 2 different schools I remind you!) at 9:25.  I managed to grab a few pics of Avery while we were heading out to the car.

I dropped the older boys off at their school and made a quick U-turn to book it over to Avery's school.  I got stuck behind the school buses though of course.

I was planning on parking at Avery's school and walking him up to the teachers at the front of the school.  Because I was running late though I pulled through the carpool line and pulled right up to the curb and threw the car in park and jumped out to get Avery.  He climbed out of the van and the speech therapist came over to take his hand.  The  minute she got to Avery he immediately high tailed it back into the van.  Started screaming and crying yelling "No mama!" "No mama!" over and over.  I tried to tell him I was just going to park the van, but that wasn't working.  It ended up taking 3 people (2 at his feet and 1 at his arms) to carry him out of the van and to the sidewalk.  I jumped in the van and bolted out of there.  I didn't even get the van into drive before I started bawling.

What kind of horrible mother leaves their child who is screaming bloody murder with people who are complete strangers to him?!  He doesn't know how to communicate with them!!  He's scared to death and I just dropped him and ran.

I kept telling myself the whole way home "He's probably fine now! He got into the classroom and as soon as he saw the toys and everything he stopped screaming."  I called my sister who told me they wouldn't let him scream for 2 hours and she reassured me that he was probably fine!

I spent the whole 2 1/2 hours he was gone wondering if he was ok.  I was practically begging the clock to hurry up and get to 11:20 so I could go pick him up.

At 11:20 I left out of here so I could park at the school and make sure I was standing out front when they came out so he would immediately see I was there to get him.  At 11:40 I saw one of the ladies who work in the main office walking by and asked her if I was in the right spot for the preschoolers.  There wasn't any other parents there and I was beginning to wonder if I was in the right place.  She told me I was and that they don't usually come out till 11:55am.  I swear the preschool teacher told me 11:40!  So I sat around a few more minutes.  A few moms showed up and I spoke with them (who all highly raved about Avery's teacher, though none of their kids have Avery's teacher).  The door opened and Avery's class started coming out.  He was holding hands with another kid (think buddy system) and the kids all walked in a line over to the school bus where the kids started loading.  When they got to Avery the lady said "oh no, not you sweetie..mommy's right there to get you!"  Avery turned around saw me, and started bawling.  I picked him up and asked if he had fun (which I got a "no" from him).

The teacher came over and told me how wonderfully Avery did, and how he stopped crying immediately and was already done crying before they even went into the classroom.  While I was talking to the teacher Avery was busy screaming at the top of his lungs and pointing to the bus.

He wasn't mad at me for leaving him!!! He was mad that he couldn't get on the bus with all the other kids!!

The teacher said to me "see he wants to ride the bus with everyone else! They all do!"

During his IEP meeting I filled out the paperwork for him to ride the bus, so I can have him do it if I want to, I just am a little uncomfortable with him riding the bus and not communicating.  I'll give him a few more days and if he still wants to ride the bus I'll set it up for him to take the bus home, and for me to drive him to school.


So the morning was horrible, but he did great!  I asked him tonight if he was going to go back to school tomorrow and he said "No! stay home!"

*sigh*  We'll see how tomorrow goes!

What a weekend!

So we started the weekend off with a stomach bug going through our house!  YUCK!  So we spent Friday and Saturday cleaning up poop and puke.  What fun! (notice the sarcasm!)

On Sunday everyone seemed to be feeling better but we spent the morning and afternoon making sure someone else didn't get sick.  We decided after dinner if the kids were still feeling good we would take them for an evening game of putt putt and some fun at the batting cages.

Some pictures from our fun! :)