Spring is in the air...

ok so,

Bella finally walked! Her preschool teachers and I were talking on Wednesday (3/11/09) about how she may be delayed in walking because her little feet turn in and, wouldn't you know it, while we were talking, Bella decided that that was the time to start walking. She took 6 or 7 steps. She didn't even know she couldn't walk before that. However, like Lily, since her few steps debuted, she hasn't done it again. Strangely, Bella is almost always exactly two weeks ahead of her sister with everything. With walking, Lily was exactly 2 weeks ahead of her for the first time.

The next day, we took the girls to their 15 month (12 month adjusted) preemie appointments. They are both functioning at 55 weeks, which is right on track. Both girls are a little on the small side for a year-old child but, having been a big gal all my life, I am not exactly upset about that. I am sure they will both catch up sooner than we want. The girls need to be 1500 grams to be discharged and since Lily was about 1460 and Bella in the mid 1300's, I was given the choice as to whether I would like to see the preemie specialist again or not. I chose to have 1 more appointment...just in case.

Really, I wanted another appointment so that I could grill the psychologist who usually also sees us during these appointments but was not there the day we went. She had been assigned to us when the girls entered the NICU upon their birth- standard procedure at Kaiser. After I delivered the girls, a hairy maneuver in the first place, I became extremely sick afterward. My family often feared the worst with good reason, especially during my postpartum massive hemorrhage in which I needed to be transfused with blood. I was at Kaiser for 6 weeks while the girls were sent home after 4. I begged the psychologist and the NICU not to send the girls home as they would have no mother there to care for them, their father was staying with me in the hospital and my mother had my sick-with-cancer father to take care of. At the very least, I wanted Kaiser to send a nurse home with the girls. Kaiser never relented. They sent the girls home anyway and for a month and a half, there was a regular troop of family and friends that came to donate their time, thankfully. As much as I am grateful to all of the people that cared for my girls in my absence, that was certainly not the best of situations to be in. Though I was extremely angry about the situation, I let it go and concentrated on getting well and being grateful that my girls were thriving themselves.

So, as we all now know, Nadya Suleman, the crazy octo-mom had her children at Kaiser in southern California. Like me, her babies went straight to the NICU. Unlike me, however, she is perfectly healthy, solicits the help of both her parents and has quite a number of offers coming in to help her with the babies as well as financially. From all accounts, this woman appears to have (at the very least) the resources needed to care for her children. Yet, Kaiser has refused to send her children home because they are worried about the state of the environment in which the babies will be released as well as her and her extended support group's capacity to care for her children. Are you kidding me? I had NOBODY at home to send my 2 new babies home to, I was very nearly on my death bed, my husband was a wreck and my mother was torn between me, her granddaughters and my sick father. Why is only this woman subject to deep inquiry of her home life and I couldn't even get a home nurse!?! Suffice it to say, I am mad as hell. Perhaps I am living in the past or refusing to accept what's done or even not putting into perspective how healthy and happy and beautiful my kids are and to just be lucky that I have them at all. Be that as it may, I am still entitled to know Kaiser's explanation of all this because I can't make sense of it.

However, before our appointment was the real drama. Since I had to take off work to take the girls to their appointments, my mother and I took the girls to have their Easter photos made at Kiddie Kandids. The girls did great with the photos. They even got to the point where they were happy and smiling and talking and acting like 15 month olds...until the series of several diaper blow-outs. Oh man, was that a mess and boy, did it stink! It also left Bella with a horrible diaper rash and a soiled Easter dress. Luckily, no one can possibly suspect that from the outcome of the photos. They certainly turned out better than last year's photos with the Easter bunny while we were visiting Augie's family in northern California.

Oh, and ironically, Kaiser sent a nurse home with me when I finally was discharged from the hospital. The nurse saw to dressing my classical incision (vertical) c-section wound. My mom thinks Kaiser was worried that an infected wound was the cause of my postpartum illness, thereby leaving the burden of responsibility of my near death on them. Kaiser feared a lawsuit, she said. Hmm!