Odds and Ends

We had a quick but enjoyable visit from Grandpa last night -- we were the first stop on his road trip to see family and an old college friend. (The babies were asleep when he arrived, but then Matthew was up in the middle of the night -- this was the second night in a row that we'd been up in the middle of the night with a stuffy-nosed baby. The night before James had woken up at 4 AM, so now we're dragging a bit! I thought they'd be over this cold by now, but it seems to keep hanging on.)

Medical billing continues to be a hassle. The company that provides the babies' RSV vaccine sent us a bill for...wait for it...$500 more than it should have been. Ugh! When I called to ask about it, the customer service person said that it looked like a mistake and that it had been referred to accounting for review. I hope that fixes it, but we'll see. I also submitted a claim for my health savings account, and I picked a hospital bill that was closest to the amount I had in my account. Well, they rejected it because the bill "does not show the date of service." The bill was for a couple months of doctor charges for James's hospital stay, so I guess those idiots want me to fax them all 26 pages of it! It seems crazy to me that they would deny a hospital bill for that reason, especially since this is MY money that came out of MY paycheck -- they're just administering it. It's not like I submitted a bill from Crazy Ed's Ointment Factory or some other possibly non-health-related expense.

And in other news, at the risk of giving too much information, I think the babies' breastmilk days are coming to an end. It would have been nice if I'd been able to do more "normal" nursing and keep it up for longer, but seven and a half months of pumping will have to be good enough. I'm more sad than I expected to be about stopping, but between starting back to work again and diminishing supply, it doesn't seem worth continuing. (And because Matthew is now in a stage where he wants to bite whatever goes in his mouth, I am not highly motivated for more nursing!)

[Photo is from our road trip, during our surprisingly-challenging search for a family friendly bathroom to do a diaper change. We stopped at a Cracker Barrel, but there was a huge line for the restroom, so we trekked across the parking lot to the almost-empty "American Style" restaurant next door.]