Henry the Wild Man

Yesterday, nurse Michael came by and weighed Henry at 5 lbs 10.5 ozs. He initially thought that Henry looked pale. But he wasn't concerned because once Henry got peeved, his color returned to him.

In my free time, I had a fun round of talks with Schaller Anderson about why they weren't paying the $170 for the emergency anesthesia from my c-section. But let me back up. Our case manager at Schaller Anderson sent me a letter about two weeks ago saying that she assumed that I wanted to discontinue case management because she had not been able to get ahold of me. Mind you, I had talked with her three weeks earlier. Not sure what the fill-in-the-blank was going on for her to assume that we no longer wanted case management. I called her three times and left messages saying I had no idea that she had been trying to get ahold of me. She never left any messages on my voice mail and had not called Monday through Friday during the day because Jeff would have heard the call because he works from home. She finally called Friday and said that every time she called, she got a message saying that her number had been blocked from our line. But miraculously, it worked yesterday. I asked her about the $170 that Schaller Anderson had not paid for the anesthesia. She had called the claims department. Talked with someone named John C. (who wouldn't give his last name) and was told to have me call him. He couldn't talk with her because of privacy issues. This makes me of course wonder what the fill-in-the-blank a case manager is good for, if their own company representatives won't discuss the cases with them.

I called benefits looking for John C., but the woman answering the phone wouldn't transfer me. She said that she'd handle it. And, yes, they were denying the anesthesia because UPH (University Physicians Healthcare) had billed the c-section anesthesia as two line items (one for the anesthesiologist's time and one for the 2 units of anesthesia) instead of one line item. In other words, they were refusing to pay because UPH had described what they were billing them for. This was the same fill-in-the-blank that they had given me when I called them on 7/10. I said that they were being ridiculous. That I was taking care of a critical infant and that they weren't helping matters by giving me the run-around because of their nonsensical rules. The woman said that those were the rules. Essentially, she said that it was my responsibility to talk to UPH to get them to conform to Schaller Anderson's fill-in-the-blank billing practices and send things under one bill with one line item. What a bunch of fill-in-the-blanks.

I called UPH again. They reviewed the file and decided that the $170 wasn't worth pursuing. They aren't going to charge me for it. I thanked the woman at UPH and said that I realized that they were being gracious and that Schaller Anderson wasn't being responsible.

My dad visited Henry in the morning yesterday. My mom came by in the afternoon. We gave Henry a bath. He was pretty unhappy about it. I took the night shift of the Henry watch. Henry didn't sleep much.

Today (Saturday), we weighed Henry in mid-morning on our new baby scale. He was 5 lbs 11 ozs.

Jeff went to the grocery store. Brought some Sun Chips home. I had some. Then, unfortunately, I realized that they contain whey and nonfat dried milk in them. This, of course, presents a problem with Henry's milk allergy. Hopefully, this small amount won't effect him. But I've read cases online that say that even trace amounts can have them bleeding for several days after. Frustrating, because Henry has finally gone for over 24 hours without blood in his stools. Stools still contain mucous, suggesting inflammation, but the no blood is an improvement.

My mom came by in the afternoon. Henry had a nap that lasted an hour and a half (that's his new record for minutes sleeping straight). In the evening, he was a wild man. Vomited all over the place. Wouldn't settle down for the longest time. He would root, but then wiggle around like he didn't know how to suck on the nipple of the bottle. I tried nursing him. That worked for a few minutes but then he would shake his head back and forth not wanting to latch, despite making his "I'm hungry" La Cry.

Jeff and I really want to start infant massage with him. Babies who have massages on a regular basis gain weight faster than those who aren't given massages. But we can never seem to find a time when Henry is in a quiet, alert state that doesn't involve having just eaten. He's either screaming because he's hungry, drinking his bottle, content just having eaten (can't put him down horizontally for a 1/2 hour because of reflux), or taking an incredibly brief nap (in which case we don't want to disturb him).

Grandpa is holding him down. Looks like they are both taking a nap. Nice that he's finally not so crazy.