I am going almost home....

YEAH!!!!

I get to go to Indiana and check out the corn they talk about!

Can't wait to meet everyone and get lots of kisses!!

See you soon!

Micah

Some mighty good news!

Micah is going to be transported to Lutheran on Friday! YAY! :) He is going to be "Lifeflight"ed to the airport in FW, then taken to Lutheran. Lifeflight is an airplane, not a helicopter like we thought! How exciting... We can't wait to see you all! And... Lutheran has slightly more lax policies on visitation, so we can have two different people a day see Micah (on top of us). Now, if you can squeeze your name in there among Micah's grandparents and great grandparents, good stinkin' luck. But anyway, it's all good news.

Micah is doing well today. He got his two month shots, which of course he didn't like. Really, though he did well with them. He got as mad as he does when they stick him for an IV or draw blood. He got real mad for about a minute, was whimpery for a few minutes, and fell asleep. Other than that, he was good!

While we will be sad to leave Cincinnati Childrens, we will not be sad to leave Cincy. The staff at the hospital are so good with Micah. We originally thought we would be leaving tomorrow, but it was pushed back to Friday... we actually needed the time to pack and say our good-byes to what's become our second familiy. :)

Anyways, feel free to party with us! Yahoo!

Long awaited Pictures....

1) Micah using his new pacifier skills

2)His bedroom. Lots of fun things to look at.

3)Dad, Mom and Micah

4)Micah showing off his halloween costume

5)Cuddle time with Grandma

Here's the ranting.. It's been a long time coming.

So this rant has been stirring in my mind for months, but now seems like the appropriate time. So here's the deal. Micah is doing fine. They'd let him go home if we could find a nurse to be at the house 8 hours a day. Why cant we? Our stupid insurance won't cover it. (They'll cover the 250,000+ to keep him in the NICU though). Our insurance doesn't cover home nursing care. Why? Because we had to buy our own. Neither of us have full time jobs, despite the fact that Travis works the equivalent of full time, and I work as well. So, we shelled out 1/4 (soon to be 1/3) of our income last year to buy insurance. We payed extra for maternity, waited the full year to get pregnant (you had to pay a year before using it). We played by the rules, yet here we are. The thing is, Micah didn't choose this. It's not his fault. We bought the best insurance we could afford (although there's not much choices, just the ratio of premium to deductible, and whether you want dental or maternity.)
The insurance system is broken. There shouldn't be a profit to be had. People should have to play by the rules, but they also should get the care they NEED. Especially children.. there's no reason this should be going on. Not everyone can find a full time job that pays for great benefits so they don't have to worry. Plus, what do you do when you feel called to do something else? We don't doubt we've spent the last few years where we should be.
It just doesn't make sense. We're not looking for pity, just understanding that not everyone has the insurance they need, or the ability to pay for the insurance they need. Give health care reform some thought.

A good weekend...

We had a great weekend. Grandma and Grandpa (Weaver.. although I when I say that I think of my grandparents) came to visit. Micah always behaves well for grandma and grandpa... They should come more often! Nothing new medically to report.. the medical rounds are pathetic on the weekend.
Micah got his weekly length... He's now 22 1/4" inches and 8 pounds 5 oz. He's a long skinny thing! He's doing well, and we're just waiting to see if we can get Micah transferred closer to home. We'll let you know when we hear something. We are hoping to get moved to "B" pod, and we are on the waiting list. "B" pod are individual rooms. There are three babies on the list before us (which means it could be 2 days or 2 weeks).
I'm sure grandma will have pictures to post soon.

Great day for Micah

Micah had two of his therapies, and he did great. He is showing more strength in his neck, which is awesome. The speech therapists do taste with him (dipping their finger/pacifier in milk and letting him taste it). Normally it creates a lot of saliva he can't handle, but he did really well with him. The speech therapist did 2-3 times more tastes with him than she's done before. It was really encouraging! We are so grateful for the therapists and how great they are with Micah. We know we'll be hard pressed to find therapists that are so amazing. :)
We will be glad to get out of this town, but we will miss our nurses, doctors and therapists. They keep our nurses fairly consistent, and his nurses are such a blessing. We know Micah is in good hands.

Please pray for baby Ellie (her mom is Deanna who replies on the blog). She's in the hospital with the flu and a high fever. Her two brothers have been sick as well. I know they'd appreciate it.

Outgrowing my clothes!

Micah is finally outgrowing his clothes! Most babies don't stay in newborns for 7 weeks, but Micah has. Micah is doing great. The doctors are basically ready to send us home when we get nursing care. We were dealt a HUGE blow on that front when we found out our insurance doesn't cover home nursing care. We have to file through some state waiver program, that could take 45 days! Everyone is frustrated and trying to pull strings. We haven't found out what strings they can pull. Needless to say, we're having patience problems... As an old friend would say, I'll just have to put my patient pants on. They're trying to see where they can move us to locally, if we'll be stuck for awhile.
The speech therapist is starting to teach us sign language to use with Micah. They want him to start learning signs in case he won't tolerate a 'speaking' trach in the future. So far it's basic words like mom, dad, sleep, milk, diaper, etc.
Micah is being a very good boy! We basically take care of everything for him that we are allowed to. The nurse joked she felt useless because we have his care down pat!
We hope you are all doing well... try to stay away from the flu bugs out there.