Sorry I have been absent but things have not gone smoothly in our household since the move. And, I only just got Internet back today. I am now living in San Antonio, but the move was horrible. I will bullet point this to make it less lengthy. Please feel free to laugh, it is better than crying.
1) movers came a day late and then three hours earlier than they were supposed to. Then a snowstorm hit.
2) we left the next day in a snowstorm, and Blossom (the Great Pyr) threw up all over all the bedding I had put down in the back of the van for her and our Dane within 20 mins of our pulling out of the driveway. Luckily the cats gave up meowling an into the ride, and Cordy slept for a good portion of it.
3) thought we were making good time considering the road conditions until we hit a 3-hour traffic jam outside of Dallas - took that long to move 7 miles. Lost my hubby (who was in the other car with the boys) in the mess and with no way to reach him (he forgot his cell phone when he drove back to KS) spent about 1.5 hours after that trying to find him on the highway.
4) couldn't drive anymore after about 21 hours so pulled over for nap and finally made the new house 23hrs after leaving Lawrence.
5) expected the movers the next day...no movers...no answers. Took 9 days of living in an empty house with antsy kids to finally reach the owner of the moving company only to be told that the van had been in a slight accident during the storm the day they picked up our stuff and they would give us an $800 discount, and to let them know if there was anymore damage. I got so frustrated with them that I started bleeding profusely out of my nose and mouth (yup it was that bad) and couldn't get it to stop for 45mins. I never even get little nosebleeds so it was truly spokey and the kids were terrified because I got so weak that I couldn't stand up and had to call my DH to come home from work.
6) movers show up the next day in a rented U-Haul because the 'slight' accident destroyed their van. Half of our stuff was outright destroyed, about a 1/4 has massive damage. I am living without a vacuum, washer/dryer, television, most of the bedroom furniture (which was all handmade by my father). Some furniture that we have had for years is totaled and the clothing buckets shattered so I have to go through every single item of clothing (yes, from newborn up to adult) to sort it out, figure out what ended up on the road during the accident and is therefore wet and mildewy by now. We are sleeping on a mattress that has a huge welt running horizontally down the middle so our bums are elevated. $800 should cover it - my (insert cruder word for bottom).
7) Also, things run differently down here, and all the midwives are actually out of network for the insurance so what they do is estimate what you deductible will be and then what your copayment will work out to, adn then need to have that amount paid to them by 36 weeks. Anyway, I have interviewed the medwives who deliver at the hospital and are covered in-network by my insurance. They were okay, but I want a water birth. Then I went to the birth center, and loved them (they were really great with my kids) but had no idea how I was going to come up with $2000 in 6 weeks considering the move and the mess with all our stuff. Yesterday I interviewed the homebirth midwives and they have to be the nicest human beings on the planet. I am a little small-looking (people don't believe I am 30 weeks along and keep telling me I am more like 5 months) which is probably due to stress. When I mentioned to the midwife that we had only just told the kids about the baby 2 weeks ago, and that I felt bad because they hadn't heard the heartbeat or seen the baby, she offered to give me a free sonogram (very quickly) so the kids could see the heartbeat. They have one in their home office just in case. She let Spencer push the buttons on the machine and take the picture of the heartbeat and let Xavier squish the jelly on my tummy, and then let Cordy move the wand around. Well, in the process of doing that she discovered that LO is breech. I have never had a breech baby!!! So, that rules out going with the medwives because they don't do breech births. Also, the homebirth midwives are the breech experts in Texas so the birth center calls them. Luckily, I had already pretty much decided to go with the as they are willing to work with me on the $$ situation and they think I can convince the insurance to give me an in-network exception for them because delivering vaginally at home as opposed to a C-Section in the hospital makes monetary sense for them. They also gave me some exercises to do, and some homepathics to try to turn the baby because it is still pretty early and we are only concerned because I always go early (37, 36, and 36 weeks) so I only have about 5.5 to 7 weeks to make this baby move. Also, found a chiro who is certified in Webster Technique....not covered by insurance, of course.
Ah well. Not sure what else can happen. Now I just need to badger the movers to give me my $10,000 worth of damages back (they said they will pay me dollar for dollar because they were not at fault for the accident and will just charge the other guys insurance) but I can't get them to answer me back about how soon I can expect my money. Now I also have to figure out how to get my insurance to give me an in-network exception.
See, I told you laughing would be better than crying.
1) movers came a day late and then three hours earlier than they were supposed to. Then a snowstorm hit.
2) we left the next day in a snowstorm, and Blossom (the Great Pyr) threw up all over all the bedding I had put down in the back of the van for her and our Dane within 20 mins of our pulling out of the driveway. Luckily the cats gave up meowling an into the ride, and Cordy slept for a good portion of it.
3) thought we were making good time considering the road conditions until we hit a 3-hour traffic jam outside of Dallas - took that long to move 7 miles. Lost my hubby (who was in the other car with the boys) in the mess and with no way to reach him (he forgot his cell phone when he drove back to KS) spent about 1.5 hours after that trying to find him on the highway.
4) couldn't drive anymore after about 21 hours so pulled over for nap and finally made the new house 23hrs after leaving Lawrence.
5) expected the movers the next day...no movers...no answers. Took 9 days of living in an empty house with antsy kids to finally reach the owner of the moving company only to be told that the van had been in a slight accident during the storm the day they picked up our stuff and they would give us an $800 discount, and to let them know if there was anymore damage. I got so frustrated with them that I started bleeding profusely out of my nose and mouth (yup it was that bad) and couldn't get it to stop for 45mins. I never even get little nosebleeds so it was truly spokey and the kids were terrified because I got so weak that I couldn't stand up and had to call my DH to come home from work.
6) movers show up the next day in a rented U-Haul because the 'slight' accident destroyed their van. Half of our stuff was outright destroyed, about a 1/4 has massive damage. I am living without a vacuum, washer/dryer, television, most of the bedroom furniture (which was all handmade by my father). Some furniture that we have had for years is totaled and the clothing buckets shattered so I have to go through every single item of clothing (yes, from newborn up to adult) to sort it out, figure out what ended up on the road during the accident and is therefore wet and mildewy by now. We are sleeping on a mattress that has a huge welt running horizontally down the middle so our bums are elevated. $800 should cover it - my (insert cruder word for bottom).
7) Also, things run differently down here, and all the midwives are actually out of network for the insurance so what they do is estimate what you deductible will be and then what your copayment will work out to, adn then need to have that amount paid to them by 36 weeks. Anyway, I have interviewed the medwives who deliver at the hospital and are covered in-network by my insurance. They were okay, but I want a water birth. Then I went to the birth center, and loved them (they were really great with my kids) but had no idea how I was going to come up with $2000 in 6 weeks considering the move and the mess with all our stuff. Yesterday I interviewed the homebirth midwives and they have to be the nicest human beings on the planet. I am a little small-looking (people don't believe I am 30 weeks along and keep telling me I am more like 5 months) which is probably due to stress. When I mentioned to the midwife that we had only just told the kids about the baby 2 weeks ago, and that I felt bad because they hadn't heard the heartbeat or seen the baby, she offered to give me a free sonogram (very quickly) so the kids could see the heartbeat. They have one in their home office just in case. She let Spencer push the buttons on the machine and take the picture of the heartbeat and let Xavier squish the jelly on my tummy, and then let Cordy move the wand around. Well, in the process of doing that she discovered that LO is breech. I have never had a breech baby!!! So, that rules out going with the medwives because they don't do breech births. Also, the homebirth midwives are the breech experts in Texas so the birth center calls them. Luckily, I had already pretty much decided to go with the as they are willing to work with me on the $$ situation and they think I can convince the insurance to give me an in-network exception for them because delivering vaginally at home as opposed to a C-Section in the hospital makes monetary sense for them. They also gave me some exercises to do, and some homepathics to try to turn the baby because it is still pretty early and we are only concerned because I always go early (37, 36, and 36 weeks) so I only have about 5.5 to 7 weeks to make this baby move. Also, found a chiro who is certified in Webster Technique....not covered by insurance, of course.
Ah well. Not sure what else can happen. Now I just need to badger the movers to give me my $10,000 worth of damages back (they said they will pay me dollar for dollar because they were not at fault for the accident and will just charge the other guys insurance) but I can't get them to answer me back about how soon I can expect my money. Now I also have to figure out how to get my insurance to give me an in-network exception.
See, I told you laughing would be better than crying.
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