Today I checked our insurance benefits booklet to see what’s covered for well-baby visits, as some of my friends are having issues with this (their insurance doesn’t cover them! WTF!). The wording for our insurance is a little strange, but it states that it covers,
* All Immunizations recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
* Well-child care charges for routine examinations, immunizations and care.
* Examinations, such as: Eye exams through age 17 to determine the need for vision correction, Hearing exams through age 17 to determine the need for hearing correction, Examinations done on the day of immunizations.
So I think that means that all well-baby visits are covered, although the wording makes me wonder if they only cover physical exams done when immunizations are done? It’s possible they just worded it wrong… they have been know to do that. (See my posts about my confusion over their infertility coverage… they had some major wording issues!)

For vaccines, I’m still only forming my opinion, and much of my slant on vaccines is due to the research I did on the dog and cat vaccines (all our animals are on a very minimal vaccination schedule – they get only rabies, which is required by law, and the distemper combo, and those only every 3 years). And really, I’m not anti-vaccines… some things are VERY good to vaccinate for (in my opinion, of course). But some just make me go :huh: Varicella? Why the heck are they vaccinating CHILDREN for that now?? There’s no chicken pox pandemic that I know about, people in “the old days” got the chicken pox, got over it, were immune. Big deal, so they missed a week or two of school. And Hep A? Why on earth are they vaccinating infants for Hep A?? OR B for that matter, I didn’t get my Hep B series until grade 6 (and I still don’t really see the point of that). My main issue is that I don’t want to give, for example, three different vaccines in one sitting…. I just think that’s a LOT to give an infant’s immune system.

So in order to help me make decisions I’m going to be buying some books about vaccines and doing a bunch of research. I know a bunch of my IF friends are doing the same thing. I do see a lot of women on my pregnancy forums just saying, “I just do what my doctor tells me to do” – which is probably fine for a lot of people. It seems to me that us IFers have been through too much to just take a doctor’s word for it and we tend to like to research things on our own. (Just my opinion from the array of pregnant people I know, IFers and non-IFers.) I’m still a little bit jaded by the fact that we wouldn’t have been doing IVF had I not pushed for it, and the fact that the doctors made some major oversights on our second cycle.

Den’s still talking about switching insurance, but our only other option is BC/BS, and I’ve heard bad things about them. But open season is very soon, so at the very least we can LOOK at what the other plan would offer, then decide. He’s in the military, so in general we do have VERY good coverage (for everything except dentistry, snort, hence our current credit card balance for the dentist). I’m pretty sure both plans offered to us would be pretty similar, but from what Den’s co-workers have been saying the BC/BS plan appears to have lower premiums and lower co-pays as well. I won’t mention how that has me looking for the “catch”.

::

I had my usual meeting tonight with the cat sanctuary bosses. They also mentioned that they need to know what my plans are for the rest of the pregnancy and when the baby comes, as they need to find replacements and start training. I’m developing a pretty good idea of how long I’ll be able to do the things that I do – some things I’m going to have to quit pretty soon I think, as I’m feeling more and more of a strain especially with bending over for extended periods and lifting awkward items. So tonight or tomorrow I’ll be writing up a list of everything I do, when I think I’ll have to pass it to someone else, and how much time/mental capacity it requires.

I spent the drive home just thinking about what I’m going to do after the baby comes. My plan has always been to quit everything and focus on the baby. And to be honest, quitting my web design stuff makes me very relieved… I think I’m honestly looking forward to being able to do that (not a great sign, right?). I’m still really stressed out by it and I don’t see that stress lifting anytime soon, as long as I have projects sitting on me.

But the thought of quitting at the cat sanctuary makes me sad, and I didn’t really expect that. Right now I’m putting in around 12 hours a week for them, give or take… plus some extra design work from home when they have need of it. Alone, with no other working-from-home stuff to stress out over, it’s not a lot… and I don’t even have to commit to that many hours. I just feel like… well for one thing, they need me. Not that I’m irreplaceable, but what I do is very valuable. And for another thing, I really enjoy my time there and I don’t want to completely give it up.

It made me think more about pumping and bottle-feeding. I admit, I have a huge mental issue regarding bottle-feeding. (Good thing I’m facing it now, and not when/if I have breastfeeding problems and am ramped up on post-partum hormones, right?) I just… I really feel like it should be ALL breast, NO bottles, period, point blank. Like if I give a bottle – even if it’s pumped milk! – that I’m starting down a slippery slope and that it’ll somehow lead to the failure of breastfeeding. (I realize this isn’t entirely rational.) So tonight I was sort of… meditating on that thought. Why I have it. (My parents were very vocal against bottles, I never had one in my life, neither did my brother.) How realistic it is. I mean, people pump and bottle feed breastmilk all the time…. within the framework of breastfeeding. So why not right? Why couldn’t I work a few hours a week, pump and leave bottles for daddy? It’s certainly not outside of the range of possibilities. I know I’m just really nervous about nipple confusion, about supply issues, about somehow ruining the breastfeeding thing. I’m especially nervous since I see so many of my friends having troubles. I know it’s going to be hard, and I really want to do everything I can to make sure it works. But if we get it all working, my supply is good, the baby is good, and we’re past the initial period… I think it’s not unreasonable to introduce bottles as a once-in-a-while thing to allow me to go out for a few hours.

Of course there’s the issue of timing… I mean, Den works full time, MIL works full-time AND lives a good 40 minutes away, BIL and SIL work full time. There’s not really anyone near that I can just leave the kid with for a couple of hours. (Not that I’d want to, but that’s a different issue.) So that leaves two options: Either I only work evenings, weekends, or mondays that Den has off (he gets every other monday off), or I bring baby with me. Now I don’t know how that would work! I could certainly get some things done with the baby in a wrap – but that depends on the baby liking the wrap and not screaming the entire time. A cat sanctuary is not a place that I can let a baby crawl around! Maybe I could have a playard there?? Oh I don’t know.

It’s just hard trying to think in terms of what I’ll do when we have a baby. How do I know?? I’ve been avoiding thinking about it because I just kept thinking, I’ll figure it out when the baby’s here. I have NO idea what to expect, really. Maybe I’ll decide that staying at home is the best thing ever and I never want to leave my baby, ever. Or maybe I’ll really be looking forward to having a few hours outside the home. I don’t know. So it’s hard to try to form some opinions now. And it’s not like I need to give a for-sure yes-or-no answer right away, but I really feel like I need to give them some kind of idea about what kind of replacement they’re looking for.

Well, I know I’m going to continue being their webmaster, and I’m going to continue taking photographs, so that’s a good starting point. I just need to decide about the rest of it.