Home at Last!

Hi All!

Well, we're back home finally! It was a very long plane ride home with Keira wanting to bounce, roll, laugh scream and play with everything in sight for about 8 hours of the 10 1/2 hour first leg of the flight. Dan and I didn't get much sleep obviously and neither did she. Lola (my mom) and Auntie Lorraine were there at LAX to meet us and confessed that they were a little worried that Keira might not bond with them right away. Boy were THEY ever wrong! She was sleeping at first until I put her in the carseat. Right then she started smiling and laughing with both of them. Once we were in the house, she had a great time playing with both of them and walking around with both of their help. I wish had took more pictures, but I was so out of it and tired. It was so wonderful to have both of them here to help out with watching and playing with Keira while Dan got to take a nap and I was able to take care of some things. They gave her a bath and she loved it---as a matter of fact, she didn't want to get out of the bathtub. She was down by about 5:30 and although I thought she was going to be down for the night, she ended up waking up a few hours later. UGH....Jetlag will do that to you, huh? Dan stayed up with her until about 2:30am when she FINALLY went to sleep. She just wanted to stay up and point to the nightlight Joyce gave to her for the baby shower and look at all of her clothes in the closet. It starts already, huh?
This morning I spent HOURS struggling with HR from work and Kaiser about getting medical coverage started for her. It is an ugly, vicious cycle. HR originally told me that if I call in and fax them the information, they can get her coverage, but starting on the 1st of the month the following month that I bring her home. I checked things out and called them back and informed them that legally they had to start her insurance right away. Oops! Sorry for the mistake, yes, I was right, the coverage would start right away. Hmm...interesting...
Well, apparently the way that it works is that they will cover her immediately....immediately after it takes a month or two for them to process the paperwork. But that's ok...Kaiser will still cover her, I will just have to pay out of pocket and they will reimburse me. Great, right? Kaiser says that they will cover me immediately...sure! Once they have the paperwork that they get from work that they need to process in about a month or two. Huh?!?!??!? EXACTLY! Vicious cycle- both say that they will cover her immediately---as soon as they have the paperwork processed. Immediately meaning paperwork that takes a month or two to process. Doesn't sound immediate to me and both sides see nothing wrong with the fact that it's a vicious cycle. One will cover the other immediately both waiting for the other to do something that takes over a month. I called Laura and Ibbie at work to see if they knew of any good pediatricians that I could just bring Keira to. While waiting for Laura to call me back after she was working on trying to get a name for me (thanks Laura!), I called Children's Hospital. Boy! They were so much more interested in helping me out with getting her into a doctor than Kaiser was. She even called Kaiser because she said that I should be able to get into there even if I paid for the visit and waited for reembursement. She called Kaiser and worked things out then got me back on the phone. She confirmed with Kaiser that they would get a medical record number for Keira immediately and that I could get an appointment scheduled for her today. What a relief! As soon as the lady from Kaiser said Yes, that she would help me and that I could make an appointment for Keira today, we excused the lady from Children's Hospital with much thanks for getting everything taken care of. As soon as she hung up, the lady from Kaiser's tune TOTALLY changed and now she was saying, Yes! She could give me a medical record number for Keira.....as soon as she gets the paperwork from my work HR department which would take about a month. AAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!!! I can't even begin to tell you how frustrated I was at this point. I even started crying out of anger and frustration. I just wanted to get my daughter to a doctor! I checked my messages and got Laura's message with the doctor's name and number. I called and made an appointment for Keira on Monday for an examination and we actually also took her to urgent care today that Dan found just to make sure a small rash she had on her face was ok and nothing to worry about.
After the doctor's, we took her to have lunch (her first experience with Mac and Cheese), then for a walk at the Harbor. She's so funny and is trying SOOO hard to talk. She tries to copy everything that you say and sing. When we got home, she got a bath which she loves. She loves to splash around, kick and play with her rubber duckie. She's in bed now FINALLY....hopefully she will sleep through the night. Only time will tell. I don't have any new pictures and I PROMISE I will post more once we get more settled in!