EOB's

I learned recently that I actually have no idea what the total bill was for our time in the NICU in 2008 and 2009. It turns out the letter the hospital first sends out doesn't necessarily include all the charges. I figured this out because the letter we got from that hospital last month stated that Ian's surgery cost $22,901.48. The insurance we had from August 2004-June 2010 didn't send out information regarding how much they paid for anything except if they were declining a charge (IUIs, embryo transfers, egg retrievals, etc.). Blue Shield sends an explanation of benefits (EOB) regarding every payment they make on our behalf. So this time I added up the totals and the total cost of Ian's surgery was $41,031.48. The hospital accepted Blue Shield's payment of $13,305.47. It's so confusing how they charge one amount but accept a much lower amount. If we did Ian's next surgery at this hospital, we'd have to pay 20%. Would it be 20% of $41K or $13K? That's a big difference! Thankfully PSU's insurance will pay 100% of the surgery if we have it done at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia. I am anxious to hear what they'll say at Ian's appointment next Tuesday.

In terms of when the kids woke up this morning (a little before 6am), it seems they have made the DST adjustment. Nadia asked for lunch at 10am so I'd say they haven't totally shifted. Ian took a long nap on Friday, but since then all his naps have been between 20-35 minutes long.

Two weeks ago Ian had a good week in terms of eating stage one baby food. Last week eating didn't go very well - maybe because I mixed some rice cereal in his squash one day. Yesterday he amazed me by consuming almost an entire stage 2 container of apricots in one sitting. Yay, Ian! Today he ate half of a container of stage 2 strawberries and apples at lunch. As long as he has toys to play with, it's going much better than in the past. I used to have to hold his head in place.  It's not such a battle right now.