Can someone explain to me why the hell Target sells 6 versions of Huggies Baby Wipes, and um, whats the big difference?!? 3 of them are obvious.
Lavender & Chamomile - um…. duh lavender scent
Shea Butter - yep, it smells like Shea Butter…
Nourishing - Sweet mango-colada smell, think glade plugins…
Naturally Refreshing - Cucumber and Green Tea, ok this does smell refreshing i would imagine.

But then you have the confusolators. Gentle Care Sensitive, Supreme, Natural Care. Err… All three of those have the same exact ingredients, no scent, and added Vitamin E and Aloe. There is no Difference. The Supreme version makes a reference to being “stronger”, so maybe thats it for that one, thicker wipes. But the Gentle Care Sensitive and the Natural Care are exactly the same form what I can tell. My wife and I were very confused. We opted for the natural care because that sounds like it has the least extra crap in it. But really when I compared the ingredients, its the same exact thing. Same price too, so who cares.

In exactly 1 week from today, Ashley will be upon us, unless she decides to flip around and go head down, then its up for grabs. However, it seems she is very comfortable sitting cross legged inside mommy, playing patty-cake with mommy’s spine and stomach. The fact that breach is now considered a complication of birth, makes it not so bad, since insurance will probably cover it, meaning that $10k hit we were expecting, might not happen.

For some reason I still keep referring to her as IT or THE KID. Only 1 week to go assuming she is still breach. Maybe it will change after she is actually in my hands. Maybe its just me, since after all I refer to our dog as THE DOG, never really by his name.

So i was showering, and I thought to myself, “I wonder what Ashley’s favorite color will be?”

And then I thought it would be cool to get her to have an actual Pantone color as her favorite. So in the future, when she is in school, and the teacher asks everyone what their favorite color is, she says “Pantone 288!” That happens to be cobalt blue in case your were wondering.

Mom’s blood pressure has been going up, although the past few days it seems to have been down a bit. She has been taking baths with cause you to diurese a bit, so maybe that’s been helping. A lot of bed rest and such of course. The major concern has been pre-eclampsia of course. a few doctor visits ago, mom took a 24hour urine test and peed a 240 for protein levels. The upper limit for normal is 300, and there is less concern about being close to that threshold as you get closer to the end of pregnancy. However, it needed to be monitored and kept down, so she went on bedrest.

I have added a set of photos related to Ashley on Flickr. This will grow as we add to it, but there is a fairly obvious link to it on the right side of this blog. Its the obvious ultrasound photo…

So… We have no maternity insurance. My mistake I guess, since I apparently am not able to fully understand medical legalese. But after a few month now of going through pregnancy with my wife, I have realized that, assuming a normal pregnancy, the cost is about the same. Of course the key is normal, or is it. I have been reading quite a bit about what would have been covered and am learning that quite a bit would not have anyway.

For example, almost none of the diagnostic procedures and tests that we have had done would be covered, such as, down syndrome screening or the 2 diagnostic ultrasounds we had to determine disease risks. Every visit would be a co-pay of 30 bucks, plus the monthly premium of about 150 extra on top of our normal insurance. And by the way, that premium would have had to be paid for 2 full years before we get full coverage, 1 year gets you 50% coverage, and less than 1 year you have no coverage. PLUS there is a 3000 dollar deductible. So… What exactly would I be getting with my wife’s maternity coverage?
2 years @$150/month = $3600
deductible per year = $3000 (if you wrap over the year end… guess what, you pay 2 deductibles if i understood it correctly)
copay for hospital = $300
copay for each doctor visit $30 x about 20 visits = $600
3 Ultrasounds @ $50 copay (i think) = $150
2 of those are diagnostic, so they wouldn’t be covered, but since they aren’t anyway, i just will ignore them.

Our doctor charges a flat fee for un-insured of about 3500-4200. Our hospital charges about 3500 for delivery, including 1 full night of stay for vaginal delivery, 2 for Csec. You have to pay for the anesthesiologist extra, which is about 1200. So in the end, it is almost a wash. In a silly way, it is almost worth it to pay a little more in order to keep the insurance out of it.

The only real concern would be some sort of pre-term complication, such as preeclampsia, resulting a need to be hospitalized. That would cost a bit, and would not be covered by the normal health insurance from what I understand. But again, you gotta realize that the insurance companies are in the business of making money, not to help you. I have read many horror stories of people who thought they had full insurance, only to find that the insurance company decided that the complications are not a result of pregnancy and were instead a pre-existing condition which will not be covered. Preeclampsia, oh you had high blood pressure before. Uterine Rupture, you had a yeast infection.