Sunday, October 25, 2015

The House of Higgins: October 25

Medical Updates

I had my follow up appointment with my cardiologist and thankfully everything went really well. The results from my echocardiogram I had last week came back completely normal =) Also, he's really happy with my blood pressure logs and how the medicine is controlling it. I scheduled an appointment for three months from now to check back in and hopefully wean off of the blood pressure medicine. He's hoping I'll notice it going down on it's own and I'll call and he will advise me on lowering my meds, but if not, we'll try in January. 

We ended up seeing the pediatric urologist for our little Toddy boy. Two weeks ago we unexpectedly got a bill for $4,500 from the hospital for Todd and his stay in the hospital. We were prepared for me to meet my $5,000 deductible and had it paid off for the year, but we totally weren't prepared for a second. But turns out we have individual deductibles, which we knew, but just totally weren't expecting his standard hospital stay to cost so much. SO, since we were planning on having his circumcision done early next year between 5-6 months old, we knew we were going to be shelling out a few thousand dollars next year since his surgery will be at Children's Hospital, he'll be put under anesthesia, etc. We met with his pediatric urologist this week to see if there's any way we could do his surgery at the end of 2015 to essentially save us a few thousand dollars since we're close to hitting Todd's deductible. 

The doctor is amazing and gives all his patients his personal email. One morning I emailed him to talk about it at 8:49 am and he responded, copied his assistant with instructions to call me, and had an appointment set up all before 9:05 am. I am SO impressed with him and his "bedside manner". Anyway, I made it crystal clear that we obviously first and foremost want to do what's best and safest for Todd, but if doing the surgery at 3.5 months could happen, it would be extremely helpful to us. He reassured me he would never, ever agree to do anything he didn't feel 100% comfortable with and he is willing to do Todd's surgery the last week in December. In fact, he already booked it with the hospital and we're set to go Monday December 28 at 8:00 am. He said that between 3-4 months is completely normal/safe protocol for the surgery, but their office tends to wait until 6 months typically. So overall, we're relieved to be saving the money in the end, and know that Toddy will be totally in safe hands.


Pumpkin Village at the Dallas Arboretum














Photos



Post bath crazy hair




Highlights Magazine at Mommy's doctor

Trying on her costume!




Sweet boy!


Smiles at big sister!


Pumpkin outfit from Kiki and E-Pa




Rainy day activities






Rainy Saturday at Home Depot




Sweetest boy!

Embry didn't love carving our pumpkins...she was grossed out by the "guts"


We gave her a picture of 8 options for eyes, 8 for nose, and 8 for mouth and she picked it out herself. Hers turned out the cutest!




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Monday, October 19, 2015

The House of Higgins: October 19

Todd's One Month Old

Poor second child. I went through all of Saturday thinking it was October 18 and posted all about Todd being one month old. Turns out Saturday was October 17. Whoops. Regardless...here's Todd's one month post! Hah!






 

Toddler Tuesday at the Dallas Arboretum

It felt so good to get back in the swing of things and meet my friends for a fun day at the Dallas Arboretum for Toddler Tuesday. It was exhausting taking two kids for three hours, packing lunches, taking pictures, etc. but fun! I was relieved when Embry took a three hour nap that afternoon, especially since Tuesday started Jacob's four day long business trip to Pennsylvania.









Lots of cheek grabs for Toddy boy

Face painting!



Looking at herself in the mirror



Picnic time!






The Rest of the Week




We've started "dinner bootcamp" where I'm not making Embry a separate meal...aaaaand it's not going so well. Trying to solve her picky eating habits now.

"Make me another dinner pleaseeeeeee"

She really is the sweetest big sister and such a good helper!!

Skeleton jammies!



Double chin and smiles

Alert boy!


Bedtime braid to try to help with SUPER tangly hair in the morning.



Miss Picky stealing my salad for lunch...

On a walk with my little acorn collector.


Bedtime stories

Sleep smiles in his sisters pink Miracle Swaddle Blanket =)




Birthday party on Saturday morning!



Birthday girl- Baby Bonnie Boo =)






Visit from Friends!

Saturday afternoon two of my good friends from Austin arrived for a weekend visit with their three kids! It was so much fun having them here and showing them some things in our hood! We hung at our house Saturday afternoon then went to The Lot for dinner where the kids literally rolled around in the sand for three hours. Between the three of us girls we have five little ones so it was the perfect spot. They had a hotel downtown, but we met back up for breakfast Sunday morning and a day at the Dallas Arboretum!



Nolan, Morgan, and Embry (all born within a few weeks of each other)

Junie girl

The whole crew

Why we were all smiling in the photo, haha


Breakfast with the gang
Leading the way with her map


Making a wish at one of my favorite spots in the Arboretum


Four of the five kiddos!



 
The darling kids!




 

 

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