Baby Charlie...

It's only been 6 days but I can't imagine life without Charlie. I think he is going to be my laid back little boy...putting a little balance in a household full of high demanding girls. He has already watched many hours of baseball with Brandon.

Sophie is becoming more gentle with him. At first, she just wanted to poke, bite, hit or otherwise torture him. But she doesn't do it to be mean. She just doesn't know how to act around him.

Elsa, on the other hand, thinks he is her babydoll. She is so gentle, sweet and caring with him. She wants to hold him, feed him, kiss him and just help out in any way she can.

Even Haley has bonded with him. She chose to hang out with us at the hospital instead of going back home. She was with us when we decided to check out of the hospital a day early and wanted to sit in the back seat with him on the way home.

He just completes our family when I thought there was no more room to grow. It is going to be an exhausting and demanding few years. I am not quite sure if I am ready for the challenge and I am sure there will be days when I lay down at night and wonder how I got through the day. One day at a time.

Introducing...

Charles Henry Coleman II

"Charlie"
8 lbs 10 oz
21 inches
Born 9:47am
We are all doing absolutely wonderful!!!

Full Moon

The moon was full last night and the baby didn't feel like waiting until 7:30 for the inducement. He thought 3am would be a better start time so we should meet him very soon.

Happy Birthday NaNaw...

Sophie decided to give NaNaw (Grandma Debbie) the best birthday present ever. If you know NaNaw, you would know how much she loves and cares about Sophie. They have a special bond.

While NaNaw was playing with Sophie in her toy closet, Sophie pointed to the top shelf and said animal. She was pointing to her toy farmhouse with the animals inside. I was in the other room and heard it clear as day. Sophie just said her first 3 syllable word!!! She barely even says a 2 syllable word. Plus, she has never even attempted to say animal before and she used the word appropriately.

When Brandon got home from work, we were telling him the story and she repeated it again for him...several times. I honestly don't know if I would have believed it if I didn't hear it myself. It wasn't the clearest sound pronunciation but it was close.

Sophie was in a goofy mood tonight. I love it when she is like that. Full of laughter and giggles. She has become quite the mischievous one. Brandon showed her how to get water out of the water dispenser on the refrigerator door. She has seen us do this a million times but has never attempted to do it herself. As soon as I saw it, I thought BIG MISTAKE. So a few seconds later, she takes her cup over, fills it up with water (let me remind you that she is in a VERY GOOFY mood) and executes it perfectly. But as she is walking away, giggling her little butt off and holding the cup up in the air with only one hand, she is spilling it everywhere. And all we can do is laugh. She gets it. She is learning. She is happy.

And this is only one of many stories tonight. She was up to many crazy antics...giggling and laughing the entire time.

By the way, pre-surgery she would have EXTREME meltdowns if she spilt just a drop of water on her when she was drinking out of a cup or if she dropped a piece of food on the ground. And I seriously have no idea why she was like that. I tried my hardest to make it seem like it was no big deal. To the point where I would drop things and laugh just to show her it was okay. Nothing worked. She could not stand the idea of anything spilling.

So, now she is the complete opposite. I will take giggles over meltdowns any day.

Happy Birthday NaNaw!!! Thanks for spending the day with us.

Brand vs Generic...

I know there has been a lot of discussion lately regarding brand name anti-epileptic drugs versus generic. I even had a conversation about this with our pharmacist. So I made the decision to have Sophie on the brand name Depakene and Dilantin.

But what I didn't know about our prescription drug insurance policy...

There are two lines in which a doctor can sign a prescription. One line states "substitution permitted" and the other states "dispense as written".

So even though our neurologist wrote the prescription for brand name Depakene and Dilantin, he signed the line that stated "substitution permitted". When I dropped off the prescription, I requested for there to be no substitution.

Doesn't sound like a big deal...until the price is given...$140.12 a month for brand name Depakene. So I called our insurance company to find out what our out-of-pocket maximum is for the year.

To only find out that if our neurologist had signed the line "dispense as written", it would only cost us $70.06 a month for brand name Depakene. A savings of $840.72 a year. So I kindly called our neurologist and requested that he send in a new prescription with it signed "dispense as written".

Considering all that Sophie has been through to get to where she is at now...this is the least I can do for her.