Friday, April 23, 2010

April 2010






Spring has flown by with Ben being in 4 sports, Alex being in 1 sport and 2 after school activities, and the babies always busy doing their thing. Our time with Anna is almost over... she leaves in the 1st week of May. Our new au pair is ready and seems to be excited to be joining us in just a few short weeks. It'll be weird not having Anna here anymore... she really has fallen in love with the babies. With that American family that sent back their 8 year old Russian boy they adopted and Russia threatening to freeze all adoptions, Alex was concerned Anna was leaving because of that. Funny. For her going away present, we took her to the Alicia Keys concert, she loved it.

Dorian and Wynn have both made lots of good strides in their mobility and growth this month. They both roll around all over the place on the floor (fast!), both have grown quite a few teeth and both are always curious about the world around them. Our physical therapist today was so happy for Dori. She said that ever since he's been sleeping with the bipap, she has noticed his alertness, happy mood and greater tolerance for therapy has dramatically improved. Since we see him everyday we haven't noticed the huge difference, but it makes sense that a well oxygenated baby is happier and healthier. We are so proud of him.

Since the last time we saw our GI doctor, they both gained a pound in one month! That's a big deal since that means Dori won't need a feeding tube for the time being.

For those of you that keep up with us on a regular basis, you may have heard about some of our nurse issues. We have night nurses coming in to monitor Dori in the evenings since he couldn't tolerate nor sleep with his bipap mask. The nurses are also in charge of monitoring his pulse-oximeter (sp?) to measure his O2 and cardio. If O2 levels drop too much, they are supposed to administer O2 via the tanks we have next to his crib.

The first two nurses they sent were very nice people, but NOT good fits for us. The first one would pace around nervously and say over and over "Oh my God! Oh my God!" when Dori would start crying. The second nurse was sweet as could be but during her shift Chris and I had to wake up 6 different times to help her through the night.

But the third nurse who we had to fire is what this past month's drama has been all about. I found her asleep on our couch with her arms spread wide open as well as her mouth... only in the 2nd hour of her 12 hour shift. I didn't want to embarrass her and wake her up since the babies were safely sleeping in their cribs while she was snoozing, so I left her alone. But when I called the agency the next morning to tell them not to send her back, they asked for a reason and I told them it was because of her sleeping. The storm of crap began after that. I had no idea that a nurse sleeping on the job is considered child endangerment so CPS (yes, Child Protective Services!!!) was called in by the agency to report the "incident". According to the agency, they have to "self report" violations such as sleeping or else they could get their license revoked.

Alex was still at school at his science club, but Ben was home already when the CPS lady came. The CPS agent asked me all the details about the nurse, how she was sleeping, etc. Then she asked Ben directly if she could talk to him. He said "after I'm done eating my snack please." Then once he was done, she started asking him about "good touch" and "bad touch" and if anyone has ever "touched" him in his privates. Ben's eyes were huge as saucers and he kept on looking at me very uncomfortably while he sat on Chris's lap. She asked him if we ever left him alone, if we make him food, and what we do to him when we punish him. All the while, Chris and Anna and I are all staring at each other as if "Is this crazy woman REALLY asking these questions!?!"

But I was SOOO proud of him. He answered everything like a big boy and I was surprised at how surprisingly articulate he was for 6 years old. Then she proceeded to take pictures of all the kids, and note their teachers names, pediatricians name, etc for their "file in the system". Chris and I are outraged. We don't want our precious boys in the damn "CPS system"!! We didn't feel like we could say anything to her in fear of retaliation for what she may perceive as hostility or dishonesty on our part and she was writing down everything we were all saying so I felt like anything interpreted the wrong way could come back and haunt us. The LAST thing we wanted when we fired the nurse was for CPS to launch a full blown investigation AGAINST US when WE didn't do anything wrong! I told the CPS lady I never thought the babies were ever in danger under the nurses care and I didn't want this to snowball into something unnecessarily or for them to call Ben and Alex's teachers since they have nothing to do with the babies or the nurse. I am so embarrassed that poor Ben had to go through that, and we are so so angry.

At this point, all we can do is wait and see what happens. Sadly, the children that truly DO need an advocate to stand up for them against their abusers are rarely ever identified and helped out of their situation, so it's a shame they are wasting their time and energy on our family.

So I don't want to sign off on such a negative note... so I'm just glad Ben didn't tell them I threaten him and Alex often with a knuckle sandwich and tell them that if they don't know their numbers and letters they'll be homeless like people outside of the Mavs games. I supposed that would be considered mental abuse so big sigh of relief for Ben keeping it PC. HA!!!