Some Good News, Some Better News & Really? Parts 1 & 2

So the good news is that the job I trekked out into the snow last Monday to interview for? Looks like I got it. My background checks and references have all checked out and I'll go in this week to initiate the formal hiring process. The better news? The company works almost exclusively with special needs children and very, very seldom has typical adults in their care. Yeah!

The Really? My here-to-fore potential boss was scheduled to come out to see Jack today to start him up for nursing services. Yeah, I know. I'll get to that. So my first concern when I get the message from MM at The Company is that there will be a conflict of interest in my being employed for them while my baby is getting services from them. Miss D assured me that as long as I wasn't case managing (No desire to case manage, thank you very much!) there would be no issue. The second and more huge consideration, do I really want my potential future boss coming into my home to see where I live and notice all the dust (and dirt, let's be honest!) in the corners? Thirdly, in the section where I was supposed to describe why I'd be an 'ideal candidate' to work with special needs children, I played my trump card and said that I have two older children with autism spectrum disorder and one baby with Down syndrome, and that as a veteran RN and a mother seasoned in special needs, I had experience that other's may not...but did she really need to be treated to the floor show that The Middle Little can put on? Fourth? The front room remains a disaster. It's a neat orderly disaster, but a disaster none-the-less. There is just too much stuff and too little house. So it's in the front room. That's what happens when you suddenly need an extra bedroom for a little miracle baby and the garage is already filled up to the rafters!

In the end it all worked out. I cleaned like a mad woman for Sunday and Monday, going as far as to de-clutter the front porch and launder the doggy linen so as not to lend olfactory offense, and vacuumed and mopped the floors this morning the minute both Littles were on their buses. The house was clean and smelled good. The kennels were clean and smelled good. The baby was clean and smelled good. The children behaved like dreamy little cherubic angels. Really! They did! Even the dogs behaved!

So, I have a new job and a house that is clean. And I will have to keep it that way until next Tuesday when the new boss comes out again to formalise the services she will be requesting for Jack and sign papers and do all of that.

And that's the second part of Really, part 2. In the younger years, the cost of The Middle Little's child care was quite hefty. Still is actually. The difference is that he's no longer such a handful that I'm paying someone a huge amount of money not to get so riled by him that they abuse him and now I'm paying someone a huge amount of money not to get so fed up with his mouth that they abandon him before I get home from work. He has come a long, long way, but he is still a big, wiggling, loud, boisterous, rambunctious whirlwind that 'handful' doesn't come close to describing. With his diagnosis of ASD came some child care and respite hours from the Regional Center. When The Girlie earned the same diagnosis, she was also granted child care and respite hours. It's not a great deal of money, but it does help offset some of the costs. When Jack came along with all of his special feeding issues, we decided that he needed his own care giver and we already had someone in mind who foot the bill perfectly. With the budget cuts the Regional Centers or someone at the state level decided that children under 3 years old do not qualify for childcare or respite hours. I guess little people unable to provide care for themselves are not deemed deserving of that care until they prove their worth by surviving to 3 years old. It makes no sense to me. Because Jack gets preprandial medications as well as an albuterol MDI, he qualifies for a skilled nurse to provide his childcare. I'll basically be leaving my child in the hands of an LVN to provide while I am away, what I will be providing for another child as an RN. Seems like a tremendous waste of tax dollars to me, to pay a skilled nurse to do what Jack's baby sitter has already been doing quite well for significantly less money. Why don't they just cut out the middle man and pay me to stay home and take care of Jack?

So there you have it. For the record, we'll only be using this LVN until I am once again gainfully employed and can revert back to our old ways. The gals who have been babysitting so far will now share duties of taking care of The Olders, switching off nights with each other. While an over paid other person is in our home taking care of Jack. It makes no sense to me, but we'll do what we have to until we're on more firm financial ground.

Once the business of Jack was all decided, we turned to talk of my employment. She asked me a little more about what kind of nursing care and client base I was interested in, and said she'd speak to MM tomorrow about me perhaps filling a few positions that have just become available. On top of that, I liked this gal. She was at ease with herself and she cooed at Jack! Really, how am I not going to like someone who coos at my baby?

So you've done it again, Jax-Snax! You've shown me another new dimension to life by being born with your awesome extra chromosomes. I've always wanted to work with children and babies, but without you, I would never have considered working in special needs home care for them. I'd never known there was a need for it, because I'd never been the one whose family needed it. You are amazing Little Dumpling!