July 22nd, 2006 by 
gowest
We’re getting more and more telemarketing calls lately. Someone must have gotten a hold of our phone number and sold it to the next best low-life business that places these numbers into telemarketing businesses. For a while I got mad as I had phone calls at night. Since I worked in a call center for Quark, Inc. I just hate being on the phone in general. It’s annoying. I do not know how it started, but we got a call and I answered. A telemarketing call. The caller asked for me and my business name. I said he got the wrong number and that the former owner filed for bankruptcy. No more questions asked. The caller hung up.
How do you recognize a telemarketing call? You pick up the phone and for a few seconds there is silence and then you hear someone picking up.
The next time I decided to go a little further and “I had just died.” and if I should take a message. The caller apologized and then hung up. So, it is turning into fun a little bit and I hope it helps to get us removed from the lists here and there.
Who are the worst telemarketers? DAV - Disabled American Veterans. I just hate that organization. They called and I asked to be removed from their list. “We cannot do that.”. I said: “Sure, you can.”. “No, we can’t. We are a charity and are not bound to the normal solicitation laws.” My jaw must have been falling down like a dead elephant thrown from the Empire State Building. Do those callers understand that I will never ever donate something to them with that kind of attitude? I mean - what do they expect?! That I honor their annoying persistence with a bigger check? Lately when DAV calls it is fully automated. It’s a machine calling and there is no option to talk to a live person and to get removed. If anyone knows how to get rid of these low-lifes - please let me know.
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July 21st, 2006 by gowest
Logan has been a very stressful baby. This is taking a heavy toll on Simone and we decided that we need help. There is too much at stake. We have not had any free minute where Logan is not fussy or cranky and a normal life with a baby is not possible. Every day we get praying that this will be a good day and not another day from hell. We’re losing almost daily. 5 out of 6 days the day turns into a living nightmare. Simone’s mom offered to come and as much as I hate having someone living with us for 6 weeks, I gave in.
Our house is not that big and you can hear everything. With everything I mean everything. You have no more privacy. It just turns into pure stress. But I think that this kind of stress is easier to handle and that the help we would get is worth it. Hopefully that prayer reaches its destination. So, we called the S.W.A.T. team (Simone’s mom). She got lucky - they put her into business class on the plane. Not bad for a trans-Atlantic flight, huh. So, hopefully everything else will develop as good as this now.
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July 18th, 2006 by gowest
Logan has never been a good eater. In fact - he is an extremely difficult eater and it is very hard to predict if he will eat at all at a certain time or not. Simone took him to a feeding specialist / pediatrician / psychologist for evaluation. We do not have the final report yet, but it seems like he has a mild form of Hypotonia.
What is Hypotonia?
Hypotonia is a condition of abnormally low muscle tone (the amount of tension or resistance to movement in a muscle), often involving reduced muscle strength. A child is said to have low muscle tone — hypotonia — if his muscles are on the loose, floppy side. You may find it unusually easy to move your child’s arms and legs when they are relaxed, or that he seems to slip through your arms when you pick him up. Although hypotonia is not a well-understood phenomenon, children with low muscle tone often have delayed motor skills, muscle weakness, and / or coordination problems.
We looked at all the symptoms and some match what we see with Logan, while others are completely off. So, it is very hard to tell what the issue is. Does he have Hypotonia or is the pediatrician overly cautious? We do not know yet. Simone is very concerned and I think she is absolutely overreacting. She has a light tendency to read the worst case scenarios of something and to project them onto herself and her surroundings. It makes it often more difficult to deal just with the facts and to remove the assumptions from a situation.
Anyway - Logan will get some physical therapy to learn eating a little better. Hopefully this will work out well and makes life a little easier for us.
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July 17th, 2006 by gowest
Last Friday was one of the worst days with Logan so far. I got home from work and he was already fussy. We had a dinner reservation with friends and were hoping for the best as we did not find a babysitter in time. But of course Logan had to become a complete monster this night. He refused to eat and drank only a little bit before we left home for dinner. At the restaurant he started acting up and decided to completely freak out during the meal. We had him with us for dinner often in the past. I have never experienced something like this. Never ever. If I would have enough hair left, I would have ripped it out that night.
The last 15 minutes at the restaurant Logan was like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide. He turned from Monster into the sweetest child. But the damage was already done. Simone and I were completely done. When we got home we gave him a bottle and put him to bed. He fell asleep almost instantly. It was 8.30 PM and I usually work for another hour or two, but my brain was fried. I went to bed and almost immediately fell asleep. I have not been mentally exhausted that much in a very long time. A screaming baby like I had to experience - that is the best form of protecting yourself against having a baby.
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