My $$$$$$ Bundle Of Joy

Baby Furniture/Accessories/Etc...

Price: $2,000 +


Ultrasounds/Dr. Visits/Tests/Baby Delivery:

Price: $10,000 +

Taking a 12 week UNPAID maternity leave:

Price: Very Costly

Your Own Baby:

Price: PRICELESS??????

I hope you enjoyed my little illustration (and by the way, items featured are on my BRU registry :)). But seriously, this is a little overwhelming!

We did plan to get pregnant. This was no suprise. And, we knew that we'd have upcoming expenses, but man oh man, what we didn't know!

First of all, our insurance covers like 10% of our $450 ultrasounds (of which we've already had 2, and will have a third). Also, it barely covers blood work (I don't even want to get into that). So, we've had those preliminary expenses. And, we are pre-paying for the delivery, which doesn't even include drugs or hospital stay or anything else that we will incur until AFTER we are at home with baby. And, here's the kicker. We mulled over which insurance plan would be better for me to be on, mine or his, based on the fact that we were trying to get pregnant. This was the BETTER plan of the two. Seriously!

We've also been trying to buy nursery/ baby items here and there as we can to stretch our dollar further and not be overwhelmed all at once. We've bought the basics, but registered for the rest. This has been okay so far.

But the biggest problem is going to be maternity leave. Every other country in the civilized world seems to support women and maternity leave. The US, not so much. I am lucky to be allowed to take 12 weeks without being fired. And this is all, of course, unpaid leave. And, I'm not talking specifically about my company's FMLA plan. This is a pretty universal practice.

So, anyway, we've been trying to put $$ away for the last 6 months so I can stay home this summer. But with all of the doctor bills, we have not been able to put nearly as much away as we had originally hoped to do. This is where the tax man was supposed to come in and help us. Last year we brought home a pretty nice chunk of change and were expecting about the same this year. We had no reason not to think so. Well, Steve started our taxes yesterday, and it's not so pretty. Even though I did NOT fill out a new Federal form with my company (aka - everything should stay the same from last year), they decided to go ahead and take less taxes out anyway. Yeah, ouch. We OWE the government this year. To say I'm upset is putting it lightly.

So, short of selling blood or finding some valuable collector's item worth thousands, we are crossing our fingers that we can make this work. Things always work out...or so I've heard.