Whoopsie

Looks like I took down all of out food posts when I was playing with the site. I'll get them back up as soon as I can.

Making It Work

I have to say that we are so blessed as a couple. We were able to get pregnant without struggling (or trying….but that’s a whole other post!) and we both have good jobs that provide decent health coverage. We are so very fortunate not have some of the issues that some new parents have when trying to make “it” work with a baby. But we do have our issues.

Day care

I struggle so hard with this. I hate the thought of not knowing the person who is taking care of my child personally. My mom offered, but my mom needs to have her own life. She needs to take some time for herself (not that she ever would) and I just can’t burden her with our baby. I could try to work part time, but then we would have to give something up. I’m not sure what that something would be right now, but it would involve giving up vacations, maybe downgrading our house, not paying as much on student loans. I don’t know, but we don’t want to give those things up right now. If after sometime, we want me home with the baby or at least part time, we will figure out a way to make it work.

Cost of a baby

Day care is expensive….really really expensive. We have the income there to pay for it, we have to modify our savings a bit and it will cut into our fun stuff, but we’ll live. Diapers, college savings, clothes, and food are all swimming around in my head. It is so overwhelming. What do you budget for what? I got scholarships to college and Gene joined the military. He does have some student loans for other expenses in college, and our parents did help us out to a certain extent, but otherwise, we took care of it ourselves. However, in today’s rising costs of college, how much should we expect to help him? Should we try to pay for all of it, part of it, or see what he needs and go from there? I know we will help him, but I don’t know to what extent or what he’ll want to do. The other things (diapers, clothes, food) we are just going to have to figure out as they come.

Our Relationship

I don’t want to be one of those couples who only have their baby in common, nor do I want to be one of those couples who function as if they don’t have a child. I know there is middle ground, but how do you find it? Date nights? Couple time after the baby is asleep? How do you fit it in with everything else that will be going on? I know the first year will be hard on us as a couple, I hope we are able to see beyond that when it gets bad and not take our time together for granted (when we have time that is!)

Nursery

We aren't doing a nursery. We have a room for the baby, but it won't have a theme or decked out in the "must have" items. There will be a crib, a dresser and toy storage for later on. I've got a lot of questions about why we aren't doing a "traditional" nursery and our reasons are mainly fiscal. But when did having themed nursery become traditional. I didn't have one as a baby, neither did my parents. Anyway...our reasons.

First, we both feel that nurseries are for the parents and not for the baby. When the child begins to notice the room, they will be old enough to want to change it to something of their own liking, so why waste the money on expensive themed crib sheets, mobiles, wall hangings, etc.. I found a neutral crib bumper for $3 and crib sheets and blankets in neutral colors can be found for similar prices.

Second, we are lazy people and putting together a themed room takes time that we aren't willing to give up on yet. We would rather spend this time being close as a couple and time with our friends.

Third, we just aren't the theme kind of people. Our wedding didn't have a color scheme or theme. We just wanted to get married without the fuss and our marriage is just as valid as someone who went all out, just like our child will be happy (or not happy) in their crib regardless of what color the sheets are.

Now, we are fixing the room up a bit. This is going to be our test room for the rest of the house. We are going to replace the drywall, update the fixtures, add insulation if needed, fix any other issues that come up and paint it a neutral color. This room doesn't have a closet, so we may add one or just do a small shelving unit with a bar to hang up clothes.