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!)