I'll back up to after we purchased our Flex. We have been saving money as if we Dec 21, 2012 was right around the corner (haha). We put about 700-800 dollars in baby savings every month. Yes, we've been blessed by God to have that additional money every month. God truly has taken care of us in the financial field. We continue to tithe to Z Radio and Discovery, we give above and beyond when we feel called to, and God is gracious enough to pour out additional resources back to us in various ways.
We know that our max out of pocket is around $4000 with insurance. We want to ensure that we have that money in our savings account plus an additional 500-1000 for any baby items we need, that we don't receive at my baby shower.
Onto preparation, so we host a weekly bible study at our house for Young and Married couples. It's great, a wonderful mix of people. We have some newlyweds, some couples like us that have been married 3-5 years, and couples who have been married longer. We have some children that attend (2 to be exact) and of course, 2 on the way. :) Every week we see the children want to run and play with our entertainment center. Here's a picture of the old entertainment center:
See how open it is? Everything was at the children's reach, and the TV was low too. Brian's main complaint was that the television/satellite box was too low and you had to bend down to turn on the TV.
Knowing the frustration with this, and the potential problem when we have walking toddlers around the house, we purchased a new entertainment center! Our new entertainment center looks like this:
Pardon the blurriness of the picture. I snapped it really quickly. But, either way, you can see now that everything is child-friendly, everything is closed in or tall enough placed. We absolutely love it because it opens up the room more!
Our next adventure in purchasing was a new couch! Our couches, though appreciated, was a hand-me down from my brother. He had the leather couch and chair/ottoman in his garage and he wanted to know if we wanted it. Well, surely, being newlyweds, we would take anything since we did not have the money to pay for a nice one. Being, at the time, 17ish weeks pregnant, getting off that leather couch was a nightmare. It is sloped so it takes double the effort to get up or a husband's hand to lift me. Either way, we knew we wanted a new couch.
So, then we discussed, where are we going to get the money? Well, being a teacher you have the option of taking a certain percentage out of your paycheck every 2 weeks and put it into a "Summer Deferred paycheck." I take out about 12% every 2 weeks. Being the planner that I am, I already looked at my summer finances and paid the bills. Brian's paycheck is a steady amount and then we would just tap into the deferred check when needed. Well, after all is said and done, all bills paid for and Brian's birthday celebrated (July 31st), we will have about 2900 left in my deferred pay. We discussed back and forth many decisions for this additional money. Everything from just splitting it with debt (the Flex loan) and putting it into baby savings, to spending it all on a vacation and putting some into a baby savings.
After many discussions, Brian and I agreed that we would spend 1800 of it on a vacation and 1100 of it would be placed into baby savings. Brian and I were set on this. We were okay with it because we truly have never taken a vacation together, outside of the Florida border. Next dilemma was our decision on where to go. After many troubles, we decided Philadelphia (for family and history) for the week and would stop a day in New York City (because it's the city, I've never been, and to meet his family for lunch/dinner). We started planning things that we would do, Monday - family day, Tuesday - Eagles stadium, Wednesday - historic viewing, Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, etc, Thursday - NYC, Friday leave.
Then, one crazy, hormonal evening, I blurt out, "Let's just buy a living room set and do a small vacation somewhere in Florida." Brian, being the fiscal conservative Jew that he is, said "Sounds like a great idea! I wanted to do that all along but I knew how dead set you were on a vacation and seeing your family." Now our new dilemma was to find the perfect, cream leather, reclining sofa and chair to fit into our living room.
We did some searches online and found minimal results. There was a piece here or there that was decent, but nothing that we were "sold" on. A few items from Ashley's Furniture caught our eye, but their website sucks and does not show the prices. So last Saturday, after running a few errands for Mother's day and our niece's birthday present, we decide to do some furniture window shopping.
Needless to say, we walked in, found the set we adored, they had a sale going on, we purchased a new couch. We just transferred money from savings into our checkings and cha-ching, it was ours. The sale was perfect, buy a reclining sofa full price, get the reclining love seat or chair for 1/2 price. The sofa was 700, the chair was 200 (after the 1/2 off) and there was 100 dollar delivery charge (that we could not get out of one way or the other :( ).
Now I am just awaiting the delivery of our furniture. Like I said before, it is coming anytime between 10-2 today. I'd also like to go to see "What to Expect when you Expecting" movie today, so I'm hoping they come sooner rather than later.
I feel as though our savings account is depleted, since our baby fund has been spent on items not necessarily for the baby but for the house. However, I know that I will get what I need through my baby shower and Brian said if we don't pay off the hospital bill right away he's not worried. The $1100 spent on furniture will be replaced in the baby savings account once I get my deferred pay in June. We found a great hotel to stay at in Melbourne Beach, with an ocean front suite, breakfast in bed package for $350. We are budgeting $250 for anything we want to do during our weekend getaway. And, once all is said and done, we will still be able to put an additional $1100 into the baby savings at the end of the summer again.
But I guess you really want an update on the babies huh?? :) :)
Well, since I last wrote, we discovered that Baby A is a Baby girl!!! We have our little Emily! :) Baby B was a very conservative baby at our last appointment and did not reveal itself. The technician took a guess and said girl as well, but not fore sure.
We will find out THIS Wednesday what Baby B is, how well each are growing, take a look at their organs. This is the big targeted 20 week ultrasound! :) We are excited and can't wait to share with everyone what they BOTH are!!
When we checked their heart beats Emily had a heartbeat of around 127, Baby B had a heartbeat of around 153.
I have been feeling them move more and more lately. At first they were little flutters, but now their more frequent and I feel them on both sides. I was hesitant to call my flutters them, but because I feel them more I totally know it's them. Baby B is more peaceful than Emily. Baby B doesn't often move, so when I get the opportunity to feel he/she move, I absolutely LOVE it! I know that Baby B is just more passive than Emily. :) Emily moves all the time. Flutters and rolls, it's fun!
I feel bad because I tell Brian that the babies are moving a lot and by the time he runs with his stethoscope over to me, it's too late. I want him to experience the fun in the baby movement, but he will have to wait a few more weeks I presume.
I am going to schedule our Lamaze class soon and our hospital tour. It is crazy how truly, our twins could come SOON! Of course everyone hopes to make it to 30+ weeks, but that isn't always the case. I'm not saying we WON'T make it til at least 36-38 weeks, but there are always possibilities of having the babies way too early. Either way, we are scheduling our Lamaze class and hospital tour for sometime in June (making me 24-26 weeks). I was also told that hospitals prefer if you're having twins to do all your classes by 28 weeks just for potential risks. With my Lamaze class I get 3 free additional classes. We are looking at a breast feeding class and a few others. :)
My mother in law, best friend, and sister in law are in cahoots about planning my baby shower. It's difficult since my best friend has a crazy summer schedule. I hope something gets worked out! :)
We are also checking into scheduling our 4D sonogram. We would like to schedule something for our 24-26 weeks time, but we shall see how crazy our June schedule gets! At least our vacation is being planned for July. :)
I'll check back in with you all after our appointment on Wednesday and let you know what Baby B is. And of course, tell you how everything is developing with both of them! :) I leave you with this:
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