Over the past few months I’ve alluded to it here and there, but my wife and I are currently expecting our first child (you can see our baby in the ultrasound pictures above!). The due date is July 8th, and we couldn’t be more excited to become parents for the first time.
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. – Jeremiah 1:5
While we’re excited, we also know that we have a lot of planning to do. We need to put some new categories in our family budget, plan ahead for baby expenses, buy new baby furniture, think about starting a baby college fund, buy life insurance and disability insurance, saving up for hospital expenses, increasing our emergency fund and so much more.
Thankfully we’ve already been able to find and buy all the baby furniture we needed including a crib and changing table, rocking chair/glider and a chest of drawers. We had the money saved up for this and just paid cash over the past 2 months for everything we needed.
Now we’re getting into the baby shower season – my wife has already had one shower thrown for her by her friends. Next weekend my wife’s mother’s friends are throwing her another one. It’s possible we might have even one more after that. The showers have been a lot of fun for my wife, and have ended up supplying a lot of the other essentials that we needed like clothes, diapers, strollers, high chairs and other things.
So, what’s your advice to a couple of new parents? What things do you think are important for us to prepare for? What things would you tell us to do? Tell me your advice and thoughts for a couple of new parents in the comments section below.
Links From Around The PF Blogosphere
Here’s some good reading from around the personal finance blogosphere this past week.
- DB(k) Pension Plan Rules. Is it the New 401k? @ goodfinancialcents.com
- The 10 Awesomest Safes I’ve Ever Seen @ budgetsaresexy.com
- How An Excellent Credit Score Has Helped Us Save Money @ freefrombroke.com
- Debt Plan – Facing Bankruptcy & Foreclosure @ debtfreeadventure.com
- First Timer? Reduce the Cost of Your First Home @ ptmoney.com
- Debt Is Not Evil @ providentplan.com
- Should We Buy a Vacation Home? @ mydollarplan.com
- How to Cure Financial Constipation @ moneysmartlife.com
- Backing Up Your (Personal Finance) Data To The Cloud @ milliondollarjourney.com
- Disposable Diapers Vs. Cloth Diapers @ moneyhelpforchristians.com
- Finding The Balance Between a Sideline and a Day Job @ greenpandatreehouse.com
- What You Need to Know Before Co-Signing a Loan @ genxfinance.com
- Are You Obsessed With Your Finances? @ frugaldad.com
- So Why are Economists Behind the Wheel? @ toughmoneylove.com
- Does Taking Advice From An Expert Relieve You Of Responsibility? @ enemyofdebt.com
Happy reading!
Thanks for including my post, Peter!
Paul Williams´s last post ..Weekend Reading – 04/30/2010
Hey, Peter! I didn’t mean to be so short with my first comment, but I wanted to congratulate you on the baby. I’m not a parent yet but I agree with Pamela below. Date nights are crucial whether you have kids or not. Which reminds me, I need to figure out what my wife and I are going to do together tomorrow! :)
Paul Williams´s last post ..Weekend Reading – 04/30/2010
Woahhhh! And I hear you’ve already picked out the name too right? “J. Money II” :) You guys are too kind. I owe you a beer.
J Money II? Um. has a nice ring to it, but no. His name is Carter John. :)
No… I’m not a parent yet, but my advice is to hit up friends and family for used baby clothes/furniture. Chances are many of them have a TON of extra stuff lying around in their basement anyway. Betsy and I did this, even though we don’t have a baby on the way yet… now our basement is full of just about everything we’ll need if God chooses to open her womb.
Congrats Pete!
Matt Jabs´s last post ..Debt Plan – Facing Bankruptcy & Foreclosure
We’ve been blessed by the fact that many of our close friends have recently had babies, or have toddlers now. We’ve already received bags of clothes, used toys, etc. All of our baby furniture is new for the most part, but a lot of the rest is used.
Cograts! That sonogram is eerily clear!
Evan´s last post ..What is Your Day Job or Profession?
there are two ultrasounds shown above, one is the 3D ultrasound that our high risk pregnancy clinic uses. Very cool cause you can see the face pretty clearly.
I’m the mother of 4 children – two teens and two young adults, ages 15 – 24. My oldest and his wife are expecting twins in the fall :)
My advice to you in these early years is this: bring your child into your life – do not let your life revolve around your child. Jealously protect your relationship with your wife. Cultivate a very close relationship (family or otherwise) whom you trust implicitly so when you are ready to leave baby for date night or an overnight trip, you are not panicking.
I have so many more tidbits of wisdom but I’ll leave you with that. Congrats to you!
Thanks for the great tips!
Use the expertise of friends and family after you get little one home. They don’t come with manuals. Go ahead and buy Mylicon drops …liquid for baby tummy aches. Congratulations to you both.
Echo Pamela and do it in two words: Date nights.
As soon as you can, find time to get away from the little bundle of cries.. err.. joy and spend time together.
Oh, and take more pictures and video than you ever think you’ll want to watch. You can never have enough…
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Congrats! I’m not surprised — it seemed like you were hinting at it!
Ok first piece of advice — forget July 8. Babies come whenever they want. So when July 8 comes and goes (as it often does for first time mamas — they usually hit 41 weeks!) just don’t let the doc pressure an induction because of that or worries about size. It’s often very unfounded!
Next piece of advice — about a month before mid-July, start stocking away meals in your freezer. Maybe you’ll be blessed and have tons of meals delivered, but eventually those will run out. Even if you just have a small freezer, you can fit a TON of meals in there if you do freeze ’em flat in Ziplock bags!
And lastly — if this is at all important to you and your wife, I’d strongly encourage you two to consider and prepare for an unmedicated birth. It’s safer for mama and baby, makes ’em less likely to have a c-section, and vastly helps getting breastfeeding off to a good start.
I’m available by email if you have any questions! And I’m expecting #2 now…due in December. Oh, baby!
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We would like the birth be as natural as possible, however, my wife has some pre-existing health issues (blood clotting disorder) which means that the delivery will be a high risk one. The due date is 7/8, but if the baby hasn’t already come we’ll be doing an induction on 7/1 so that they can better control her bleeding risks. All of which is to say – it’s gonna be interesting. Thankfully we’re working with some high risk doctors who really know what they’re doing – and we have good insurance.
Oh, and tomorrow from 9am-3pm we have birthing and parenting classes – can’t wait!
Thx for the mention!
I have 2 kids already and you are giving me the will to have a third one when I look at the ultrasound picture!
I wish you the best of luck and a lot of joy!
Congrats! That kid is gonna have some great parents.
Tip: Nap when the baby naps. You may think the baby’s nap is a great time to get some stuff done. Yes it is, but its the only time you may have to sleep too!
Tip II: Enjoy every second of it. It passes like you wouldn’t know.
Tip III: Before you open the diaper make sure you have a new diaper open and waiting underneath. TRUST ME!
That’s wonderful news! I am so excited for you.
Blessings,
Mrs. White
Congratulations to you and your wife! Welcome to the best adventure of your lives!
My advice – remember to keep a sense of humor. You will be challenged in ways you have yet to imagine – but being able to laugh at yourselves helps!
Also… you can read as much as you want… but your gut instincts are usually the best tools!
Wishing you all much health and happiness!
Way to go future dad, congrats to you and your wife!
One way my wife saves a ton of money on baby/kid toys and clothes is to hit up garage sales in the summer. We bought garbage bags full of clothes and almost brand new toys for pennies on the dollar.
I think our kids only have a few toys that we bought new, and most of those were from Christmas or birthday presents.
Ben´s last post ..How Much are Your Employee Benefits Worth?
Congrats on the child!!! Excellent job saving up for the items you needed. Sounds like you are well prepared to usher another life into this world! Again, Congrats!
Congratulations on your blessing!
The best wordsI rec’d when my oldest was born almost 20 years ago….
YOU (ok – mostly your wife!) are the expert on your own child. Trust yourself and your heart on important decisions – with lots of prayer!
God gave that precious child to YOU…not the state, or the pediatrician, or your parents. Listen kindly with a smile… and do what you feel is best.
Blessings on the journey ~~Deb
Deb´s last post ..A prayer from Scripture
Peter, Congratulations on the baby! One of the things I’m most glad we had for my daughter’s first year is a digital video camera. We were able to splice all the best moments from her first year into a DVD movie. She loves watching it… So if you don’t have one, get a video camera.
Best advice? Be prepared to NOT sleep. The first couple of weeks, you’ll be lucky to get an hour of straight sleep. If possible, make a plan now to take turns sleeping / caring for the baby. It requires real team work!