Frugal Babe

A rich life without a lot of money

And Baby Makes Three

By

It still doesn’t feel real, but I have some exciting news to share.   My husband and I found out a few weeks ago that I’m pregnant!   The baby is due just a few days after our 5th wedding anniversary next spring.   We’ve been planning for this for years, and we’re both very excited.  

We met today with the midwife who’s going to be helping us along the way.   We’re planning a home birth, and she has helped 360 babies be born at home over the last 13 years.   We both feel very comfortable with her, and we’re glad she’s along for this ride with us.

Since this is my frugal blog, I have to bring up money… The midwife charges $3000 for her services.   In addition, we’ll pay for lab work, birth classes, and maybe rent a birth pool, so the total that we pay for prenatal/postnatal care and delivery will probably come to about $3500.   This is something we’ve planned for, and one of the reasons we didn’t get pregnant until we had finished paying off our debts – our monthly cash flow has a little more wiggle room now that we’re not making debt payments every month.  

I’ll post updates on here whenever there’s something interesting to share.   For right now we’re just enjoying being so excited!

Comments

  3. Congrats! We had a homebirth and it was fantastic!

    It also ended up costing us less than anticipated, the insurance paid more than we thought it would. She is 6 now, but I think it might have covered all the costs.

    This will be an exciting time for you, enjoy it.

    Barb

    Reply

  8. Congratulations! And welcome to the wonderful world of extra expenses… We’ve had two homebirths and are planning our third for any day now, and I can honestly say that they have been some of the most empowering experiences of my life.

    Reply

  13. Congratulations! I look forward to reading about the new addition to your family – you should have your hands full for quite some time, but there’ll be a lot to write about!

    Reply

  14. Congratulations!!! I think it’s also great that you and your husband are also financially prepared for your new addition. =)

    Also now you can post blogs on how to prepare for a baby without debt. My sis just had a baby and she bought a crib/bedroom set (brand new), all new clothes, bassinet, etc–even after I showed her listings for used items on Craigslist. She even bought a $700 bugaboo stroller set. Now she’s in debt.

    Just out of curiousity, is a midwife like an ob/gyn or do you still have to see a regular doctor as well?

    Reply

  17. Thanks for all the comments everyone! Car for Sale Sign, it’s actually more expensive to have a baby at home, since insurance doesn’t cover it – we have to pay the whole thing ourselves. But I would never want to give birth in a hospital. Too many interventions, too many routines set up for the convenience of the doctors rather than for the mother and baby. Statistically it’s safer for a healthy mother with a low risk pregnancy to give birth at home, and that’s why it worth it for us to pay for it. And we don’t have any other babiees – this will be number 1 :)

    Siena, we’re looking forward to seeing how much stuff we can either do without or get used, and I’ll be blogging about it along the way. No debt needed for baby stuff! And our midwife is sort of like an OB, in that she’ll be handling all my care during and after pregnancy, but she’s trained in homebirth, and much less of an interventionist than an OB in a hospital.

    Reply

  21. Oh how wonderful!! Especially since you’re debt free and so all your thoughts about this baby can be positive instead of worried.

    Oh so much happiness! :-)

    Congrats, FB!

    Reply

  22. As a SAHM, I first want to wish you well in your pregnancy. We are having our homebirth sometime in late December/early January and are currently negotiating with our insurance company to help with the cost.

    With my first, I discovered several ways to save a lot of money and continue with our frugal lifestyle. Number one: BREASTFEED. Formula is expensive, inconvenient and the fourth choice for infant feeding according to the World Health Organization.

    A good pump will cost you 300 dollars with bottles and accessories another fifty if you plan to continue working when the wee one arrives. And NO OTHER COSTS. It’s amazing how the greatest ad campaign in the world managed to malign something that was free, healthy, and far more convenient!

    Attend a LLL meeting. Talk to your midwife (who is surely a great advocate for breastfeeding. My midwife won’t even attend a birth unless the mother attempts to breastfeed since its such an important part of postpartum care of you and the baby.)

    Second: cloth diaper. Even part time it will save you so much money. I love cloth diapering and have in fact become something of a guru on the subject.

    http://www.diaperjungle.com/cloth-diaper-guide.html

    Third: If the thought of cloth diapering overwhelms you, look into elimination communication. We practiced it with my son and he was out of diapers completely at eighteen months. Unheard of in this culture.

    http://whatisec.com/

    Finally, remember all you really need is a carseat, a safe place for a baby to be occasionally (and for sleeping) and a sling. So much cheaper than those horrific travel systems, plus they are very cool mommy accessory. Research!

    http://thebabywearer.com/

    Okay, enough ranting about my favorite things. Remember, people are going to give you the most assanine, unwarranted parenting advice ever. Whatever it is, please do your research and listen to your heart. I really believe that children can make a minimum impact on this world if they are born into a loving, caring and frugal family. Cheers!

    Reply

  23. Thanks for all the links Ashley. I plan to breastfeed for at least a year, and I’ve already found some rubber pants at a thrift store (50 cents each) to go over the cloth diapers we’ll be using (the $2 variety, not the $20 ones!). My sister in law has offered me her breast pump, as she’s finished having children, so it looks like we won’t even need to buy one :) We’re very much planning to skip almost all of the stuff that so many people think they have to have for a baby. I lived in Africa for two years, and the memories of what people actually needed in order to raise a happy, healthy child have stuck with me.

    Reply

  24. That is so wonderful! I worked in a South African orphanage for a summer and it truly opened my eyes–it was then that I realized that I wanted to work with children. For now, I’ll settle for my own, lol.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *