Welcome to my new blog. I’m CJ, I’m 34, and I’ve decided I want to have a baby. The more I think about it, however, the more overwhelmed I get. I thought a blog would help me keep track of my thoughts and progress, gain feedback and insight from others, and more or less stop me from freaking out so much! Even though I know people do this every day, it just seems like a such a gargantuan feat of organization, planning and lifestyle change that I’m not sure where to start. (Did I mention I always overthink things?)
As of now, I haven’t even gone off the pill, so I’m in the very early stages of planning. My main concerns are health care and finances: How long am I allowed off work? Is it unpaid? How much money will I need at each stage in the process? How much money do pregnancies and babies take, anyway?
I’m currently in the process of digging my family out of debt, a process you can read about at my other blog, Ceejay74’s Personal Finance Blog. I’m making good progress but we have a long way to go, so I really want to make sure that my babymaking efforts don’t derail my debt-repayment efforts. Everyone says you’re never prepared and you never have enough money, but I want to be as sure as I can be that I don’t go into further debt ever again.
One other thing that’s sure to come up once in awhile on this blog is the fact that I’m in a three-person relationship. AS has been my girlfriend for more than 11 years, and NT has been our husband for nearly two years, and our friend for years more than that. (When I say husband, I mean that we consider him to be such, and we had a commitment ceremony; we are not breaking any antipolygamy laws.) AS and I would both like to have a baby, but because I’m five years older than her, we all agreed that I would get to try first.
My doctor says I’m healthy and have a good chance of conceiving, so we’ll see how it goes! But before I even start trying, I have a lot more to learn. I welcome all advice, because this idea is quite new to me.
