We made a major decision this past weekend. I am not going back to school next week for the rest of the school year (14 days) like we planned. I couldn't fathom leaving my babies yet (how do people go back to work after 6 weeks???) I can't imagine making the transition from taking care of my babies all day long to getting ready for work in the morning and leaving them for hours to go take care of other people's children. I don't know how I would balance end-of-the-school-year demands with the demands of my children every second I'm at home. Ultimately, there will be lots of end-of-the-school-years to come, but Sam and Anna will only be 10-13 weeks old once. I do feel extremely lucky to be able to be home with them for 13 weeks, and off of work for 15 total weeks. This also means I get to be a stay-at-home mom until they are almost 6 months old!!!
My substitute had mentioned a few times that if I changed my mind she would be able to stay longer, so I just send an email to our district office asking if it was okay. They sent an email back saying my extended leave was approved, and that was that- piece of cake on that end.
Money wise, I'm not going to brush over it: it's going to be HARD. This means I will have taken a total of 7 unpaid weeks. At first, the estimate from my district's HR person wasn't too bad. But they forgot to factor in the deduction I was already taking for the first 4 unpaid weeks. Because of insurance, union dues, and taxes, we'll be out more money than I would have even made by being at school those 14 days. When we were rethinking the plan, I tried to figure out how much money we'd save by me not going back those weeks- if I went back to work I would need 1.) a haircut and highlights ($100) but I can forgo this if I'm at home with my hair up anyway 2.) new clothes that would fit because I can't wear comfy pants and t-shirts to school ($200?) 3.) gas ($150 for 3 weeks) and since my husband would have used his leave to watch Sam and Anna, he can now use those days this fall so that will be hundreds of dollars of childcare we won't have to pay either. Regardless, our savings will take a major hit. At least my emotional well-being won't be taking a big hit by going back to work too.
A year from now, the money lost won't be a big deal, but the time spent with my children will be. We may just be eating Ramen and mac and cheese for a while, but it will be worth it, a million times over! I'll be reminded of that every time I see a smile or hear a coo during the hours I would have been gone.
Showing posts with label money. Show all posts
Showing posts with label money. Show all posts
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
I'm Done
... in two days.
I made a decision today- after snapping at my students and feeling guilty about it, after trying to hold back the tears generated from shear exhaustion while driving to work (which felt eerily similar to what I tried to do on many drives to work at this time last year), and after looking at my unrecognizable feet when I peeled off my socks this evening:
I am done.
Friday will be my last day at work. That means I worked up to 35 weeks. 3 weeks shy of my first goal; 1 week shy of my adjusted goal. At this point, I know I could endure a few more days- but now I am really worried I won't get a chance to recover before the twins are born and I cannot fathom going through labor this worn out and then drop-kicked into parenting two newborns. I need at least a few days to restock my energy reserves to make it through the big things that are soon on the horizon.
It also means that to stay out for the rest of the school year, I will have to take 3 more unpaid weeks. I'm not really sure if that is a possibility. I'm not really sure if I can decide that later, or if I need to declare my intentions now, for paperwork. What I need (besides to be done now) is a magical money fairy to give me 2 paychecks worth of moola to make it all work out.
But I know I am done. I just have to make it through 2 more days. I promise I will do a better job of commenting on blogs next week after I get a chance to recuperate a little from the huge energy drain working has been on my body and mind lately. I've really been a slacker in that department, and I'm sorry!
I made a decision today- after snapping at my students and feeling guilty about it, after trying to hold back the tears generated from shear exhaustion while driving to work (which felt eerily similar to what I tried to do on many drives to work at this time last year), and after looking at my unrecognizable feet when I peeled off my socks this evening:
I am done.
Friday will be my last day at work. That means I worked up to 35 weeks. 3 weeks shy of my first goal; 1 week shy of my adjusted goal. At this point, I know I could endure a few more days- but now I am really worried I won't get a chance to recover before the twins are born and I cannot fathom going through labor this worn out and then drop-kicked into parenting two newborns. I need at least a few days to restock my energy reserves to make it through the big things that are soon on the horizon.
It also means that to stay out for the rest of the school year, I will have to take 3 more unpaid weeks. I'm not really sure if that is a possibility. I'm not really sure if I can decide that later, or if I need to declare my intentions now, for paperwork. What I need (besides to be done now) is a magical money fairy to give me 2 paychecks worth of moola to make it all work out.
But I know I am done. I just have to make it through 2 more days. I promise I will do a better job of commenting on blogs next week after I get a chance to recuperate a little from the huge energy drain working has been on my body and mind lately. I've really been a slacker in that department, and I'm sorry!
Sunday, January 3, 2010
The Post That Was Supposed To Be Titled, "Call Me Ms. Productive"
I had good goals for my winter break from school: finish the babies' room as much as possible, get my lesson plans all set for the rest of the school year, get caught up in my mitten making orders, and pack my hospital bag. I did accomplish a lot- but not one of those goals got completely done.
Finishing the babies' room: We did order the rest of the furniture for the room, which I had hoped would be here before the end of break. It is estimated to arrive in two days. Oh well. I couldn't do any baby laundry to put away in them anyway, because our dryer broke. That makes the third appliance in the last two months to have issues. We've gotten a new microwave, a new dishwasher- and I'm really hoping the dryer can just be fixed, rather than replaced, because, you know, I'd be stressing about how to pay for all the rest of the baby stuff without our appliance issues. The room got painted and letters were ordered for their names above the cribs. You won't get to see those until after the little ones are born because we're still keeping those quiet. I looked into a new window covering, but that will have to wait for a while, because add in the new vehicle and this has been an expensive month so far.
School Prep: I went in 4 days over break and got lesson plans written and things prepped for all of January, February, March, and April, as well as some stuff for the beginning of the next school year ( I usual do this in the spring and obviously won't get a chance this year). I didn't get the rest of the year done, but- 4 months of lesson plans/prep is pretty impressive to me anyway!
Mitten making: I got 5 pairs done, 4 to go. Over half way isn't too bad.
Hospital bag packing: I went shopping and got a lot of the stuff I needed to put in the bag. Pretty much all that's left is stuff I can't pack weeks and weeks in advance (like my cell phone cord, my ipod, makeup, etc) and clothes since our dryer is having issues. The partially packed bag is sitting in our room, with a handy list on top for other things to be added should the need arise last minute. I hope I won't need the bag for 10 more weeks though!
In other news, today we reached the 28 week mark! The babies' viability went up to 90% if they were to be born this early. The next goal is 32 weeks... my perinatologist's magical number, in which he said after reaching premature babies show no long lasting effects from being born early. Yay for 28 weeks, still working, and no repeat scary contractions!
Finishing the babies' room: We did order the rest of the furniture for the room, which I had hoped would be here before the end of break. It is estimated to arrive in two days. Oh well. I couldn't do any baby laundry to put away in them anyway, because our dryer broke. That makes the third appliance in the last two months to have issues. We've gotten a new microwave, a new dishwasher- and I'm really hoping the dryer can just be fixed, rather than replaced, because, you know, I'd be stressing about how to pay for all the rest of the baby stuff without our appliance issues. The room got painted and letters were ordered for their names above the cribs. You won't get to see those until after the little ones are born because we're still keeping those quiet. I looked into a new window covering, but that will have to wait for a while, because add in the new vehicle and this has been an expensive month so far.
School Prep: I went in 4 days over break and got lesson plans written and things prepped for all of January, February, March, and April, as well as some stuff for the beginning of the next school year ( I usual do this in the spring and obviously won't get a chance this year). I didn't get the rest of the year done, but- 4 months of lesson plans/prep is pretty impressive to me anyway!
Mitten making: I got 5 pairs done, 4 to go. Over half way isn't too bad.
Hospital bag packing: I went shopping and got a lot of the stuff I needed to put in the bag. Pretty much all that's left is stuff I can't pack weeks and weeks in advance (like my cell phone cord, my ipod, makeup, etc) and clothes since our dryer is having issues. The partially packed bag is sitting in our room, with a handy list on top for other things to be added should the need arise last minute. I hope I won't need the bag for 10 more weeks though!
In other news, today we reached the 28 week mark! The babies' viability went up to 90% if they were to be born this early. The next goal is 32 weeks... my perinatologist's magical number, in which he said after reaching premature babies show no long lasting effects from being born early. Yay for 28 weeks, still working, and no repeat scary contractions!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
How Much Did It Take?
Our insurance covers nothing that is infertility related. This is an estimate of what we have spent in our journey to have a biological child.
OBGyn appointments, Clomid, B/W, etc: approx. $5,642
OV Watch, OPKs, vitamins: approx. $1,000
Urologist appointments: $565
Endometrial biopsy: $351
HSG: $ 1,354
RE (appointments and IVF): $14,535
Acupuncture: $687 +
IVF meds: $2,467 (223+ needles; I stopped counting)
Estimated rounded total: $26,561
And that, folks, is the magical number that it took for me to get pregnant.
OBGyn appointments, Clomid, B/W, etc: approx. $5,642
OV Watch, OPKs, vitamins: approx. $1,000
Urologist appointments: $565
Endometrial biopsy: $351
HSG: $ 1,354
RE (appointments and IVF): $14,535
Acupuncture: $687 +
IVF meds: $2,467 (223+ needles; I stopped counting)
Estimated rounded total: $26,561
And that, folks, is the magical number that it took for me to get pregnant.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Where to start?
Can just good news ever come out of an RE visit for us? I am starting to wonder about that...
Here's the summary of today: I am no longer a u/s virgin. Everything looked good on there... she said the lining is at 8.9 and I have one follicle that looked like had just released or was about to, so then we were on to the injection teaching. We left feeling pretty good about all of that- both of our stress levels were lower and things were good. I was rarin' to go with my 7 pm date with Lupron and a needle. We decided to stop by the good mall on our way back (1 hour away from us) while waiting to get a call about the progesterone results. I even got a cute new skirt (on sale originally $44 at Gap- bought for $20) as my treat o' the day.
Then the nurse called and guess what? I haven't O'd yet- so no Lupron tonight for me. I have to take Norethi.ndrone for a week to induce AF. (I'm not happy about that, b/c I know I would O and get AF on my own without drugs) But, I can start Lupron on Saturday instead. So it is only a 2 day delay.
My good mood instantly faded however- I know that this process is dependent on a lot of things happening just right- but darn it- something went wrong before we even got started! It was just another glaringly obvious reminder at how delinquent we are at makin' babies. I also know that that is only pushing it back two days, but see- I've spent a lot of mental effort preparing for this first injection happening tonight. Now I have two more days to agonize about it and now I have an added worry that I'm going to forget what she showed us. Plus- I'm not really looking forward to telling people, "thanks for asking how it went... I actually didn't get to do the shot yet...blah blah blah..."
On a positive note: Norethi.ndrone is not strictly an IF drug, so it was covered by my insurance. Which was excellent considering we had to pay everything for the RE's end of the IVF today (we are satelliting the monitoring locally- so that isn't paid for yet). Ouch! It's hard to suddenly have $11,692 less.
Earlier in the week I added a running total on the side of my blog that shows about how much moola has been devoted to this endeavor so far. I was amazed that before paying for the IVF we were already at over $10,000. Wow. After paying the IVF fee today- we're at over $22,000- and we're not done yet. It's hard to believe that much has almost literally flown out our window in three years. It's also hard to believe that we don't eat ramen for dinner every night... or live in a cardboard box down by the river. (We're not rich, people- I am a teacher and Jake is a writer- two occupations notorious for being low-paying jobs.)
Eyes on the goal, Katie, eyes on the goal.
Here's the summary of today: I am no longer a u/s virgin. Everything looked good on there... she said the lining is at 8.9 and I have one follicle that looked like had just released or was about to, so then we were on to the injection teaching. We left feeling pretty good about all of that- both of our stress levels were lower and things were good. I was rarin' to go with my 7 pm date with Lupron and a needle. We decided to stop by the good mall on our way back (1 hour away from us) while waiting to get a call about the progesterone results. I even got a cute new skirt (on sale originally $44 at Gap- bought for $20) as my treat o' the day.
Then the nurse called and guess what? I haven't O'd yet- so no Lupron tonight for me. I have to take Norethi.ndrone for a week to induce AF. (I'm not happy about that, b/c I know I would O and get AF on my own without drugs) But, I can start Lupron on Saturday instead. So it is only a 2 day delay.
My good mood instantly faded however- I know that this process is dependent on a lot of things happening just right- but darn it- something went wrong before we even got started! It was just another glaringly obvious reminder at how delinquent we are at makin' babies. I also know that that is only pushing it back two days, but see- I've spent a lot of mental effort preparing for this first injection happening tonight. Now I have two more days to agonize about it and now I have an added worry that I'm going to forget what she showed us. Plus- I'm not really looking forward to telling people, "thanks for asking how it went... I actually didn't get to do the shot yet...blah blah blah..."
On a positive note: Norethi.ndrone is not strictly an IF drug, so it was covered by my insurance. Which was excellent considering we had to pay everything for the RE's end of the IVF today (we are satelliting the monitoring locally- so that isn't paid for yet). Ouch! It's hard to suddenly have $11,692 less.
Earlier in the week I added a running total on the side of my blog that shows about how much moola has been devoted to this endeavor so far. I was amazed that before paying for the IVF we were already at over $10,000. Wow. After paying the IVF fee today- we're at over $22,000- and we're not done yet. It's hard to believe that much has almost literally flown out our window in three years. It's also hard to believe that we don't eat ramen for dinner every night... or live in a cardboard box down by the river. (We're not rich, people- I am a teacher and Jake is a writer- two occupations notorious for being low-paying jobs.)
Eyes on the goal, Katie, eyes on the goal.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
$$$
I should be doing school work, but instead I'm worrying about $. IVF is not cheap, people. And thanks to insurance companies... it is usually not covered. My lovely insurance company does not cover one cent. But if I need Viagra or birth control, or gastric bypass surgery, sure thing! Hey- we have a meeting with our insurance company tomorrow- think I should bring that up?
But I digress. Back to the $:
So... Jake and I refinanced our home a few months ago. That moola is safely stuck away in our not-big-enough-savings account. But everything we've got in there is not enough to cover the whole IVF process. Jake freelanced a little writing... I made some mittens... and that helped. But as far as my weekly calculations go, it still isn't enough. We can only estimate the total amount needed because some of the costs, like for medication, will vary.
I really, really, really do not want to be sucked dry AND be in more debt at the end of this thing. Especially if the IVF is not successful. We do have options if the money doesn't materialize by July. a.) take out a loan on Jake's 401k. We would be paying the interest to ourselves. or b.)amass a little medical debt from satelliting some of the monitoring to our local hospital (FYI, we are satelliting as much as possible anyway because our RE is 2 hours away) Medical debt is interest free, and we can pay it off whenever. But I don't want to do either of those options. I want to pay it all in full. I can only imagine how much it will smart to write out those checks after the IVF if it didn't work. I don't want to have the possibility of that.
*sigh*
Anyone have any tips on how to make about 3,000 dollars in two months? Or anyone want a pair of handmade mittens... for 3,000?
I'll settle for $20 a pair too, I guess.
But I digress. Back to the $:
So... Jake and I refinanced our home a few months ago. That moola is safely stuck away in our not-big-enough-savings account. But everything we've got in there is not enough to cover the whole IVF process. Jake freelanced a little writing... I made some mittens... and that helped. But as far as my weekly calculations go, it still isn't enough. We can only estimate the total amount needed because some of the costs, like for medication, will vary.
I really, really, really do not want to be sucked dry AND be in more debt at the end of this thing. Especially if the IVF is not successful. We do have options if the money doesn't materialize by July. a.) take out a loan on Jake's 401k. We would be paying the interest to ourselves. or b.)amass a little medical debt from satelliting some of the monitoring to our local hospital (FYI, we are satelliting as much as possible anyway because our RE is 2 hours away) Medical debt is interest free, and we can pay it off whenever. But I don't want to do either of those options. I want to pay it all in full. I can only imagine how much it will smart to write out those checks after the IVF if it didn't work. I don't want to have the possibility of that.
*sigh*
Anyone have any tips on how to make about 3,000 dollars in two months? Or anyone want a pair of handmade mittens... for 3,000?
I'll settle for $20 a pair too, I guess.
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