The cost of Raising a Child

The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140 for a middle-income family. Talk about price shock! That doesn't include the cost of post-secondary education.

But $160,140 isn't so bad if you break it down. It translates into:
* $8,896.66 a year,
* $741.38 a month,
* $171.08 a week.
* A mere $24.24 a day!
* Just over a dollar an hour.

Still, you might think the best financial advice is: don't have children if you want to be 'rich'.

Actually, it is just the opposite.

What do you get for your $160,140.00?

* Naming rights. First, middle, and last!
* Giggles under the covers every night.
* More love than your heart can hold.
* Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.
* Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies and FROGS...
* A hand to hold usually covered with jelly or chocolate, mac n cheese, or fishy crackers.
* A partner for blowing bubbles and flying kites.
* Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.

For $160,140.00, you never have to grow up.You get to:
* finger-paint,
* carve pumpkins,
* play hide-and-seek,
* catch lightning bugs,
* never stop believing in Santa Claus.

You have an excuse to:
* keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh,
* watch Saturday morning cartoons,
* go to Disney movies, and
* wish on stars.

You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, hand prints set in clay for Mother's Day, and cards with backward letters for Father's Day.

For a mere $24.24 a day, there is no greater bang for your buck.
You get to be a hero just for:
* retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof,
* taking the training wheels off a bike,
* removing a splinter,
* filling a wading pool,
* coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and
* coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.

You get a front row seat in history to witness the:
* First step,
* First word,
* First date,
* First time behind the wheel.

You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren and great-grandchildren. You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college can match.

In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there under God. You have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits, so one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost.

That is quite a deal for the price! Love & enjoy your children & grandchildren & great-grandchildren... It's the best investment you'll ever make!

Hailey's Big Play Date!

Hailey had a big play date on Saturday. I met up with some ladies from TheBump message boards I have been a part of since I had the miscarriage. We have been an online support group for each other. We went through our losses, trying to conceive again, pregnancies and births of our babies. The ladies a part of this board are from all over the U.S. but several of us are local to each other. We have gotten together before when we were pregnant and now all of our babies are born so we got together again!

It was a lot of fun. Hailey was the second oldest there so the play date was mostly for the moms! Some adult time to relate to each other about our babies! We will continue to meet up and watch our kiddos grow! Pretty soon they will be running around with each other and fighting over toys!

One of the ladies husband is a professional photographer so he snapped a picture of us before he left us to do our thing. In this particular picture, Hailey is the oldest (another baby showed a little later that was one month older than her) yet, as you can see, she certainly isn't the biggest!! She has some catching up to do!! =)

Couldn't Agree More

Oh the Pacifier

The pacifier. If you knew me well, you would know I had absolutely no plans of using one. At all. I won't go into full detail why because I don't want to offend any avid users out there. And on a side note, it is NOT a binkie, it's a pacifier. Soothie will work too since that's the brand we use.

I tweaked my plan when Hailey was in the NICU. I saw there was one in her isolette. I asked the nurse why it was in there and that I preferred for it not to be. I was told it was because they needed to teach her to suck and strengthen her ability without giving her food. The suck, swallow, breath coordination doesn't develop until around 35 weeks gestation. She was born at 33 weeks so more than likely she didn't have that technique. Well we all know now she didn't and had trouble with it which is what kept her in the NICU for so long. So I let that slide. It was for her own good.

Babies use sucking to soothe themselves. In their early weeks, this is all they know. I didn't get to breast feed Hailey. You hear about lots of moms saying their breast feed babies ate every 1-2 hours in the beginning. There are other reasons why but one of them is that they use sucking to soothe. When they are given the breast, sucking soothes them whether they are hungry or not. And sometimes they want breast when they are not hungry, they just want to suck to soothe.

Think of Hailey's early weeks. She was pushed from her comfortable womb 7 weeks early, had sticky leads stuck on her, a horrible experience with an IV, constant pokes on the foot for blood tests, tube stuck down through her nose and down her throat, left alone for most of day, horrible butt rash, different ladies handling her with different feel, touch, warmth...I could go on. Heart-wrenching isn't? Yea, I try not to think about it.

Then comes home after 4 weeks of this environment to a completely new one at 1 month old. Now she needs to adjust to this and to us. Sticky leads are still there, refluxing like crazy, more shots, more butt rash. *sigh*

She's been through more crap compared to what an average full term baby goes through so it's no wonder she's in need of soothing. She sucks to soothe. That's how she calms herself. There are other ways to calm and soothe her but sucking is a big one.

As you have seen in recent video, she sucks on her hands too. A pacifier I can take away, her hands or thumb I cannot. If that's what soothes her, then why should not soothe her in the way in which she wants? So I can prove a point? What point? Because I was so dead-set on not using one? I will not do that just to save face. I admit it, I judged people for using them and now I use them myself! I proved myself wrong.

Although, this is not used as a plug or a way to get her to shut up. It's used for its purpose. To soothe. Also, research has shown babies who fall asleep with a pacifier have a lower risk of dying from SIDS. Hailey does not fall asleep with the pacifier, however, I just wanted to point out positive research for pacifiers.

So there you have it. I hate pacifiers. Hailey uses one. I depend on it way more than I ever thought I would. But I am over it and I have come to peace with it.

The End.