Registering our unborn baby at a Nursery..now!!

D and I have had the dreaded "Money, Money, Money" talk that our respective pregnancy books advise we have about now. We have been together for 10 years and in these 10 years we have been homeless on one occasion, whilst still at uni, we have had to sell jewellery and life off coupons and vouchers for months on end (also whilst students and just out of college). For the last 5 years or so we have been doing progressively well. We had a few instances where one of us was unemployed but for the majority of time we have had it easy. We now have a good saving account, we drive two good and "expensive" cars (one of which is 100% paid for), we live in a big house and we give extravagant gifts to our friends and family. If we want something we just get it but we are also smart in saving and not overdoing it. We have also had the experience of not having any food in the house and not being able to get on a bus because we could not afford it for months on end so we know not to be stupid with our money.

Now that baby is coming along we need to be extra careful with how we spend our cash. We know that if we are careful now and don't get too carried away we will be able to provide a better future for our little one. We discussed the possibility of me quitting my job and discarded as a non option because my company pays well and has a lot more benefits (schooling and annual flights back home and better medical care) than D's company and also because we just moved into a more expensive house and with a baby coming we are only going to spend more not less. So me being a stay at home mom is out of the window unless I am made redundant in which case my severance package will be enough to keep us going until baby is about 3 months old. So the options are to either hire a nanny or send the baby to nursery. We are really not comfortable with a live in nanny and unfortunately in this country the idea of part time nannies is not an option. We would really hate the idea of a stranger living with us, coming out with us and eating with us and I really would hate to share my privacy with a stranger. So that option is out of the question. Next option is nursery.

So I spent all week looking for nurseries close by my office and then I realised that all of them don't take babies younger than 12 months. So then I started looking into the city close to where D's office is and I found a few but again the age limit did not work. I then stumbled upon a website for local mommies and found that, like I suspected there are only a couple of nurseries that cater for babies. I emailed one and got a reply that shocked me. Apparently their waiting list is closed for Sep 2010 and to contact them again in the future to see if a place frees up. I got hot sweats thinking we had already missed the "nursery train wagon"!! We should have registered when we started to TTC two years ago and maybe then we would have had a place!!! I am serious.. it's that bad! So then I called another nursery with a cute name that by coincidence is really close by to our old apartment. The lady was super friendly and complimented me on being so organised and she added that if I had left it an extra month we wouldn't even have that place!! So I gave my name and they reserved the place as "baby Laura"!!

Sunday I will go and pay the registration fee so that at least the place is secured for Jan/Feb 2011. It feels so bizarre to go register for a baby who is 12 weeks old and still in my womb!! I will also go open a file at the state run maternity hospital that has a great reputation and an amazing NICU unit. My doctor told me that if Peanut comes early I will go deliver there as it's best catered for Neonatal care. If all goes well then I go deliver at the private hospital where my miracle doctor will deliver our miracle baby!! Either way if I am registered at the state run hospital I have options.

After all of this I really do feel like a mama!!