I’m going to keep blogging about them until I’m told to stop! Hee hee.
In the continuing saga of Noelle and Zach’s first pregnancy:
Noelle found out she is not eligible for FMLA. Or rather, the small not-for-profit company for whom she works is not required to participate in FMLA. So no maternity leave that way.
They are, like many couples, wading through their birth options. The doctor she normally sees only delivers at the large public hospital with a fairly high c-section rate. She assumed her insurance would cover a freestanding birth center but nope. Not gonna happen. A homebirth is a reasonably priced choice–and of course, comes with the added bonus of a low intervention rate–but will still cost considerably more than her out-of-pocket at a hospital. Choices. Choices.
Stay tuned.
In happier news, Noelle and Zach did get to see their wee poppy seed via an 8 week ultrasound. And got a DVD recording of it to forever keep. Fancy schmancy!
Inexplicable Ways 
That predicament sounds familiar…so frustrating. I hope they are able to come up with a good solution!
I read in Norway, mothers get a year of paid maternity leave! Wouldn’t that be nice! Insurance is such a pain 😦 Hopefully they can come up with somnething. Thanks for the advice about the books, I am ordering them as we speak. Hopefully, they will help with his sleeping. Thanks again!
Same choice we had to make regarding insurance and birth choices. It’s a tough one if you don’t want to go unassisted! We are hoping to have some “midwife money” saved up for next time before we get pregnant.
I don’t think Ivey’s homebirth cost that much more than our out of pocket hospital expenses with Suzi though. I can’t remember exactly how much it was, but there were several different bills–nursery, L&D, etc. It’s hard to say how much it actually ended up costing. We met our deductible, but I don’t think we met our max out of pocket, and 20% of a fortune is still a lot to pay. It would’ve been even more for a c-section, which I almost had.
It stinks that her company only lets her take one week off at a time! I hope things end up working out well for her.
I am visiting your blog whenever I have some time left