1. Pregnancy books are awesome. Different books appeal to different people, but finding the right one is even better than having the answer to every conceivable question available on the internet. We found What to Expect too clogged up with cheeky puns and the Girlfriend’s Guide beyond unbearable for the same reason, but we can recite Your Pregnancy Week By Week more or less verbatim. We read it out loud at bedtime. We argued about which points on each itemized list applied to her. With not much to do but gestate and wait, we armed ourselves with what feels in retrospect like way too much knowledge of every possible complication that could, might or ever has happened even once in recorded human history.
2. Baby books. Ha. They made a postnatal sequel to What to Expect, and we have it! Maybe we even read a few pages, though if so I don’t remember it. The first couple of weeks are kind of a blur, and then the idea of sitting around to read about the baby WHO WANTS ATTENTION RIGHT GODDAMN NOW strikes us as kind of funny. Give her a bottle, check the diaper, burp her, give some gas drops and wrap her in that burrito blanket. If that doesn’t work then call mom for help. One of my relatives is an obstetrician; as soon when I remember which I’ll call him. Oh wait the baby stopped crying. HALLELUJIAH LET’S TAKE A NA – crap. you pick her up while I warm some milk. Some day I might hollow out the middle pages of that book with a razor and use it as a hiding place for small jewelry and ID cards.
3. I have a job again and the wife has a job so either way I don’t need it per se, but feeling like an adventurous reporter I checked out my options on Healthcare.gov. My findings: the website works a little slow but it works. I got an account entered on my first try with only a couple non-fatal hiccups. However, as far as I can tell you still need to pass through a remarkable number of questionnaires and redundant security layers before you can find out what the stupid plans are and how much they cost. Once I got there though the range of plans seemed pretty good. If my job did not offer a solid health plan I would have no problem signing up for one of these gold or silver options. I predict that these inexplicable barriers to casual plan shopping will motivate a cottage industry for apps and mini-sites that report your ACA plan options with a minimal number of toggle button entries, say age, zip code and whether you smoke. The plans will stay fixed for a while yet so cataloging them should be about as hard as listing each type of four-door car in Grand Theft Auto V. I know that I would check out a site like that right away before diving back into Healthcare.gov. I would even click on the ads. Promise.
Things I have learned in the last few weeksPost + Comments (65)