48 Days and still counting...

While momma is getting her early rest, once again it's my job to keep this Blog updated. 48 Days and still counting. I can't believe we're almost there. It almost feels as if yesterday we found out about that little peanut in Anh's womb. At this point, Anh is going into her 33rd week of pregnancy. The little munchkin should weigh roughly 4.5 lbs by now. And her length should be about 17.5 inches. Other facts this week are:

- her respiratory system should be almost complete.

- she can literally make a distinction between light and darkness.

- her body is starting to gain fat for protection and warmth. 

I see myself checking for Anh's belly button to pop every day. But up to now, still no pop :-(. 

In addition, Anh's been experiencing excessive tiredness (that's why she's sleeping already). But then again, maybe's her tiredness is due to her work she still has to deal with for the next couple of weeks. Unless her pain level is high, we haven't experienced the so-called Braxton Hicks contractions yet. All in all, everything is still going smoothly. Our baby's heart rate is normal to excellent and all the activity tells us she cannot wait to come out. 

The past couple of weeks I've been emphasizing on our baby's future a lot. Doing a lot of calculations regarding how much her college would cost us 20 years from now. Fortunately and compared to our peers, we have a 3 year head start. We started putting some bills away 3 years ago. Taking the current average inflation of tuition into consideration (6.9%), in 20 years the average cost of one year at a private college is estimated to be $76,406, while public schools will average tuition of $23,832 per year. Since we already have a head-start, our New Year's Resolution is to contribute $400 a month to her 529 College Plan for the next 20 years. I don't want to count on anything such as Financial Aid or anything else. Another option could be sending her back to Holland to go to college (since she'll have a dual citizenship by the time she's born). At least right now, education is somewhat subsidized over there. But then again ... it might not be in the future. I'd rather not bet on that. 

Can you imagine? This is just the education-planning. Being the adviser that I am, I cannot stress enough how important it is to start early. So for all you parents out there ... You WILL see yourself complaining about these expenses in the future if you don't start early!

Just come and see me :-).

Other things that I'm looking into right now is to get ourselves a nice HD-video camera to capture all those precious moment awaiting us. As of now, Anh's baby shower which will be held this coming Saturday already has 48 attendees. I hope the weather will be in our favor since we're having it at a local park. As long is there's food, I guess people will be happy. 

I see that I have typed way too much already. Time for daddy-o to join momma in her beauty sleep. Until the next post ... 'On y va' (that's French for 'off we go').