too expensive being a parent

Before we had Baby J., my wife and I were dinks (double income no kids). It was easy getting by. We were able to save up enough money to buy a nice house, a nice car, live in a good neighborhood and have all the amenities. Now that we're parents and my wife stays home with the baby, it isn't enough that we're on a tighter budget, but everything is more expensive now. I'm not just talking about the cost of diapers and formula. My health insurance tripled in cost. The health insurance company refused to cover what it should have for the hospital visits. They constantly try to get out of covering pediatrician visits. Do other people have this problem? And it only keeps getting worse. When Baby J. had bad reflux, we had her on a prescription medicine to ease the pain, and the cost of that kept going up and up and up every time we needed a refill, and the health care company didn't want to cover the cost, because despite the pediatrician saying we should give Baby J. the drug, the health care company knew better and didn't think she should need it. What am I supposed to do? Ignore the pediatrician who has actually seen my daughter and knows her or trust a health care company a thousand miles away that cares more about the bottom line than about parents and their children?

It's not just that either. Taxes have gone up A LOT. My mortgage went up 10% because of taxes. And why have the taxes went up? Because the local school budget is higher this year. But despite it being a higher budget, they just fired a bunch of teachers. Where is all of that extra money going? Well apparently to support the raises of school principals and super intendents who don't need another $20k tacked on to their $250k salary.

On top of all of this, the company I work for scaled back considerably a couple months after Baby J. was born requiring that I get a 5% pay cut. Ug, like I needed that on top of the hospital bills.

The cost of everything keeps going up and up, and we always seem to need more groceries or more clothes or more of something. The pressure really gets to me. I feel like I should be able to enjoy this time with my daughter, not constantly worry about paying the bills. It was really important to me that my baby have her mother with her during these first few years. I think too many problems occur these days with kids who have no parents at home, because they both have to work. My original budget meant we could do so comfortably, but now it's extremely difficult and becoming more and more impossible as time goes by.

I'm so tired of it. And it's starting to make me sick from the worry.

D.