Some degree of normalcy

Well, the dust has settled around here.   The layoff was scary and the timing certainly sucks, but there's never a good time to get laid off!   One of the upsides of both of us working is that the other's income is a safety net of sorts.

By a stroke of luck, Mark's unemployment amount was boosted because the state department of labor uses specific quarters of income to calculate the amount - the two quarters used happened to be one in which he got his semi-annual bonus and then the other was one where he worked a lot of overtime.   That was certainly a nice surprise and every little bit helps.   Of course it's not what he was making before but when you subtract his high commuting expenses, premiums for insurance, his substantial 401k contribution, etc. it definitely gives us some extra breathing room in the budget while he hunts for a new job.  

We're going to switch to my company's insurance plan.  It sucks to have to switch mid-pregnancy and the premiums are around twice as much for a plan with higher co-pays and out of pocket max, but we would have had to re-meet a deductible for the new plan year regardless.  We will likely switch to the high deductible with HSA plan for 2014 because my company's made some enhancements (especially for prescription drug coverage on the HD w/HSA) but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.   So Wiggle's birth will cost us more out of pocket than we planned, but there's not a whole lot we can do about that besides expect to get on a payment plan with the hospital.

There were layoffs at my workplace a week after.  That was a scary morning for me until it was clear that "the action" was complete.   Between some retirements and the layoffs we had a 10% headcount reduction.  It may not seem like a lot and I was pretty sure I'd be safe (this time) but it's still unnerving as hell to go through that - especially right after your spouse gets laid off.

So yeah.  The situation sucks, but bitching and dwelling on it gets us nowhere positive.  Mark is pretty confident he'll be able to find a new job in the coming months and I'm going to make a major reversal to my usual way of thinking and be optimistic that he's right.