Pregnant, Poor, and in need of Prayer

Could really use some prayer. Or advice. Or anything really. This one is long, but possibly the most stressful situation you'll read about all month lol.

My husband and I are expecting our first baby in just 9 weeks (June 6th), and we've hit the worst financial hardship of our lives since I've been pregnant.

We both work retail, which I'm aware isn't a very stable career for raising children, but I'm 33 and he's 30 (both late starters), and we figured we're not getting any younger. We weren't well off when we decided to try having a baby, but we were mostly stable, and people poorer than us seem to get by somehow, so we decided to have faith. "You're never TRULY ready", that's what they all say.

Besides, we'd been slowly but surely climbing upwards out of poverty. A couple years ago, I taught myself enough algebra to get my GED (I was a High School dropout) and get into college, where I got a certificate in Medical Billing and Coding, and I'm currently continuing on for my Associate's in Health Information, which I'm determined to have by the end of the year even despite the hiatus to have a baby. We moved out of our 1br rent-controlled roach motel into a cute little 2br. Our car will be paid off next year as well, and we were starting to make higher payments on our credit cards to try to get our debt paid off a little faster. We could see a light at the end of the tunnel, y'know?

When we started trying, we were both working overnight, and I knew I wouldn't be able to do that while pregnant due to all the heavy lifting, and moving to dayshift was going to come with a small pay cut. Still, it wasn't so significant a difference that we were worried about it, so we stayed the course and I got pregnant in September with a baby girl. I moved to days late November, and it basically showballed from there...

On top of the small pay cut, they cut my hours by more than half. Not to mention, we both got sick around Christmas and missed about a week of work each. Any money we received (including several hundred from family members for the baby, a month with an extra paycheck each, student loan payouts, etc) we basically blew through just trying to stay afloat. Out of our $2,000 tax refund I only managed to save $1,300 to cover 4 weeks of unpaid maternity leave (I'm allowed 6, but unfortunately I can't afford to take all 6)

We cancelled all of our subscriptions, got more frugal with our groceries. The only thing left to cut from the budget is our credit card payments, which I'm desperately trying to keep out of collections. I applied for food stamps, but we didn't qualify. I even looked into moving, but that would involve breaking the lease on our current apartment and then nobody else would rent to us anyway.

My husband has been applying anywhere that pays more, but hasn't received any call-backs. I begged for more hours, but was told there were none to give, and the further I got in pregnancy, the harder it became to work anyway.

We were operating on a budget that left us only $20 after bills and now...my husband's hours are getting cut too. Which means we can no longer afford food. On top of that, our car registration is up for renewal by the end of May.

We are blessed with good family and friends who have provided us most of what we need for the baby, although there's much she still needs and I don't have a single dollar to spare for it. We have been praying like crazy and are trying to have faith, and despite everything I'm still certain that God will work it out in the long run...I'm not worried we'll ever be homeless or starving because we have people who love and support us, but...

I'm just embarrassed to need help this badly AND be pregnant by choice...We've both worked retail for most of our lives and we knew hours usually get cut a bit just after New Year's, but it has NEVER been THIS bad. It's completely unprecedented, and we would have never chosen to have a baby right now had we known it was going to be this way. Both our families are over the moon about the baby, but only a few of them truly know we're drowning, and although nobody has judged us for it, I feel totally irresponsible and pathetic asking them for help.

Between ALL this there have been other hardships as well:

• Daycare costs. The waitlist for financial assistance for that is about a year, and I can't even apply for it until after she's born. a friend has agreed to babysit for free, which is incredible, but not at all fair to her.

• My husband lost his employer-provided insurance in January because he was 0.1 hours below the yearly average required to qualify (he tried to fight them on that, and there basically wasn't anybody TO fight, it's all just automated). He has ADHD/ Depression and is taking medications that require him to check in with a psych every month, so without insurance, he basically can't work. Luckily, he qualified for govt insurance since he lost his.

• I still have employer-provided insurance (which I'm CERTAIN I will lose come January since they cut my hours this much), but the copays were too high to afford. As you can imagine, being pregnant comes with lots of doctors appointments. Luckily, I qualified for Medicaid (how I qualify for that and not food stamps is beyond me).

Anyway...I'm really not looking for judgement, because I have that in spades just for myself. I know there are a million better choices we could've made. We work hard, we're not lazy or wasteful. We just got a late start in life and we wanted a baby before we're 40. My only plan at this point is to go groveling to family members for food and diapers, and try to scrape by until January/February when our lease is up and we can move somewhere cheaper. God willing, I'll have my degree by then so I can start looking for a real career.

If you made it this far, thank you so much for listening...God bless y'all.