Exactly this. Husband and I are 32, we brought home our baby boy 3 weeks ago. We did everything in the right order, went to UNI, got married, waited 13 years to start a family for when we felt “ready”… and what the hell is this thing?! Newborns are a form of chaos we were not prepared for. It’s unknowable until you know your baby. I have days when I feel like I nail it, and days when I definitely don’t. OP, you’ll get there because you care enough to educate yourselves, by asking questions, and the fact that you’re on here asking this means you’ll take care of each other’s needs too. You’re doing great, welcome to the chaos of new parenthood.

I’m from NB and waited 13 years for a doctor. They’re currently shutting down ERs for two week stints in various places because of a nursing shortage and a doctor shortage. It’s insane.

It definitely seems like the American way to penalize the victims of sexual abuse more than the abusers, because of that very same tactic.

“Webster’s dictionary definnnness allegations as…”

Fuck off, check the stats and learn something. Rates of false accusations versus actual abuse is minuscule in comparison and the more men that say ‘it’s her word against his, there IS no proof’ and only believe a woman when 15 others come forward is disgusting behaviour.

Seconding the recommendation for the Holliday Tyson prenatal videos. They were recommended by the midwives too.

Also horizon health has videos called Preparing for Birth.

I’d also recommend reading the book “The Birth Partner.” It really opened my husbands eyes to what’s happening during birth, how to be supportive and informed in the moment.

There’s also a series of three free books from horizon that deal with newborn care called Loving Care. Super informative!

Sure! OP, maybe stay away from problematic breeds with health issues. A quick google search will tell you about hip problems in large breeds, breathing problems in short snout breeds, and back problems in long dogs too!

So good!

Odell Park

Killarney Lake loop

Marysville Heritage Centre Trail

Picaroons Roundhouse/walking bridge to Queen Street Creamery ice cream at Gallery 78

Potato Research Facility

Mactaquac Trails

Downtown Waterfront

Each day, different song! My husband and I are both stuck on a bo burnham loop, we keep dragging each other back in.

Yeah, this is not the norm. That’s a worse case scenario. 11k to two huge issues isn’t heard of from any of my dog owning pals. Sorry to hear that happened to you!

We bought from a rescue organization out of Georgia, who takes dogs from high kill shelters down south and foster them in the maritimes. Paid $400 for her, and also paid $1200 to treat heart-worm. We knew what we were getting ourselves into cost wise, but keep an eye out for any heart-worm positive dogs coming from the south.

There’s no dogs available through the SPCA where we are, and I imagine it’s the same after the pandemic where you are too. Search for local rescues, our dog is an angel and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

We paid $400 for her, $150 for first vet appointment and now spend about $250 for flea/tic yearly, $17 for monthly nail trim(she’s squirmy), $50 monthly for food, plus the random $500-$1000 injury bill once that can pop up. We put away $30 monthly for her and it accumulates appropriately for vet bills. She hates toys but the random $30 toy once in a while.

I also inherited a bunch of bad spending habits from my family, and didn’t want to live the life of Feast or Famine. It’s like they live like kings on payday and then can’t pay bills two weeks later. Each spending action isn’t sustainable.

Is it sustainable to have a fancy Starbucks drink or even a simple coffee out every day, when you add your habit yearly? Probably not. So calculate what’s reasonable after bills and divide that weekly, and you won’t have to do without a weekly treat. Sustainable actions when examining spending at a yearly rate.

I also found that having my spending money with my bills money in one checking account was a mystery and gave me anxiety. I never knew whether I could afford to splurge. And I wanted to cut any unnecessary spending, so I jumped over to Tangerine or any bank without account fees and created multiple accounts. I have all my bills calculated biweekly, and that money plus a bit of a buffer jumps into a bills account on pay day. Bills are automated from this account, so it’s totally hands-off and self regulating, including loan payments and CC payments. The rest jumps to savings, a clothing/gifts account, and a home/auto account. Remaining in my checking account is my biweekly spending money. All free accounts with a free banking service.

I would focus on debt repayment before growing savings, but calculate what you can afford biweekly based on what’s left after bills and what’s reasonable for weekly spending. Go way beyond the minimum payment if you can, and see how many years that’ll take. When it’s done, you can redirect those debt payments to savings goals or even top up your spending account.

With every raise, I adjust my auto payments depending on what I want to focus on. Student Loans was my goal for the last few years, so I’ve been overpaying that while still applying for repayment assistance, and I just redirected funds from my home and auto account (which has a buffer in it now) to grow a baby account, and I’ll redirect some more to my bills account for groceries buffer for feeding said kid.

I also have a Superstore card that I pay off each pay day too, for groceries and gas. This usually provides me with points for groceries, which I save for Christmas and redirect those funds to small gifts. I’m never willing to pay 19% interest on anything when cards offer closer to 12% and lines of credit are even lower now. Never carry the balance, always pay it off and it should always be consistent. Sustainable. Don’t buy lobster one week, balogney the next. Determine what your able to afford, sustainably.

I know! Politicians already try to push loan forgiveness because they know that we’re beholden to a predatory system in terms of the cost of tuition and the way we’re held behind in life because of it. The NSLSC’s disorganization is definitely a slap in the face to go with the kick in the pants.

Fucking ridiculous!

No, in case they finally do abolish student debt. It also has the cheapest interest rate compared to banks. Our hands our tied, it’s such BS.

You can logon to the website and remove permissions. I forget how I did this but it’s definitely worth blocking access. I was charged NSF fees because of their double haul too many times, there’s no way to get the funds back. Thank god I had a decent landlord at the time.

Correct, you can use the one assessment for both programs!

There are perks and drawbacks to each.

Oil: Can be expensive, but is a really nice quick heat that’ll have your house warm quickly, so be efficient with when you’re heating you’re whole house versus the rooms you’re occupying. I have friends who love their oil heating, it’s not much more expensive dollar to dollar to electric. All heat is expensive.

Baseboards: Expensive, take forever to heat so you’re running them longer. It’s not a great heat. Even on a timed system, we need to turn ours on hours before getting home to have the house heated properly. That can be more costly then just turning on the oil furnace for a shorter period.

Heat pumps: Old homes aren’t laid out to just have one installed, you may need a couple OR you spend upfront and get a ducted system (you won’t be able to reuse the oil ducts, it’s a different process) and have that quick warmth. It’s a lot upfront, but it’s a good system, plus you get cooling in the summer.

We have a Wood Stove insert in our fireplace that is great, baseboards, which suck, and we’re now installing a ductless heat pump as our layout is a one floor bungalow. We had to remove the old oil tank and furnace when we bought the place and it was so cheap just to add baseboards and a wood stove, but the baseboard heat sucks and is expensive. I love the heat from the wood stove, but I don’t always want to build a fire when I get home from work.

Apply for the NB Power’s Total Home Energy Grants and you’ll qualify for the Greener Homes Grant with the same visit. The cost of the NB power assessment is cheaper, and they’re quicker to schedule. We went with Enerceck Solutions and they had a bunch of recommendations that we were able to implement, and they’ll have advice on what works best for your home. They always recommend heat pumps. BG Services, Titan Heating and Cooling, and Degree technologies came to quote for us and we went with Titan. Those are the three recommended heat pump services, I’d get them each to check out your layout and get recommendations.

Natural gas just hasn’t really caught in here, so it’s not efficient yet. I’ve heard that the rates can vary wildly.

I completely agree, my comment is in regards to the one above.

As a graphic designer, Justice can’t own the word and connection to a cross. The type is different, the aesthetic is different. This isn’t warranted and I would have never made that connection. I would have scoffed getting a cease for this.

Free for white people only isn’t exactly free though, is it? It’s hard to feel like a proud Canadian right now, when our nation is built on the genocide of indigenous peoples.

It’s a francophone name where I’m from, Yannick. I grew up with a couple of them in Canada, and it’s a fine name!

Thank you for your honesty. I feel like it has to do with becoming a parent, otherwise they wouldn't have renewed the last 4 years. At least that's what my ego wants me to believe, it's too humiliating otherwise.

What a place of privilege your comment comes from. Not everyone is able to save the down payment or has the means to just go buy a house, especially right now in this ridiculous market. Saddled with student loan debt? Making 30k-40k a year? It’s not enough to cover everything... not to mention the sexist undertones that implies he’s the ‘man’ of the family and needs to earn and build equity.