You have GOT to be kidding me!

Having a baby is expensive. Having no insurance coverage for IF treatments, needing to do multiple IVFs, having a baby and the baby needing to go to the NICU is downright ridiculous. (On that same note--I don't know how people do it when their babies have to be in the NICU for extended periods of time. Bless them!). I have no idea how we do it, but we have been able to make all the payments for all the "baby bills" thus far, even when we were going through such a rough time with Jordan being jobless. I almost messed up that great payment record by making such a small mistake. Which brings me to my story...

Shortly after having the baby, we received a hospital bill in the mail. We clearly could not pay the whole thing right now, so I called to set up a payment plan. I sent out my first payment and waited for the next to come in. At the end of December, we received another bill in the mail, for the same amount as the first. It was not reflecting that I had sent in any payment. Not good. So, I call the hospital to straighten things out. Welllll....turns out we have 2 bills at the hospital: 1 for the room, birth, normal having a baby stuff and 1 for the NICU doctor. This bill was for the NICU doctor, and had nothing to do with the other. They just happened to be the exact same amount. Okay. I take care of that, and we now have payment plans set up for each bill. But, I still haven't received a bill for the other payment due. Within the next day or so, I got a late notice from the hospital. A late notice?!? What in the world? I sent the check in on time! Come to find out, I had written down the wrong amount and paid $55 instead of $55.55. Yep, the hospital sent me a late notice for 55 cents!! The cost to get the stupid notice to me was more than what was owed. What a joke!! But of course, this meant that my account was being flagged as late and no further bills were being sent out until they received the current amount due. No way was I writing a check for $.55, though, so, once again, I made a call to the people up at the hospital, explained what had happened, and put a check in the mail for this month's payment PLUS that dang $.55! Needless to say, I won't be making that mistake again!