One sleepy Saturday morning, my wife Katelynn gently woke me with a loving smile. She had something in the kitchen for me. Excited at the prospect of a tasty breakfast treat, I stumbled to the kitchen to find…well, something else. Waiting in the oven was a single stale, desiccated hot dog bun.

"Has Katelynn lost her mind?" I thought, "This is a very far cry from her famous cinnamon rolls."

Speechless, I showed it to her with a look of confusion.

A huge smile spread across her face. "It's a bun in the oven!"

It took me a minute, but my confusion quickly turned to joy. Katelynn hadn’t suddenly lost her baking skills; she was pregnant! We were expecting our first child!

After celebrating, I quickly went into preparation mode. We'd been planning our first baby for a year, but now that it was finally real , the biggest question was: "How are we going to afford this?" Health care costs, maternity leave, mountains of baby gear, and a whole new life was ahead.…