Trying to set up an option pool for my first two hires and the amount of decisions involved is wild

Pre-seed, about to bring on two people and want to offer equity. Everyone says "set up an option pool" like it's this casual thing but then I look into it and there's pool sizing, vesting terms, 409A requirements, legal setup fees… my lawyer quoted $5K just for the equity incentive plan docs. At this stage that's a real number.

For founders who already went through this, how much of the process did you handle yourself vs what absolutely needed a lawyer? And was the $5K range normal or did I just get an expensive quote?