Back to work - JAN 2007 - support thread

[iPodForLifeNotJustForChristmas]

Hidyho!

I'm back to work in Jan07 after 1year off. Am starting to panic a bit - Anyone else??!! Tought a kindof antenatalthread rip-off might steady the nerves!

Here's me:

ipod -
Occupational Therapist in Rehabilitation Team
Plymouth
1year off
DS 21months old, Single
Working 3 days a week

[iPodForLifeNotJustForChristmas]

I hear you on getting up!!! Didn't wake till 9am today after DS playing at 4am! Not a happy mummy!

I'm living at my parents house and have taken on the cooking and pretending to clean duties but I am worried it will revert to ready meal hell when I go back to work! My parents have loved having us at home because I do proper cooking, and even make sure they get vegetables more than once a month!

I had chosen a nursery but I read the ofsted report last night and wasn't too impressed - even though I've seen the place!! I had given them the benefit of the doubt that the scruffy, disorganised atmosphere was a one off, but it seems to me that the ofted report from 2 years ago picked up on some of the less than desirable thimgs I had noticed!! hmmmmm back to the drawing board....seeing another one on Friday - having already read the ofstead!

[fifiandtheflowertots]

mind if i join in????
I'm back to work mid jan and im terrified, not so much about leaving ds but about seeing everyone and getting back into that routine again.
Ds will be 8 month and will be looked after by sil and my cousin and im so glad i dont have to put him in nursery yet.
I'll be going back for 5 hours a day, one week 3 days a week and the other week for 4 days a week.

[Rookietherednosedreindeer]

I'm back in Jan, 4 days a week, started the other thread on top tips, got some really helpful ideas which I think have helped me get my head round all the household stuff.

Biggest issue for me is childcare. We have found a nice CM but due to the days she does and some time off that she is having we are now using my mum, a second CM and probably will need to draft in a neighbour or an agency for the odd day. I sometimes wonder if choosing a CM for continuity of care is all its cracked up to be ? However he has been having the odd session with her and he is so happy there that I guess it is worth the level of aggravation to get it sorted out.

[Rookietherednosedreindeer]

Oh and floating the more I hear about nannies the more I think what a fantastic idea. Obviously not cost effective or particularly affordable for us with one DS but if I do have any more I'm really going to consider one.

[iPodForLifeNotJustForChristmas]

I think the continuity is something that worried me. Having just watched my friend use all her annual leave beacause the CM took random days off and was sick made me think the nursery route was better - means I can take my AL when I want, ie not always with (DS!), and also the nursery seems to have more scope to cover internal sickness, where a CM is sick, she cant work so you cant work.

I petrified of the going to work - not worried about leaving DS - been tehre done that! But its the haviing been out of work for a year, coming off social security and starting work in a different field of expertiese that is putting the wind up me.

I didn't expect to get this job so it is proving to be an expensive time of year to find £100's of pounds for nursery fees before pay-day (in Feb!). [Memo to self - don't forget to save up for things like this!]

[DeckthehallsLaDiDaDi]

I'm going back full-time on Jan 4th. I will have been off for 8 months and dd will be 8 months old (she was prem, I was at work until the day I had her).

In September/October I was desperately missing work, now I'm a bit concerned about how much I might miss dd, especially as she's developing such a fab personality but I know that when I get back in the swing of things it will be fine.

I've been shopping for a back to work wardrobe as although I'm still the same size as I was pre-preg all of my old clothes were looking a bit tired.

[DeckthehallsLaDiDaDi]

Oh, meant to say that my mum and my dp will be looking after her when I'm at work.

[iPodForLifeNotJustForChristmas]

My job is uniform!! Fetching bottle green trousers and white tunic with bottle green trim - very nice! I'm looking forward to being able to afford some nice weekend clothes -

i really miss that feeling of coming home from work, stripping off the uniform and feeling relaxed into my jeans again - feels so different wearing them 24/7 atm.

That reminds me I need to find a decent outdoors coat and shoes! Potentially going to be out and about in the devon countryside so need waterproof and sensible. I've managed the last year just wearing a hoody or cardi - bugger, its going to feel like going from wearing flipflops all summer to having adjust to weaing proper shoes isn't it!?

[DeckthehallsLaDiDaDi]

I wish I had a uniform, even if it was bottle green!

[santasbaby]

Hello - I too am going back to work in Jan after a year off. HR manager and going back 3 days a week on ajob share. Trying to find a good nursery at the moment for 2 days as dh will be off one day in the week. Had a meeting with my boss last week and I struggled to get there for 10am, so am terrified about getting me and dd up, dressed, fed and out of the house by 7am!! At least it's only 2 days!

[iPodForLifeNotJustForChristmas]

I need to get down to see the lone parent advisor at the J centre. Hopefully I will be able to sort something out - might go to the bank for a graduate loan - didn't get one when I graduated - thank god as I endedup on benefits not long after I would have been well in debt instead of just mildly overdrawn at the moment!

My mum has got DS loads for christmas - just as well, as the £10 playmat and some cars from early learning will have to do now!

Good - well, you know! - to know that other people are dreading managing to get up and out! I've been booking DS into the creche at the Gym for 9:15 2 days a week and we are always late!! Been doing it for the last year!

[BikeBug]

hello, can I come in?
Bikebug,
public health trainee,
10 months off,
DS 9 months old,
working 3 days a week.

I'm back to work at the very beginning of Jan. I'd only worked in the NHS for 6 months when I went off on maternity leave and am having huge fights with the burocracy of trying to come back p/t (sorry, to do 'flexible training'). DS will be almost 10 months when I return and I still don't want to go back. But DH wants to downshift his job, so we need mine too. Plus this was a long-worked-for career change and I'm struggling with the idea of jacking it all in... But I'd like to... Am going to leave DS at a local nursery and if he doesn't like it, I'm resigning my job and staying at home

[llynnnn]

Hi all
I hope you dont mind if I join you. I'm going back part time on 16th Jan and am mostly not looking forward to it if you know what I mean! dd will be almost 6months old and although I do miss the adult company of work, I am going to miss dd sooooo much. She will be in nursery 1 day and with my mum and dh's auntie alternate weeks for the other 2 days (if that makes sense!) I'm worried that she will be confused being in different places and with different people what do you think?
I'm also worried about getting up and organised quick enough in the mornings! sometimes dd sleeps in until after 8am so i let her and carry on sleeping myself other mornings she is up at 5.30 so i like to have a nap with her in the day to catch up! i wont be doing that anymore!

[iPodForLifeNotJustForChristmas]

I am currently weaning myself off daytime naps!!! Not that i have many, but that 2 hours when DS goes down I like to curl up and read or sometimes have a snooze!!! Hence the house looks like a bomb has hit!

Bikebug- I had only been working 3 months when I had to tell my boss in the hospital I was pregnant - even better when I went for a dating scan a few weeks later I had to then tell her I was 20ish weeks pg, not the 8or9 wks originally thought! I tried to work full time but nearly made myself quite ill when I went back after DS was born and I packed in my Job.

Its taken a year to get one, especially as I hadn't really completed my post qualifying experience properly.

In summary what I am saying is - look out for number one and two, job being number 3 will survive without you!

[xmasstocking]

Hi - what a good thread this is. I am due back at work on 24 January - HR Advisor, 3 days a week (all this is currently up in the air though as organisation going through a restructure and I may be made redundant which is what I want more than anything else in the world at the moment as I could then afford to stay off for at least another 6 months) - but that is a whole other story.

Anyway, I have to deal with the most likely outcome which is that I will be going back to a completely different job (and not one that I like the look of) - which is of course making it even harder.

Haven't fully read everyone's posts but like most of you, I am dreading the mornings/alarm going off. ATM, me and DS get up when he wakes up (usually after 7) and potter round the house until I can be bothered to dress him and have a shower . I have absolutely loved being at home with him and am so so so sad that what I see as 'our' time is ending - does anyone else feel like that?

Also (as someone else said) I will need a whole new wardrobe as I am about 2 sizes bigger thatn I was before pg so no work clothes (what are they??) fit.

DS is 5 months old so will be over 6 months by the time I go back but he is starting his induction at nursery straight after Christmas so feel like it is coming so quickly.

Anyway, enough jibbering now as the cooker is pinging so tea must be ready
x

[AussieSim]

Can I join in too? Back to work on 11 Jan 5 days as a HR Contractor. Haven't worked since September 2002. DS1 is 4 and DS2 is 18mths. Scared stiff. DS1 will have three days at childcare but only from 8.30 to 4.30 so I will need to get someone to at least pick him up and I can't get a spot for DS2 so it looks like a full-time nanny will be needed. DH has a full on job with long hours and travel so will be virtually no help. I feel an ulcer growing as I type. I just worry that - I just worry about all of it actually. Help!! I had planned to go back part-time in the middle of the year, but then we bought a house and the Sydney property market for apartments dived and three mortgages on 1 salary is just not cutting it. Bugger, bugger, Bugger!

[iPodForLifeNotJustForChristmas]

Well, just come back here to scream and cry!!! When the going gets tough, go to mumsnet!

[PollyannaInExcelcis]

I'm going back to work in January too after nearly 3 years off. I'm starting a new job working for a charity on a job share 2 days a week. I have no idea what I'm doing for childcare! I have 4 children and have got them all in school/nursery, but haven't got anyone to pick them up from there yet (I won't be home until about 6.30). I've got some childminders to ring and have advertised for a suitably experienced person who might be able to pick them up - of course I'm just getting students replying, and I just don't think they will be able to handle 4 loud, tired, argumentative children. (a charity salary won't fund a nanny sadly).

I would probably be nervous about going back to work, if I could sort my childcare out

[iPodForLifeNotJustForChristmas]

HI ScottishMummy!!! Its strange, I've always been of the school of thought that OT isn't rocket science, (especially physical stuff!) so I'm not too worried about it!!! Especially after watching an OT interview someone on the same ward as my Papa - All I could think was, bloody heel, patients must think we are real simpletons "chatting" to the about their houses etc! I suppose most of the work is in our head as OTs!

I think I have finaly got over my fear of Clinical supervision - absolutely hated it when I was a student!

I won't be supervising just yet - I'm only a baby Band 5, but by this time next year I want to be looking to have done or about to do some student supervision. Job description expects it, as well as supervising OTA.

I think thats 4 OTs on MN now!!that I know about!

Must restart my BAOT membership - had to cancel when things got tight whilst on benefits!