Feb 2011 - The turkeys are getting fat...so are we!!!

[WanderingSheep]

(and pay NI contributions for those 3 weeks I mean)

PDR yes that had crossed my mind, but have found nothing on the web saying that you can do it backtracking (or whatever you'd call it), or some way of topping up the contributions. Will deff. ask them or the citizens advice bureau if HR dosen't help. I can't believe the citizens advice thing is going to be going, have never used them but love the idea of it. Thank you for thinking about it though!

I would have thought if you do it as soon as you finish work but before the baby comes it'd not backtracking... Are you planning on starting mat leave more than 3 weeks before the baby is born? There are some HR people on here if your HR dept aren't much help.

PDR you are a genius! it'd be 26 weeks exactly to my due date, unless I'm counting wrong, from Sept the 1st to Feb the 24th? OMG could this be true!!!!!

knittakid looking at my MA allowance notes, you need to have been employed/self-employed for 26 weeks in the 66 weeks before the week you expect to have your baby. The 66 weeks is known as the test period. My test period is from 8 Nov 2009 until 12 Feb 2011 (my due date is 16 Feb). Just to say the Employment Issues topic here has been brillant with any questions I've had.

Thanks wiggles, my problem was that I was doing teacher trainning for most of my test period, and of course having a bursary does not count because you don't pay tax on it, so even though I've worked non-stop for the past 9 years, last year I didn't pay any tax or NI contributions, only from this September when i started working again. TBH I should have got any odd job in the summer, but didn't...

Oh sorry didn't read properly, pooh!! Ignore me, listen to PDR she's very wily clever

Oh and don't worry about the emotional unstability, having spent most of last night in tears about work, I'm still a bit teary.

wiggles you have every right to be upset about work! poor you, when are you going on ML?

knitta maybe post in Employment Issues to see if I'm talking bollocks or not - there are some proper HR experts about!

Finishing on Christmas Eve, and only doing 3 more late nights. What's strange is that I have been on various threads on MN including this one, encouraging people to speak up for themselves re employment issues but i just can't be arsed re myself. Guess that's how you know I'm a Mummy - do as I say, not as I do

On a funnier note dds have been practising dd1 nativity play, they both know all the lines!!! Not sure if there's much funnier in life than a 3 year old wheeling round "baby cheeses" in a pram scolding him for not listening to her and asking for crisps because "baby cheeses" is hungry

baby cheeses love it!

VV funny, although you don't want to hear my 5 year old try and explain Easter "Jesus is dead, then he's not, some kind of magic, then we have eggs, why do we have eggs Mum, why, but why" We have lots of religious misunderstandings / mispronounciations in our house but I know my pelvic floor is too weak for some of them!!

For some reason I had a vision of someone wheeling a pram filled with babybels then! Your 5 year old sounds hilarious wiggles. 'Some kind of magic', quote of the week, definitely! Hope you are feeling better soon. Not long now.

Wiggles, Love baby cheeses! That is brilliant! I hope my two are as entertaining! They have a very valid point about the easter eggs too! I have never known why we have eggs?!

Is anyone else really craving carbs at the moment? I don't know if it's the baby growing or I am just quite greedy but I'm craving bread, pasta, potatoes all the time.

Oh and in other news, my boss just agreed to let me take 2011's AL this year so I can add it to the start of my Mat Leave - fab result as she is normally a witch I have it in writing too so no going back now!

LOL at baby cheeses . I too initially thought of a buggy full of mini babybel like tadjenny

jack I always thought we had eggs as it showed the new life/rebirth thing of easter (and general new life in spring).

wiggles hope you get work sorted so you are happier - I'm suprised mr wiggles hasn't smacked your employers bottom yet for being so mean

Am I allowed to plug something on ebay I'm selling that you might be interested in? I brought the natal hypnotherapy 4CD set and have loaded it on the old ipod and am auctioning CDs on ebay cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170572042286&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT
I kept getting outbid for weeks tryign to buy various of this sets on ebay at the last minute so decided just to buy my own one new and then sell it after. Sorry for shameless plug there.

Anyone actually got proper snow? We've just had loads of ice here.

Hi!

We have proper snow here, about 7 inches!! I am hoping school will be closed tomorrow as I am now officially exhausted!
I fell over in the snow yesterday (but onto my side so bump was ok- thankfully!). Still scared me tho so I am not going to push myself in this weather!

Quick question for all you poor ladies suffering from SPD......how did your symptoms start? I have had lower back pain all week and now it has spread to my groin area (sorry!) and also down the inside of my right leg. It is particularly bad at night and is stopping me from sleeping (which adds to exhaustion). Does this sound like it? or something else? Dont wanna keep bothering my midwife if things are just normal pregnancy niggles.

Have a lovely day ladies, and stay safe in this weather. I prescribe duvet days for all, with hot choc and christmassy films!

suzy the snow here is the samem im petrified of walking in it incase i fall! It does sound like spd, mine started with the pain in my groin, its now my lower back hips and down left hand side buttock/leg. Speak to your midwife she should refer u to physio.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend, i have holed mysself up at home because of the snow. I have an appointment at hospital 2mrw with consultant at this rate i will have to cancel! Its blowing a blizzard out!

thanks PDR will do that!

at baby cheeses and at 'some kind of magic', indeed!

It's -6 here! and on Friday it snowed quite a bit, didn't settle in the centre of town but arround our house it did a bit and we were walking back from the pub. DH has never walked by the hand with me and this time he had me so tight my hand was going to die... perhaps he didn't want to fall...

Please everyone, do be soooo careful. I am so terrified of having a fall after teaching last year a lovely bright boy with the most terrible behaviour difficulties due to a fall his mum had when pregnant, it's got to be the hardest thing to have to live with.

Knittakid - was it a very bad fall? I mean, did she hit her bump? I took a fall last week and DP (who was with me) convinced me it was ok but I'm still paranoid ...

Oh dear, sorry didn't mean to worry anyone! I'm such an idiot. It was a big accident and directly to her bump, not sure how though. I am really really sorry to worry you. On the other hand my dear, great and normal GP friend's mum fell off a horse when 9 months pregnant with her!

at baby cheeses.

We've had about 4 inches today (on top of the layer of ice left from yesterday) but it's stopped for the moment. I'm quite paranoid of falling as well, especially as last winter I had a spectacular fall on some ice under the snow. I sent DH out to clear and salt the front steps and pavement.

I'm getting concerned that we have nearly nothing prepared for the baby. Every time I try to buy clothes, DH says, "X said she's giving us clothes as a gift." I feel like we should get something for the baby in case the gifts don't appear in time (and I have no idea what they'd contain). At this point, we'd have to stop by Tesco en route to the hospital to buy clothes/nappies. Am I overplanning this?

Hi everyone! Hope you're all having a lovely weekend.

Went to a wedding yesterday and stayed in a hotel last night so that was lovely but knackering!

Wiggles your DDs both sound so cute . I usually sing to DD at bed time (she asks me to she must like my sweet, dulcet tones) and I've been singing "Away in a Manger" to her to get us ready for Christmas. The other night she said, "will you sing baby Cheese?" I argued with her for 15 minutes telling her that there was no such song and I didn't know what she was talking about! Then she sang it and I just collapsed into giggles when I realised she meant baby Jesus!