June 2013 Thread 3 - the one where we stop throwing up!

[DontmindifIdo]

new June thread - we've been chatting too much!

So sorry little9, I hope you have plenty of support around you x

Sorry for you loss little9 x x

So, so sorry Little. Our thoughts are with you x

So sorry little. X

I'm so sorry to hear of your loss, our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family at this sad time. Sending you lots of hugs and support x

Sorry to read your news Little. Hope you're surrounded by lots of support x

I'm going to be handing in my maternity leave dates end of this week. Feeling a bit nervous about it all which is ridiculous! However, it will be good to get it confirmed in writing. Is anyone else at the same stage this week or feeling nervous like me?

Little9 x

I'm just confirming what holiday I have left to take, Peardrop, then once I get my MATB1 I'll confirm my dates. I can't wait to finish!

So sorry for your loss little9 my thoughts are with you at this dreadful time. x

Hmmm I guess if you're all due in June it's a couple of weeks early to be writing letters!

I confirmed my exit dates today - 31st May so I will be 38+4 when I officially go on maternity leave. However I have stress tests at 34+1 and crucially at 38+1 and if the 2nd one shows any deterioration in the placenta or baby's health then I'll be kept in and given a swift ELCS.

I don't really get leave to take in advance but I suspect by then I will be very very part time!

Wow, redwelly, I couldn't work that late. The thought of 2.5 hours' commuting a day by that point fills me with dread! I'll be 34 weeks when I finish as I have 4 weeks' leave to take before I finish.

Do you think the stress tests will let you get that far?

Think I will be about 36 weeks :) excited already to be honest!

I'm counting down the days!! :-)

I got my MATB1 a couple of weeks ago (a few days before I was 20 weeks, but I guess the midwife saw me as being in my 20th week).

However, I had to hand my maternity leave date in to work a couple of months ago, as soon as I'd officially informed them I was pregnant! I'll be just under 34 weeks when I finish, as I also have leave to use up before maternity leave starts.

I'm counting down the days too!

MrsBri I honestly don't know. I'm in bed now waiting for DH to reheat dinner and then I'll send a few emails and be back in bed before nine, FT is hard but if I can start doing some moderate exercise I think I'll feel better.

Work have said that I can go earlier if I need to.

At least you have the choice, redwelly, so that's good of them.

My work have said they'll look at partial working from home before I finish if the commute gets too bad for me, as the HR ladies are quite concerned about my train ride!

Ella, did it feel more real once you'd got your MATB1? I'm hoping I get mine after my scan next week. I'll at least finally find out my blood group and whether I'm rhesus negative after my bloods were taken at almost 12 weeks, which feels like forever ago!

After being rather quiet since Saturday night, baby is doing what appears to be drumming on me now! :-) It still makes me giggle as he knows how to tickle me. I swear I'm having a duplicate of his father. Surrounded! We'll have to have a mini me next time round :-)

I have been looking at this today. Our company will pay me for any holiday for 2013 at the pay run for January 2014, so I can't carry my holiday for 2013 and have it at the end of my maternity leave in 2014 to get an extra month at home. However, you have to start maternity leave on the day the baby comes, not after (although you can start early from 29 weeks onwards). I've thought about it and I'd like the time more than the money so I'm going to go off at 34 weeks, then start maternity leave at 36 or 37 weeks depending on the holiday they will let me take (I'm not sure if I'm allowed to use holiday I've not earned yet, tis confusing...) - as DS arrived at 38 weeks, I don't want to lose any time IYSWIM.

(Of course this DC will be late now, won't it???)

My hip is causing me huge problems now, i'm now about 3 weeks of having a dodgy hip and have to accept it's pregnancy related, not just sleeping funny, at this rate, I can't imagine coping with the commute for another 13weeks at it is, I really can't see me going later than that if this carries on like this.

Oh yay! Pleased to read that I am not alone with the maternity leave confusion and decision making malarkey! I will be asking to go on annual leave at 34+2 weeks and plan to start maternity at 35+6. Countdown for maternity leave has started

Interesting to hear your thoughts on this. I think I'm going to go off at 35 weeks, and can use leave right up until the day before my due date. My mat leave starts day before due date. I've no idea if my package is good or not - we get 6 weeks at full pay, 6 weeks at 90% pay then the rest (up to 9 months) at statutory. Then nothing. I'm planning to take 9 mths (plus the holiday leave at the beginning) so going back late March. Sounds ages away!! Sounds like a lean 6 months while I'm on statutory though - it's £525 per month!

MrsBri, it definitely felt more real once I got my certificate! The midwife here said she normally gives them out at the 25 week check-up, but as I have to have monthly blood tests, she gave me mine earlier (a couple of days before my 20 week scan - I thought they'd wait until afterwards!).

The leave is confusing, isn't it. I don't want to take annual leave too close to my due date because if I have the baby early, I'd automatically start maternity leave and therefore I'd lose my annual leave (because it's leave I've already carried over from last year).

Sunbeam, packages vary a lot - I get 6 months full pay, 3 months statutory pay then three months unpaid (to make up the full year off), so pretty generous.

All of you ladies with full pay! I get the statutory minimum of 6 weeks at 90% then 135 per week after that. Generous!

Though thanks to the out of hours statement taking I do, my 90% is worth quite a bit more than my normal full pay!

And the 25 week check up sounds late as you have to tell work your plans no later than 25 weeks. Maybe I'll get mine at my 24 week appt then. Patience was never a strong point of mine!

Team Yellow here - yesterday's scan (at 21 weeks, no idea why I had to wait, was torture!) revealed two very wriggly active babies, who spent most of the time kicking each other in the head!

Was so nice to see them again, really started to make it all sink in. So came home and tried to order the cots and a few bits but the flipping John Lewis Website kept freezing. Frustrating. So I bought a second hand travel cot for £20, not the most glamorous one I've seen but for using as a playpen / emergency safe place then it doesn't matter if they trash it. Was tempted by the very nice one for £50 but sanity prevailed!

Think I'll be off before any of you, sorry! Have been advised not to work past 30 weeks. So will start taking leave then, and hope that I work my way through it before the babies arrive and maternity kicks in. I did try asking the HR Director if I could have double maternity given its twins but strangely he said no

Now, I have to double check this, but I get 4weeks full pay, 2 weeks 90% pay, 12 weeks half pay plus smp, 8 weeks smp and then 13 weeks unpaid. I'm a teacher, so I am using half term as my end point, which means I will be working until 36 weeks.
I'm hoping that is going to be ok, as I have a student teacher in two of my classes (less prep and marking), and someone is back from maternity at Easter so there is an extra pair if hands if I am struggling.
Can wait though, only 16 weeks to go! Bloody massive already, so I dread to think what I'll be like by then!