November 2013-thread 4- nattering our way through the first trimester

[honey86]

pow... here goes another

Morning ladies.. Is it possible that I felt my baby move last night?? I'm 11w exactly today and last night I was lying on my side/front so my belly was swished and I felt something that felt like something wriggling inside me. Could this have been baby or is it far too early??

I'm self employed so it's MA for me, that's if I get my NI contributions up to date (whoops). It's a pain, I almost considered getting a full time job last year just for the benefits...

Feeling OK this week, my tummy has a definite bulge to it although I suspect that's just bloating. Couldn't tolerate my skinny jeans yesterday. Cow & Gate app tells me I'm into week 7?

I also had the faintest brownish spotting when I wiped, hopefully this is nothing to worry about. Will keep an eye on it.

How's everyone today, especially those of you who are 10-12 weeks! You must really be feeling it now!

Welcome Fren & congrats!

Wow D&B GetOff thats a blast from the past, make sure you get some ice cream in there!

Good choice with the sewing machine BF!

I think my maternity is average, 12 weeks at full pay, then 6 at 50% & then SMP. Back to work today, dreading it.

Had quite a rough night with my tummy feeling uncomfortable no matter how I lay, which makes no sense considering I have no bump ! Feeling the opposite of refreshed!

glad im not alone get, this snuffly nose is driving me mad.

V jealous of people with good maternity packages...my company is the standard 6 weeks at 90% then SMP. Shocking really but it's a v patriarchal company...

Lucky with my package too (uni lecturer), 6 wks full pay, 6 at 90%, but then 50% with smp on top. I will unfortunately have to return after 12 weeks as this was an unplanned pregnancy and not feasible financially to take any more time off . Am able to add holidays on end though, plus have 10 KIP days that I can use, so may be able to eek it out a little.

think the movements thing depends on how many youve had already... with ur first its meant to be 16-20 weeks but subsequent babies can be earlier... ill be 10 weeks soon, cant feel anything yet although when i lie on my back i can feel the weight of my uterus... kinda like i grapefruit resting on my tummy feeling x

MotherOfCleo it's very very hard to live on the SMP (I mean the £135 a week part). We didn't have savings last time since we just bought our house. I only took 7 months. But it's nothing I could do. This time round, we have already started saving. I'm hoping to go back in September, which should be about 10/11mo, isn't it? Not many people I know take the full 12mo, most take 39 weeks + annual leave only. The last three months on no pay is even harder!

Diege must be very tough to take only 4 months. I feel for you already.

Just thought, the 4mths leave assumes I work up to labour day, which just isn't going to happen...Have 2.5 hr commute each way to work so by 34 weeks or so I'm totally done in. Will have to think if I can come up with a creative solution and make life a little easier!
Re movements I've felt them progressively earlier with each baby - felt a few around 8ks, then also over last few days (11 wks). baby one felt at 19 wks, baby 2 15 wks, baby 3 12 weeks, baby 4 and 5 8 wks...

Is there a certain date that you must start mat leave by before your due date? I'm only taking 5 months so was planning on saving this years holidays to take me up to my due date if I can manage that.

It can start on the day you give birth if you like saundy x

Not that I'd necessarily recommend that !! although I have a friend it happened to when baby came early. She was happy in hindsight

Yeah but colleagues tend to watch your every move!

I had loads of fun getting 'twinges' :')

Saundy you have to start your maternity leave when the baby is born. As it was explained to me last time from HR, if you say take annual leave, and then start maternity leave on your EDD, but your baby arrives on week 38, they will have to move your maternity leave start day by 2 weeks. In effect, you lose your annual leave. I'm not sure how it works in practice other than by you being honest. They couldn't find out your baby was born before your EDD can they?

I'm planning to start on week 37, given DD came at 37+5 last time. I think I still have around 3 weeks of annual leave, so I'll be off work from week 34. (I stopped at week 37 last time, but since I went back in the same holiday year, I didn't have to use up my annual leave).

Haha love that Icing.

I think work would turn a blind eye as long as it wasn't something they could get in trouble for should I go early.

I'm discovering that me & DP have quite different attitudes to preparing for baby. I'm not even that concerned about the nursery being ready as its a while before they're in there but he's in a blind panic that you have to have EVERYTHING even stuff you may never use. Everything has to be new as well. We're opposite extremes so should be interesting!

wow i go away from here for a few days and we're 13 pages in to a new thread! Havent had time to come on here for the last few days as ive been working a lot.
8+3 today and feel nauseous all day long pretty much which is not great, dont really fancy eating anything so im eating for the sake of it and that helps the feeling of sickness for a while. Have got a little bump beginning which is bigger in the evening. Starting to relax a little now and worry a little less looking forward to my scan on May 7th, still feels ages away though!

Oh, yes, there are such differences in the maternity packages... I am about to hand in my notice, and I keep thinking, what the hell am I doing? I currently work for the university, they have a great maternity package - 18 weeks of full pay, then 21 SMP. In my new job, all I will get is MA, as I won't have been there long enough for qualify for their (very measly) maternity package. Hmph. Not sure how we will manage, I think it will boil down of reducing DS's childcare hours, which I am loathe to do. Not only because it does him a world of good, but also because it gives me a much-needed break! We'll have to see...
I had MA only last time as well, but no childcare costs, which was doable.

I'm thinking of working until week 35-36, depending on how much annual leave I will be able to take. And only 9 months off this time... Probably won't be able to do any longer financially, depending on what state my savings will be in by then

Diege 12 weeks leave, that is tough... Mind you, in the US, they don't get even that!

Finally some symptoms have started to kick in - I'm getting a lot of dizzy spells at the moment, anybody else get that? And feeling very 'bleurgh' on and off in the last few days, without actually being sick, though. I need to be really careful in the gym, when getting up from the floor etc. at the moment.

Had my haematology consultant appointment yesterday, and now have my heparin prescription, phew! One worry less.
Still waiting for the mw to get in touch for the booking appointment, getting a bit impatient - it's meant to be done here by 8 weeks, I'm 6+4 now...

Saundy - you can do that but like what's already been said, you have to take maternity leave from the day the baby arrives because of the law that states you are not allowed to work for the first two weeks from having a baby. I'm a HR manager so what we do if a baby comes early and people have holiday remaining is just give them the money for the holiday at the end of their maternity leave/holiday year, whichever comes first.

I get the standard 6 weeks full pay then SMP which is rubbish considering the company I work for but oh well!

JBrd how many hours is your son doing at nursery/cm? Surely most people will have to reduce childcare hours, unless they are taking a very short leave? I just can't see how I could fork out £45 a day when I hardly have income! I'm planning on leaving DD in full time for the first month, then reduce to 2 days a week. And that's only if work will continue to pay for the childcare vouchers. If they pull a nasty and pay for that, I think I'll have to go down to 1 day a week, or 2 half days. She loves going to nursery, and I think it'll be good for me too.

i think i get 5 months full and 4 months half pay and then nothing if i want to take the extra 3 months

can i claim anything else on top of half pay tho?

I'm on MA now as my job wouldn't pay me maternity leave, and now that I'm pg again will have to also take the 3months unpaid then go straight into another maternity leave on MA. I really hope its possible to do that lol. But anyway MA is doable, even though I was main earner before as dh is self employed and his work isn't constant / reliable.

DS starts pre school in September so am going to take holiday then maternity leave, otherwise we'd just be putting him in with a childminder that he doesn't know for a month or two, I don't want to unsettle him anymore than he will be already with leaving his nursery (which he loves) to go to a new pre school and then top it all off with a new baby brother or sister. Feel quite sorry for the poor mite!
He'll love having a sibling though when s/he gets old enough to play with him.

All booked in, blood taken, pee tested. She said I have a bmi of 26 which I don't believe as I have put on about 7/8lb already and must be flagging on the system as a chubber!

We already save around £300 a month one and also have some savings due to mature in the summer which should help us upgrade the car and buy a few bits, although the savings were initally for a new kitchen which I doubt we will get now. I am hoping to put a bit more away though and I know my parents will go overboard buying us things. I'll be loosing over 1200 a month when I'm on SMP so I hope if I can save around £2k I will be able to at least top up the £135 a week to £200.

good stuff mother

I've no idea how i'll save any money at all as we've a wedding to pay for plus i literally use all my salary every month. i'm trying to sort something out for my horse as if i didnt have to pay livery i'd save about £220 a month from that alone

mummapanda someone told me you have to be earning something to get MA. Would SMP count as earnings?