October 2013: Almost halfway!

[cherrycherry41]

Thread 8 of 1,000

fantastic news jelly and soupqueen! must be such a relief! have a lovely evening to celebrate x

Great news Soup :-)

great news soup and jelly!!!

Congrats soupqueen and jellycurls - great news for you both! MoN when do you get your final results?

Congrats jelly and soup very happy for both of you.

Can't wait for my scan, had appt for 23rd but hd to move it and earliest date they could give me is 5th of June! Boo :(

Natalie as slippy said your vision can change with pregnancy, your optician should have told you that. See how you get on but might have to have another check after Baby arrives

Congrats jelly and yay soup..what a relief! After all that stress.

I am really struggling in the afternoons at work. I fade after lunch. I think it's because I am up so early and just generally exhausted but not good for the work productivity! Not looking forward to dh being away for 3 nights next week...not sure how I am going to manage the dog, the baby and work from 8-9....might need to slot in a pretend midwife apt to help me one of the days or try and work from home...yikes!

Can't wait for me scan on Friday...nervous but just want to see baby again :)

Warlin I hit an afternoon lull as well. I think that it's the lunch time food (just a sandwich) that just seems to tip me over the edge and I could easily have a nap.

I know we have discussed it before, but maternity leave - when are you all thinking of starting yours? My due date is 2nd October, but I know when I ovulated back in January and so think this is a bit early (more like 11th/12th October would be 9 months). I said to DH that I would potentially be looking to start my leave after the first week in September, but he thinks that's crazy because then I will have a month of twiddling my thumbs before baby gets here, and only 5 months with the baby afterwards. I do want more time after the birth than before, but at the same time you never know when the LO might decide it's ready to come out, and I don't want to still be sat at my desk when that happens! Any thoughts on this?

it's not just you warlin. I struggle too... both with tiredness and lack of motivation... working 5 days a week and my job is long hours and really intense... (saying this - spent most of my day today on Facebook and mumsnet as I have no brain for anything more intense than this). Also, DP has quarterly management meetings this week - so out for dinners last night, tonight and spent all Monday night working on his preso. So having to do everything at home too. I know exactly how you feel... being pregnant, working, running a house and looking after little things is tough... I honestly can't wait for my maternity leave. I know having two including a new born will be hard but work is too tough right now... feel free to PM me if you need a moan!

*roxvox I've been thinking about it the entire day :-) I also want to leave it as late as possible but it's getting a bit too much for me... mentally and physically. So I'm thinking about late September - about 4 weeks before my due date. Do you have a decent maternity pay you could stretch to stay home a couple of months longer?

clap you sound like me...I have a tender to write but have spent most of today on fb and mn....now I'm just clock watching. I came back after mat leave to do 4 longer days and off on a Friday which is def worth it but the Mon- Thur part kills me!

My DD is 3rd Oct (we are nearly the same roxvox). I finished last time at 37 weeks (and had ds at 37 weeks). I had planned to work until 38 but was just too tired to do the commute etc. It meant I left work on a Friday afternoon and by the Monday was home as a full time mum! I found that tough as had been really busy in work and needed some relax/ me time before baby arrived. So this time I will finish prob end of the first week of Sept but will see how things go. I'm scared I'm going to be early again. My mat leave isn't great but last time I got only stat so will be an improvement! I will prob take 9 months again if we can afford it.

I work with children and teenagers and will be surrounded by them full time all summer hols so I'm planning on finishing beg of September and just collapsing!! (my dd is Oct4th) so will have about 4 weeks before. I know it is a long time but it will be best in terms of my work to not go back for the September term and let my replacement take over for the fresh year!!

Re maternity leave, with DD I had "booked in" to stop 3 weeks before the due date, but felt great and so was able to be flexible and just keep extending the leaving date. I am a lawyer, then at a big London firm, so cover was no issue - I just bad to handover to various colleagues. They were happy with that and I worked until 39+1, 6 days before due date. In fact DD was 2 weeks late, so all was great.

This time, my adjusted due date (ie 38 weeks) is 14 Sept, but I plan to stop in early August. I'll be massive with twins and am already finding the preg much, much tougher than a singleton pregnancy. Plus I have this feeling that by really resting, that will help prevent premature labour, which is a huge risk with twins...

Thanks claphammama and warlin. Unfortunately my maternity leave is just statutory. What I really don't want is a) my labour to start whilst I am in the office (which is 200 miles away from the hospital I would like to give birth at) and have no resting time, or b) for baby to be late and for me to have eaten into 6 weeks of my maternity leave before the baby even arrives!

I wish babies could give us more exact times/dates!

Oh and my mat pay last time was really good, but I get statutory only this time... Nonetheless, will be using all our savings to have a year off if possible!!!

Sorry, cross post legallyblond - that's fantastic that you were able to delay leaving! I may see if I can work from home (well, my Mum and Dad's) for the last couple of weeks... That would avoid the risk of being too far from the hospital, and also I would be able to work until much later in my pregnancy!

ps I have 5 weeks hols to tag onto beginning and end of my mat leave too so that gives me a bit more time so mat leave won't technically start until late Sep

Oh, and huge huge enormous congrats Jelly and Soup!!! MoN... Thinking of you... Let us know if you can x

Wrt maternity leave. It's something I obsessed about during my last pregnancy. When was the best time. In the end I was exhausted 5weeks before my due date. MW told me I was exhausted n needed rest. I then went a week part time (unheard of for my school to agree but I'm a curriculum leader so they couldn't have me leave without a full hand over) and then a week full time (but it was a "easy" week at school) Friday last day. Saturday morning in hospital! Where OC was considered. I then had to go into hospital everyday (a week) for obs and monitoring till I hit 38 weeks when I was induced.

Basically my body told me to stop. Maybe discuss with HR how flexible they will be with last day at work. It's hard to know now how you will feel in 3/4 months time.

This time I was planning on leaving at 37 weeks. Keeping in mind I have summer break and will only be at work a week then onto maternity. But with my SPD I'm unsure of even being about to finish a week! But aim is to go in for at least a day. As otherwise my summer holidays will get counted as my maternity leave!

Great news Soup and Jelly. Time to relax and enjoy the second half now!

I'm hoping to work my last month before I take mat leave from home, I know they did this last year with someone so they can't really say no to me - ha! Hope to be done with the office in September then work up till when I pop from home.

I've realised I get heartburn when I'm getting hungry rather than when I'm full up I've been getting it religiously at 3.30pm every day and just before lunch.

Am I weird that I really like the taste of Gaviscon? I was dreading it as everyone was saying it is foul but I love it! I just necked a cheeky capful at my desk.

I was told at the scan that I have an anterior placenta, so I was wondering, because I don't have much of a bump at all, maybe the baby is growing inwards rather than out and that's why I'm getting such bad heartburn so early. Maybe my stomach is squashed.

I'm eagerly awaiting kicks, but I doubt I'll feel anything for ages with this front facing placenta - sigh!

The family I work for are moving in July or August so I will go on maternity leave then although I will take my holidays first (I have deliberately saved all of my holiday allowance for that very reason).

warlin this is what all my friends who work part time say - if you work 4 days a week, you still end up doing 5 days worth of work. If you work 3 days, you end up doing 4 days of work. So much for flexible working!

roxvox I had exactly 3 weeks at home before my son was born and it was lovely. I wasn't bored at all. I washed all new baby clothes, did some more shopping, met friends for lunches and coffees, slept and caught up on my reading. Also my nesting instinct really kicked in so I ended up cleaning all our windows 3 days before giving birth. I remember it as some lovely time to myself

I also loved having a few weeks "me time" before dd arrived. I didn't move in with (now) dh until I left work at 34 weeks so had lots to do irt getting baby stuff ready but also settling into my new home. Dd was born at 37 weeks.

This time in finishing at 36 but I also have 5 weeks holiday to fit in so adding 2 weeks to beginning and 3 to the end :-) I'm looking forward to a few weeks settling dd into school (even tho its the same school she attends the nursery of) and relaxing etc. I think I'll only get fed up if I go over as I REALLY don't want to be induced!

Congrats to jelly,soup and me.
My full results came back clear.
I'm having a detailed scan on the 6th of June so don't all go uncrossing your fingers just yet.

Oh, flip, reading these has made me wonder. I'm thinking of finishing at 39 weeks but using annual leave to take a week before that. Am I being ridiculous? Feel free to laugh if I am!

I'm probably going to be able to work from home at least 2 days a week in the weeks running up to then and I hate the thought of using up maternity leave before the baby arrives!

What do u do for a living sparkleigh?

Big huge congrats too jelly soup and MoN xxx