Tiptoeing into the Second Trimester... Due April 2015

[HippoPottyMouth]

Ooh just seen there is a June 2015 thread now. Makes us seem like old hands

Think I might wear my baby on board badge to the airport in the hope they might be able to give us better seats!

yes, baby on board badges are handy in all sorts of situations.

when pregnant with DD when i still went out to gigs, i wore it to gigs so i could sit down on the floor even in bits where it wasn't allowed

£138 pw at the moment cinnamon

We're flying Club world so I'll have the seats that go down into a bed. I haven't flown with BA in that class but I would assume they provide the usuals. Maybe not flight socks though I'll have to look.

I was debating putting my baby on board badge on yesterday as I look either fat or pregnant. I'm not very big (but am tall) so I've got this weird round belly that sticks out now.

I'm very jealous Siarie - I dream of flying in those bed seats!

I'm not using my badge yet as I feel like a fraud without any hint of a bump and don't want to risk someone I haven't told seeing me wearing it - particularly work! Luckily my tube usually arrives fairly empty so I always get a seat in the morning, and on the way home it's never more than a couple of stops til I get one.

Your accrued leave will be at your hours before you went on Maternity leave, you don't need to tell anyone that you're going part time or I should say requesting to go part time until you start talking to them about returning. And yes as long as you would normally have worked on the day a bank holiday falls then you get them. If you work tues-fri for example you wouldn't be entitled to any bh Mondays. Unless you have a lovely company who pays in lieu of bh as some of my customers have had.

Yay for that extra £11 a week!! Don't forget your keeping in touch days too, if you use them they should pay them on the first days back :)

Never heard of a baby on board badge!

I've started wearing my baby on board badge (tube is horrific at the moment) and weirdly it's had the opposite effect - before I wore it people offered their seats a few times, since I've worn it nobody has!! Despite bump being fairly obvious these days. I don't actually need a seat most days, so wouldn't ask, but it would be nice if someone offered...

My maternity pay is not bad (law firm) but it's worse than quite a lot of law firms give so they are looking at changing it... I just hope any change kicks in in time for me!

Accrued leave - yes you should get the pro rata amount if you go back before a year, so if you take 6 months mat leave you should have accrued half your annual leave while away. I'm not totally sure of the answer about bank holidays. I think some employers give them to you as holiday at the end, some pay you for them even if you're on unpaid mat leave and others do neither (which strictly I think is illegal)

Siarie wow your holiday sounds amaaaazing... I am so envious... sadly exotic holidays aren't quite the same with a toddler in tow!

mswibble shouldn't childcare be split 50/50 between each of you? If you wanted to keep separate finances rather than pooled then that would definitely be how I'd do it. (Although tbh, I think pooled finances works best once you have DC anyway, as long as you have broadly similar spending attitudes - and if you don't it's a good time to try to agree some spending/saving principles )

I went part time (4 days a week) after DD, pretty much the first in my dept to do so. It's worked ok so far but a bit of a nightmare when things are really busy (like now).

I told DH I wasn't flying without a bed so it was non negotiable.

I wish I had my badge earlier, I almost didn't make it to my eight week scan on the tube as I had to stand and felt really dizzy.

cinnamon baby on board badges are London thing - very helpful to avoid offending people who aren't pregnant by offering them a seat on the tube! They're given out free to pregnant ladies by Transport for London.

It's great news about the annual leave, I was hoping it would work that way round but wasn't counting on it.

I am flying long haul next week to China, I spoke to the nurse when I had my flu jab and she said book an aisle seat, wear flight socks, drink lots of water and don't forget your notes in case you need to see anybody abroad.

minipie last ditch attempt at a resort that is adults only but we actually are going to go back to the maldives when our baby is old enough to fly ok as they allow kids at the resort we went to last. So I'm not too worried about having to give up the longhaul holidays.

We picked somewhere that we wouldn't be able to go to without leaving the children home for the last one otherwise it would have been back to the Maldives because it's paradise.

Hello everyone, scan yesterday, am 12+1 due 27th Aoril. I was 1 day out. It was amazing, cried as soon as I saw the little prawn.

We'd love to take a holiday before baby comes but DP wants to save up as much annual leave as he can so he can add it on to his paternity leave (he only gets one week at full pay and one week stat, how crap is that?!) and then take more time off when baby is a bit older too.

(We've made up for it a bit by going to Cuba, Iceland and France this year already though so don't feel too hard done by!)

Congrats on the scan horseyone! Prawn made me laugh!

Very jealous of you Siarie! Make sure you cherish every child free moment as holidays will never be the same. Took DD to Portugal this year when she was 13months, let's say the holiday was anything but relaxing. Would still take it over no holiday tho. Thinking of going away in the new year, currently deciding between a week as a family or a city break as just me and DH.

We took DD (aged 3) on our honeymoon with us. Was an experience I'll say that. At least we were in an all inclusive 5* resort with its own beach. Never left the complex. Beach in the morning till lunch then poolside all afternoon. They had a little childrens play area and we took turns taking her on that and getting icecream. Our last afternoon there she napped on a sun lounger for a couple if hours and we had a few cheeky vodkas and relaxed. Wasn't much of a holiday as she needed so much of our attention but it was nice overall.

We took dss on our honeymoon but it was only a week in Kent in a cottage and the dog came too! Dh and I had a longh weekend in Dublin when I finished my degree and his ex kicked off about that so its the only break we've ever had without children. Was lovely and we had the most luxurious hotel I've ever been in and his first time on a plane at 39 years old

And lovely scan Horseyone, my ds1's birthday too!!

Aaaah sweet cinnamon, I hope he or she comes on time otherwise May will be an expensive month with me, my DH, my mum AND dad's birthdays! Eeeek! What is your edd?

Did anyone else's midwife tell them to stop taking the folic acid at 12 weeks? Something to do with a link to cleft pallet?

Nope not been told to stop. Was actually told to keep taking the vitamins they provide which is folio acid and vit D. Have to get them every 2 months. I guess we don't get enough sun up North and I'm going to get rickets. Can't say I've ever seen a child or adult for that matter, with rickets up here or in any other part of the country but apparently it's rife.

Just googled it and NHS website says it's safe to continue taking it after 12 weeks. I'd ask her for the research to back that up.

we actually are going to go back to the maldives when our baby is old enough to fly ok as they allow kids at the resort we went to last. So I'm not too worried about having to give up the longhaul holidays

Ummm...I love the Maldives but jet lag + 10 hour flight + seaplane/speedboat with baby is quite painful - and you can't take much luggage - and babies can't handle the sun or the heat very well so you'd spend a lot of time in air con room rather than on the beach. Of course if you get a very easy laid back baby (we didn't!) it may all be do able but I wouldn't book your tickets just yet until you know! We did Mauritius with DD aged 18 months and definitely wouldn't have wanted to go long haul with her any earlier than that. Just saying!

It's 6th April Horseyone but ds1's was 13th so they could have birthdays much closer together! My mum is quite put out she will have two grandchildren with a birthday in the same month!! I stopped taking it after my scan as the neural tube is all formed and fine so no point :)

Horsey that's interesting. There is some new research which suggests that some women (who have a particular gene, called MTHFR I think) can't process folic acid. And some of that research says that too much folic acid in those women can actually increase midline defects (such as cleft palate) rather than preventing them. I wonder if that's what she's talking about.

If you have that gene its better to take methylfolate which is a more natural form of folic acid. Hard to know if you have the gene though! I think I might have it because DD had tongue tie and a sacral dimple (midline defects) despite me taking folic acid last time, and also me and my dad are always B vit deficient (sign of MTHFR). So I'm taking folate this time not folic acid. But it's all very unproven/unclear.

Minipie, what's a sacral dimple? DD has a small indent above her bum crack which I remember the HV mentioning on one of her check ups. DD was also 75% tongue tied...