May 2017 #8....... Bumps, Bargains and Baby Clothes

[RasperryInAMelon]

Here goes thread #8

Hello to all! If anyone is just joining us - please add your details on the spread sheet of EDD's...

May 2017

Also a link to the last thread Thread7

They don't have to give you your job back if you are off for over 6 months they just have to give you an equivalent one back.

It's same job back until 9 months of leave i thought. I'm taking spatone, not sure it's worked yet though as not got last test results back.

Same job until six months here too. Also generally taking your AL at the end of mat leave. (My employer is very child friendly, so I think those things must be fairly standard)

I forgot who asked yesterday but we went to see Aladdin,it was great,really lovely costumes.
We got home quite late though and I am exhausted! Went straight to bed and woke up aching everywhere so I had a nice hot bath this morning, hopefully its sorted me out for the day.

DH gets 2 weeks off fully paid with his employer, I was worried that it would just be sat pay and we could have not afforded that! He would have just used 2 weeks AL instead.

My oh gets one week full pay second week statutory pay

Unsurprisingly, dinner was a bit too late for me last night (and a bit heavy) so not the most comfortable night. In the next few weeks, I think DH and I need to start being a bit more focused on what's actually practical during pregnancy!

Barnes it's definitely equivalent job, not the same job. I wont be coming back to the same thing (actually my choice but it's not really practical) so they just have to hold an equivalent level position for me.

Both DH and I work in big organisations where both parents are entitled to the same thing under SPL. So he'll be taking a longer period of leave at the start, which will be paid. But I then can't take the full year off.

Started my daily DVT jabs yesterday... and managed to miss getting the needle into my ever expanding belly (quite a feat, if you could see the size of it now!).

MissMoo. - ''twas me! Sounds fun.

Sah - I know it's tough when your head's in a vulnerable (or even venerable ) place, but could it be that your role is so important/ you did such a cracking job that they HAD to put a rising star or similar in temporarily to ensure standards don't drop? Big shoes to fill etcetc...

Dream- love that you put your big girl pants on. Sadly, it's been months since I could fit into anything else ;)

Bean - glad your GTT went well. And sniggering away at you taking the scans for your various baby veg with a pinch of salt #peurilehumour!

Peas - that's a bummer. Had a chat with OH yesterday re career prospects etc post Bic. Tricky one as I am the major wage earner (both doing alright, mind) so next step would probably be a biggie and might not work with flex working. Current company great on flex but nowhere for me to go other than out. Good to have the security/stability for now, but looking ahead I have no idea (as a fi at time mum) when is the best/least worst time to be taking on a new job/career step and the inevitable extra hours/long days that will entail. Not a problem do now, but defo sthg on my mind!

Rasperry - OH gets 2wks full pay pat leave and is taking a further 2wks a/l. And we're going to share the stat mat as SPL so I'll have 7wks SM at end of my full paid leave followed by some carried over annual leave, and he's arranging to take the other 6wks of SM as SPL plus some a/l so we'll have full baby cover for first 11 months.... all being well!

Hi to everyone else - so much going on ;)

My DH only gets 2 weeks at stat pay. I'm taking 9 months off plus the 8 weeks annual leave I will have to take (plus side of working in NHS for 12 years!) so about 11 months in total. Have decided to even out my pay accross the whole time so there will be no drops from full pay to half pay to SMP - I will know what I'm getting from month to month with (hopefully) no unpleasant suprises!

Have decided to start my mat leave a bit earlier (last day will be 24th March), I will be 34 weeks. Feeling shattered all the time and cannot imagine being on my feet all day for another 6 weeks! Counting down the days now.

Hope you are all feeling well.

uptown I'm only measuring 27cm and I'm really tall, so a lot of that has got to just be torso length! Yep, they are scanning me again at 32 weeks.

DH just gets 2 weeks stat paternity leave. And he only has 4 days of AL left this year (plus Easter & Christmas), so don't want to use up that. Think we'll just have to use savings to manage those 2 weeks. Hey, what happens is the paternity leave falls over the May bank holiday? Do they get an extra day?

Does look like just the 6 months for 'same job'. Oops.

Re bank holidays depends what your contract says I'd expect. If you get them off, I'd hope they give you an extra day! Last baby arrived mid-December and OH's work closes over the festive period so he was off for quite a while :)

I don't think he even has a contract! He started working as an apprentice when he was 16, so I guess they gave him something then...god knows.

Ours is if you come back within six months it's the same job. But my role is being covered by a secondment who will leave when I return.

My partner gets one week fully paid and one week on statutory and isn't allowed to tag on holiday to that as "they can't have him off for that length of time as they need him". Wankers

Sipper, is the spreading your maternity pay an NHS thing or can anyone apply do you know? I work for the emergency services, and plan on taking 11 months mat leave, with 1 month A/L either side. Having 2 months unpaid, it would be useful to have a 'steady' income throughout!

Mrs, the mothercare event was good. As expected, me and DH didn't buy anything as we are fully babied up! We did get a future discount voucher, along with a full pack of huggies wipes and some water wipes, plus a few other goodies. We got there just before half 6, and they did seem to expect everyone there at the beginning, as they had to make announcements etc and had to wait for everyone to be there to do it. Not sure if every store is the same. Everything was 10% off, even if already on a discount which was good, and they had drinks and snacks too.

I didn't even realise Pat leave was paid, so we assumed DH was off unpaid for 2 weeks. Having spoken to a colleague though, he gets 2 weeks full pay which is a pleasant surprise!

Morning ladies

Dh is going to take 2 weeks paternity leave as well as 2 weeks annual leave. Just got to hope baby will arrive on time.

Am off to my hydrotherapy session with the physiotherapist so we'll see how that goes. Dh seems to think it won't really help but am happy to try anything to alleviate the spd I'm experiencing at the moment.

Finally heard back about my antenatal classes and the nearest ones to me are a good eight miles away and they don't have any in March! So I cannot do any until April so at least 32 weeks!

So tired and cranky today, back still hurting and didn't sleep. Just having a little moan.
DH is home from a work trip though so he can cheer me up and bring me tea at the weekend

Thanks Bright, future discount voucher sounds good! Not sure we will make it for the start though... wonder if that will cause problems.

Sah you're not being a moany cow, it doesn't sound like the sarcasm is supposed to be funny, more passive aggressive. If he keeps it up could you say something like "I'm really happy to talk properly about how this is impacting on you but 3 more weeks of these comments is going to get tiresome for both of us..."

Teaspoon ha!! I'm somehow still in my little pants (literally) most days so yesterdays big pants episode (figuratively) was quite empowering. Also still managing in XL Primark tights which is good as my big toes are super pointy and I couldn't afford the ladders in maternity price tights!

DP gets 2 weeks paternity leave at statutory pay, but he reckons that if the farm owner twigs he's getting less money for 2 weeks he'll probably just tell the office manager to pay him in full as they are often good like that. Fingers crossed big boss is paying attention when he signs the form!

Dhs paternity leave has just been increased to 2 weeks full pay.

mrspage yes the midwife organised it, although I think it may depend on each hospital how exactly it's arranged. I transferred from a hospital further away to a more local one, but there were a choice of three local ones and they wouldn't even give me advice on which they thought was best when I asked for it, so hopefully your midwife won't try to push you into a certain choice.

bright I'm not sure - I feel like it might just be NHS, but it's worth checking! I didn't know anything about it, but when I was filling out my maternity leave application it asked if I wanted my pay spread out.

That's great news McBaby. I do think it's good that rules seem to recognise want baby time too. Being able to have OH at home for the first month of our first and only!! child is really important and whilst half of that is a/l, it's only due to his biz recognising the importance that he gets to take it at will/ with little notice along with 2wks full pat pay. Feel for dad's who missed that in the past!

Bright - show off ;).

Cox - sounds like a keeper :)

Re BH pay - my HR said the BH days don't accrue. But I do get 6 months full pay so, I s'pose it all works out.

Wow! Some DPs have got a great deal! My DH gets two weeks statutory pat Leave and I get 39 weeks statutory Mat Leave.

My original job however will be held for me to return to for the full year unless it's made redundant.

Mine gets 2 wks full pay paternity and will also be taking a week of annual leave. He got three weeks paid paternity last time and I definitely wasn't ready for him to go back after 2!

I've submitted my shared parental leave forms, so I'm going back after 9m and he'll do the last 3. He loved it last time, but think it will be a bit different when he has two on his hands...

uptown I had to have a growth scan last week after measuring small at 28w appointment. Scan measured baby exactly on 50th percentile... The sonographer called it a very normal baby... and it was lovely to see it again - it even had its eyes open! Hope all goes ok for you too.

First NCT class tonight... feeling excited