The CRESH Creche and Spa - What's your excuse for not going back to work?

[Backinthebox]

Liking maternity leave too much? Can't be arsed to go back to your old job? Why not get made redundant, set up a company, have another baybee or even fall off a horse? Anything to spend more time with our little darlings! And it's so naice here - pass the gin!

This is kind of why I'm going for the interview tomorrow - could stay where I am, safe, secure, local, know everyone, good hols (can't take them but that's another story!) Blah blah but I yearn for more in the way of personal fulfilment. I've said it before and i'll say it again because I love the sound of my own voice: after bear I knew more than ever that what I needed to do to provide the best for him was to go out and earn cold, hard cash. I've never been so work-motivated in my life, perhaps if I'd got pregnant at 16 things would've worked out differently. ;)

Well done curly, if it's any consolation the crying is good - means all the bad shit is coming out. If you were shutting down your emotions you'd not be benefiting.

Sorry Curls I should have said good on you for today. I think a good cry is also good.

Thanks lovely ESHs.

I am getting stuck on FB re the meet. Please someone come and do the deciding?

No you don't have to pay back SMP.

There's a new baybeeeeeee! see PESH

I appear to be having the opposite reaction to Alps on the work thing. I am unmotivated by cold, hard cash and mostly want to just be there for Bob. Work is so secondary to her for me. I'm not sure I want to give up work completely, I think it would be good for me to work. But I don't want work to rule my life or leave me too stressed to enjoy my time with her.

ANYWAY, I'm not due back until March so I shall shut the hell up for now.

Basically, I would like the moon. On a stick. With a ribbon.

maternity allowance is also for those who change jobs during pregnancy, ie who weren't working for their employer during the qualifying week.

I don't really want to think about jobhunting or nursery place finding.

muse who doesn't? I suppose I am sort of lucky that I am un self-employed in that I dont have to think about it yet, just have to panic when I run out of money. But I know I dont want to go back full time and would rather not have to commute which pretty much rules out all the permanent jobs in my field/location. So just going to have to hope something freelance comes up at the right time. :-s

I am feeling guilty about not reading any of the books now. We have been winging it so far, except for bed time bath/boobs/bed between 7-8pm and she kind of falls into her own routine. I have vaguely been following EASY but havent read the Baby Whisperer, just picked up a few bits from my friend who had it. But now I am wondering if a bit more structure during the day wouldn't be good as she is not very good at getting herself down for a nap during the day although tends to have a mammoth one in the morning and a couple of short ones in the avo. And maybe a 10 pm feed would cut out the 4 am one. I think I might try it next week i just dont really like the idea of waking her up when she's asleep - it seems daft to me.

Me too Muse. I want financial independence but want to be here for my kids and not miss anything. I basically want to work 9am to 1.00pm, 5 days a week in a job that I love and challenges me and get paid handsomely for it.

Books aren't everything Rocket. Waking at 10pm may result in non waking at 4am. Suck it and see if you fancy it.

I was kinda like that after having LC Muse. Trouble is the company I worked for wanted more and this is probably one of the reasons I and a load of other working mothers were made redundant - cynic, moi???
Since BC arrived I've changed my tune & decided to go after the cold hard cash, particularly as PT is not an option in my field/at my level, especially when I have Boxer pointing me in the direction of fabuloso pony that has just come up for sale.

So, this pony - 11hh of Welsh sec. A perfection for about the price of 2 tents. I have a large redundancy lump sum burning a whole in my pocket (just means going back to work a month earlier) and MrCluck says yes. LC will be beside herself if I can pull this off.

In other good news, tried a different bottle with BC today & he glugged 4.5 oz of formula, having previously been forced to sip just 1 oz each day since Monday, and still wanted more. If this goes well again tomorrow I'll drop another feed at the weekend. Yippee.

Maybe you could do a dream feed at 10pm? Then you don't actually wake her up. I hadn't heard about them until it was far too late for me to try it but I'd definitiely give them a go if there's a next time.

But please to not feel guilty about not reading books. I got cross with most of them anyway.

Sorry, X-post, that was to Rocket .

Cluck ALERT ALERT ALERT Your pony is already on the MN radar! here Ironically, this lady also bought a grey horse from Big Horse's dealer. Wottasmallworld. (For info I am on OH-best-friend duties on Sat afternoon. We need to move quickly. PS I am no kind of best friend at all to be even allowing you to even think of spending your redundancy money, but hey, I have an empty stable now I've sold the racehorse I foolishly bought whilst 5 months pregnant.) Move fast - I am around tomorrow and Sat morning!

Also calling past to say yay for new ESH babies - well done to Ginfox

Yep - spotted that Box and did wonder. She's miles oop north tho but not taking any risks so will get on the blower to the owner first thing.

P'raps a few of us can go on the thread to put her off [devilish emoticon needed]

Don't even breathe to this particular woman. She is lovely, but has had her eye on the pony for ages too, and is super-competitive. Any word on that thread would have her sprinting for the phone!

Oooh my favourite subject "horse shopping"!!!!

Congrats to *GinFox" on the arrival of her cub.

Wrt job : going to have to man up and tackle each day back at work one by one.

I'm trying to not think about it as makes me feel ill and ruins my day.

Anyone watch OBEM USA ? Had dust in my eyes so made watching it a bit difficult.

Can't believe another week has gone!

honey huuuuuuge respects to you on your project. You are one hard worker!

okie I wish that I'd gone for shorter days instead of my three full days. I like the sound of your ideal situ. I'll take one of those please!

muse don't worry about reading books, the baby's not read them. Just get tips from other people, try them out and see if they work for you.

Dream feed has never worked for us, he just latches on and stays there not feeding, then wails when you take him off.

My ideal job is my job 3 days a week, paying my full time salary

rocket is wondering about books, not me. I am still going for the muddling through approach to motherhood.

dur sorry muse

I muddled still am. No time for boon reading.

My SIL didn't read for her first two and they were fairly easy babies (whatever that means) and read for her third and it was a nightmare and ditched the book.

I'm of the opinion try anything you like and if it works - amaze! If not then ditch it and try something else.

Well, I spoke too soon. I spannered the timings of the early evening feeds, which meant BugBoy wasn't particularly bothered about his 10pm feed, which meant he was starving at 2am. Ho Hum. This is why I only loosely follow GF - trying to stick to it rigidly would have me feeling like a constant failure. And I'm not! BugBoy is fed, washed, happy, gaining weight & doing just fine. I need a hair wash, but that's about it!

I think my wise RL friend had the best advice, & that is just do whatever works for you. Whether its strict routine or allowing baby to eat & sleep whenever they want. If you're happy to have your baby fall asleep on you, or feed 3 times a night, then its no-one elses business. She also encourages me to enjoy these days, don't spend time stressing, as it all passes by very quickly. She has 3 amazing children & a very chilled outlook to life. I heart her

I'm also thinking about work, even though I'm not planning to return until May 2012! Bloody idiot! I loved my job & would like to return but on a part time basis. They've allowed others in the same role as me to return part-time, so I'm hopeful. They'll have a fight on their hands if they refuse. Its on my mind now though as its on the news about restructuring & certain station closures (not at my office, but how safe is any job these days?).

Casper sorry you had tears yesterday, but agree that its letting the bad stuff out. Hope you feel a bit better today.

Bugboy & I have discovered CBeebies . Bad mummy. The bright, inane ramblings of the far too energetic & enthusiastic people seem to keep him occupied for a short while. Long enough for me to wash my hair maybe. Or read my book which I was thoroughly enjoying 6 weeks ago, & have since read about 6 pages. Or just sit down.

She sounds like a very wise friend laurie.

I am very grateful to many wise people in real life and on t'internet (including our Cos) who told me my mad cluster feeding evenings were normal long past the time everyone else seemed to have overcome them. True enough, we got through them and now the before bed feed is a short one and we've had a few 7.30pmish bedtimes, and she's rarely up later than 8.30pm, or even 8pm. I think you have to go with what works for your baby, and don't stress if you don't have a Gina baby.

Funnily enough I tried a dream feed last night. boo She didn't wake up but only fed for about 10 minutes on one side and then went straight back to sleep. I thought RESULT! Cue being woken up by frantic grunting and wriggling at 11.30 and 1.30 even though she wasn't awake and shouldn't be hungry. I then ended up feeding her at 3.30 anyway. Hmm it could be because I didn't wind her properly because I didn't want to wake her up too much but not sure I'm keen to try it again to find out! I haven't been finding the 4 am feed too bad as I've usually had a good 4-5 hrs of kip beforehand, except this week I've been finding it hard to get back to sleep afterwards which is why I was thinking it would be good to extend it a bit. Oh well. Its not really broken so don't know why I'm trying to fix it.

I think you are all right, advice from real people and on here is much better than a book, plus doing what feels right. I am not the kind of person who would give myself a hard time for not following something religiously, I just wondered if there were some more tips I could pick up. I have been trying to get her to self settle for naps during the day recently as she is ok doing this at night but it takes bloody ages in the day and now I think, what makes more sense? 10 mins lovely cuddles and finger sucking on my lap then transfered to bed or 30+ minutes of wriggling and shouting. Duh, no brainer when you put it like that eh? Also glad to hear I am not the only muddler.

Loz, sounds like it went tits up for both of us last night but as you say we both have happy chubby babies to prove we must be doing something right. Its lovely when they start to smile loads at this stage. You feel like you get more back for all you put in.