Hi everyone,
I'm 6 weeks pregnant and because I work in quite a physically demanding job, I decided to tell my boss. He was super happy and actually got a bit teary - as did I - when I told him. He's a new Dad so I felt he'd be on side. I decided not to tell the rest of the team immediately as I didn't feel it necessary. However, after a particularly long day, I felt utterly awful and exhausted so I thought it might be best to tell the others in case my boss needed to swap me into another role as a temporary measure.
So I was working on Saturday and it was another long one... And I was breathless, dizzy and exhausted. I hadn't slept well on the Friday night and all I wanted to do was go home and curl up in my bed. I told the acting HOD who was unsympathetic at first and said she couldn't let me go "just because I was a bit tired". She had to contact the boss - which was fine. She warned me he would probably want to see me on Monday (today) and tell me that I needed to put work first as I can't keep having time off. My contract comes to an end in 3 weeks and I'm hoping that I will get a new contract June/July time. He seems keen to employ me again even if it's for a few months before the baby's due. So by leaving early on Saturday, it's making me look a bit rubbish.
My job means I finish work about 10:15 most nights (not sundays) and I commute so I don't get home until nearly midnight. Then I'm up again at 7am the next morning because of animal responsibilities and also because my body won't seem to let me have a lie in.
On my long days, I don't do animal duties now because I realise it's too much for me to cope with but unfortunately I can't just drop them every time I feel tired. We are looking at getting someone to assist us as the pregnancy moves along but to find someone requires some time which I don't have much of! I will in 3 weeks, but until then, I have to plough on.
I sleep on the train to and from work, but I can't nap at work. There just isn't anywhere to go that's quiet.
My boss has asked to see me today and I'm dreading it... Everyone goes through different things in pregnancy - right? I'm really struggling here to balance it all... It's also been quite a shock to finally be pregnant... We've been trying for almost 4 years and now that it's finally happened, we're so over the moon but suddenly have to rethink everything again... I feel so unprepared.
I'm not sure what I'm asking for really... Just any sort of advice would be good.
I saw my GP about the breathlessness and it's my asthma that's come back - yipee! So I'm back on medication for that as walking dogs makes me wheezy :(