December babies 2021! Thread 3

[Horehound]

Following in from 1 and 2. :)

I’m on certizine for hay fever and allergies. If I come off I can’t function in any form. Was told it was completely safe to take and took all the way through my last pregnancy.

@lucea87
Sorry to hear your sad news sending love Xx

Hi! I thought I'd try a post here. .

I think I'm 5 weeks (5+4 possibly) but could be one more or one less. My cycles are normally very short but I have no idea if it may have been a longer cycle this month! Going to book a private scan mid May for some more clarity... if we make it there of course.

Absolutely terrified of miscarriage as we were told we can't have children so it's not like we're likely to get another chance soon! Half the time I'm amazed and half the time I'm so worried.

Have had zero symptoms so far, except today I (finally?) felt nauseous all day!

@TreeRoad I can’t believe it’s classed as good!!! It’s truly awful, time to start saving 😂. I’m in Scotland where are you?x

@AnonymousXXIX congrats on your pregnancy! And how special given your previous news. You’ve definitely come to the right place for worrying and excited minds, I think it’s a pregnancy thing!xx

@Mosshead348 I’m Scotland too. Are you hospital based or in the community?

Yeah I know, honestly it’s crazy. You can average out your pay so that it doesn’t go down each month, but I think the drop is quite significant.

You can freeze your superann contributions too, by the way.

@Mosshead348 what does your pay go to after the 8 weeks?

I get 6 weeks full pay then 50% until week 39

@Mosshead348.My friend is a nurse with NHS and can't remember how much she said she got but I remember thinking it was quite good and she was happy with it. I only get SMP so maybe I only thought it was good in comparison with SMP. We are in Scotland so don't know if NHS maternity pay is different here though

I’m hospital based @TreeRoad what about you?

Aw @Horehound and @Scarletpig1 I know I shouldn’t moan because I know others will have it “worse” but I am just so disappointed in the NHS, and it doesn’t help my previous employer was 6 months full pay 😂 we go down to 50% too after 8 weeks xx

@Horehound 50% for 18 weeks then just SMP

@lucea87 so sorry to hear the news, big big hugs, and pleased you have support from work. Let's hope it's a very healthy pregnancy from here on in 🤞🏻

@cutejeans congratulations! And MN is fab for that, we are here!

@AnonymousXXIX hey you are similar to me! We have something of a miracle baby here too & im similar dates. I had a MMC last year from ivf & had 2 more lots of ivf too with nothing to show now got a natural pregnancy just before our next round of full ivf! It's so emotionally draining but let's hope for us both 🤞🏻

Thanks for the well wishes everyone. I managed to speak to my midwife this morning who was lovely.
She spoke to EPU for me and they are calling tomorrow at 11. They said if the bleeding hasn't completely stopped by then, they'll get me in for a scan to make sure.

That's given me a relief just to know there is something happening to reassure me

Hi everyone! Just putting a message in here for this thread! I'm 5+1 weeks today! Also feel like time is going so slow from we found out 🙈 boobs are still sore, had some heartburn the last few days and absolutely knackered! Can't stop yawning through work lol I've told my manager and supervisor because I don't want to be lifting anything heavy so thought it was better for them to know, and with my other 2 pregnancies my morning sickness was terrible so half expecting that to kick in at some point so at least if they see me running to the toilet they know why haha

@lucea87 I'm sorry to read your news, I hope you & your partner are doing okay.

@Mosshead348 6 months full pay? Wow that would have been amazing. I was shocked to find out what SMP equated to with my first pregnancy. I really should have looked it up in the planning stages, rather than when I was actually pregnant. Basically ended up putting everything on a 0% credit card while I was on leave that I'm still paying off. I'll get six weeks full pay (and an unhappy manager when he finds out my news but hey ho!)

@Mosshead348 Community for me.

I was thinking I’d probably message payroll and ask them to give me an estimate based on the 8 weeks full pay scenario, then an estimate if I average my income over the whole mat leave.

Also, if you don’t already know, they work out your mat pay by your earnings on certain months prior to when you go off. Do some nights and OT if you can to bump it up. 👏🏼

While everyone’s talking about maternity pay, when are people thinking of going on leave? I’m a FTM so I have no idea.

Also, how long are you taking off?

@treeroad Im due 30th Nov and will take maternity two weeks before this date. I was also take two weeks annual leave so really will be off a month before I'm due. And I'll be off over a year due to the 12months maternity then I'll have a full year's holiday allowance to take. So will be something like 13/14 months :)

@flowersatthecastle 6 months - wild isn’t it! However my old employer was horrendous so I’d have to say not worth it just for that.

@TreeRoad I had no idea about the OT! If my sickness goes away I’ll try and rack up the hours, although my OH has me on strict orders of doing nothing 😂

I’m thinking I’ll take off the 8 weeks then the addition 18, 6.5 months total? You?xx

Thanks for the welcome to the thread @Mosshead348!

@Minster2012 we were due to start ICSI on the NHS this summer. It's completely incredible! My brain is absolutely refusing to believe it is real... Time can not pass fast enough right now!!

@Horehound so jealous of your time off!!

@TreeRoad I used a weeks annual holiday before my due date and then started mat leave on my due date. With the chance of first babies going overdue I had no desire to sit around waiting for something to happen for much longer than that but I was fortunate that I was mobile enough to carry on working that long. You might need to judge it closer to the time based on how you're doing with mobility and tiredness.

I had nine months off, basically went back when SMP ended as it made more financial sense to send baby to nursery and me to earn again. Used my accrued holiday and bank holidays to work part time (but paid full time) for a couple of months. If we could have afforded it it would have taken the full year.

Re: leave. My employer actually provides loads of paid leave : o But, and tell me if this sounds totally insane, I do not want it all? I am worried enough about the impact this may have on my career without disappearing for months on end.

But I don't want to worry about it till I have a scan, feels like jinxing it just looking at my company's policy on this!

@AnonymousXXIX yep time will stand still now 🤣and it's not crazy to not want to take it all, lots of my friends went back after 7-9 months

@TreeRoad First time I went off 3.5 weeks before due date. Was a relief as my feet were massively swollen and was an effort to walk to work. Had to wear flip flops in November 🤣 now I'm working from home so less of a problem. Plan to start maternity leave on due date because I have lots of annual leave which rolled over from previous mat leave. So I'll take 5 weeks annual leave before that. First was 9 days late so ended up having 5 weeks off and I loved it. Time to prepare stuff, have lie ins, lunch time naps, watch Netflix and relax. Though some people say they would get bored so it depends if you enjoy keeping busy or relaxing

@AnonymousXXIX you do what's best for you. I had some judgement about going back to work at nine months (apparently I work with people who think baby = you must become a house wife because how dare you send a baby to nursery ) I was worried about what I'd miss out on but actually realised the difference between six months and a year off isn't a lot in work terms. Guess it depends how fast paced your work is, where you stand versus promotions, etc. You can give your employer notice of changing your return date while you're on leave so whatever you decide isn't set in stone.

@AnonymousXXIX

Re: leave. My employer actually provides loads of paid leave : o But, and tell me if this sounds totally insane, I do not want it all? I am worried enough about the impact this may have on my career without disappearing for months on end.

But I don't want to worry about it till I have a scan, feels like jinxing it just looking at my company's policy on this!

Nothing wrong with that. I just personally felt younger than 12months old going to nursery is too young. You might not know what you'll want until the baby comes. I'd tell them you'll take it all and then I think you can change it by giving them some notice.