Back to work - JAN 2007 - support thread

[iPodForLifeNotJustForChristmas]

Hidyho!

I'm back to work in Jan07 after 1year off. Am starting to panic a bit - Anyone else??!! Tought a kindof antenatalthread rip-off might steady the nerves!

Here's me:

ipod -
Occupational Therapist in Rehabilitation Team
Plymouth
1year off
DS 21months old, Single
Working 3 days a week

Oh hell, my plan to work on getting up early has failed on the first day! DS didn't stir until 9:30am - so, despite only pressing the snooze button once at 7am I fell back asleep too.

Does not help that I cant sleep at the mo and only fell asleep sometime after 2am.

Anyone else struggling?

Ipod - I am big time. I struggle to wake up at 7.30 (which is the usual time DS stirs) despite going to bed at 10pm. I have worked out that I would need to set the alarm for 6am to get me and DS ready and out the house and then get to work - I have no idea how I am going to manage it.

Does anyone else think that it seems cruel to have to wake up your babies which is what I am going to have to do to get DS fed and ready - or is it just me??

xmasstocking - I totally agree! Can't believe that after 11 months of struggling to get dd to sleep through and until a decent time in the morning (about 7am), I am getting closer and closer to the time when I have to go back to work, and will have to get her up at 6-6.30am to get us both fed and dressed to leave the house at 7am to take her to nursery so I can get to work for 8!!! Madness!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi, can I join in as well? What a good idea for a thread!

I go back to work on 3rd Jan after a year off. I am officially going back ft but as I have loads of leave to take am taking 2 days a week as annual leave until Easter - then I'll see how it goes and may apply for flexible working to drop a day/days and/or work from home a bit.

Dd2 will be 11 months and dd1 was 2 in October.

I'm going back to my job because I love it - but I'll see how I feel when I go back - there is a restructure/reorganisation going on - so it depends if the job I'm going back to is the one I left!

When I went back after dd1 (she was 10 months), I was already 3 months pregnant with dd2 - oops so knew I was going to be going on maternity leave so was fine about going back.

I feel a bit different this time around, dd2 is quite little and I feel quite protective of my lo! Also, I am still bf dd2 so will see how this works out - I am intending to bf am/pm and not express on the days I work - hopefully won't end with watermelons by the end of the day!

It's the getting ready in the morning that will be the killer - dp tries to get to work by 7.30, so I will be getting myself and the dd's ready and to the Nursery for as close to 8 am as I can - and giving a bf to dd2 first - I can see this all going pear-shaped - and may be rethinking me trying to carry on bf!

Nice to have a support thread.

Hi all,
it's great reading everyone elses thoughts on this - nice to know I'm not alone in this mixture of worry and restlessness (and sleeplessness!).
I'm still fighting with personnel over my right to go back p/t. I've found the letter I sent in Nov. 2005 (!!) telling them I wanted to return 3 days a week. At the moment it looks like they failed to act on it, and only told me last week that I needed to go through this long winded application process.

So yesterday I applied for a different job somewhere else. So why do I feel guilty? Why am I worried that my current PITA employers will be cross with me? What a wimp I am

Bikebug - your employers are in the wrong so don't feel guilty! Legally they have to respond within a set timeframe (28 days I think?) so by not doing this, they have broken the law! Perhaps if you drop this into the conversation with them, they might be a bit more accommodating and flexible with the application process?

You shouldn;t have to go and get another job!! That is what I am worried about - the job I am going back to is substantially different to my old job so I feel that not only do I have the worrys about going back anyway, but it will be like starting a new job which is always really hard work - please please please give me redundancy!!!

I was dreading finding a job over the last year as I knew I would struggle if it was FT, and I also knoew that I would have to work very hard at interview to get them to consider PT/Flexible.

Just so grateful that the job I got is PT to start with! NHS probably cant afford to take on full time staff - !

Heres hoping that they are not expecting full time caseload to be carried by me - only so many elderly people I can cope with in a week you know!

First settling in session at nursery on Wednesday morning - will have to practice getting up early and do a trial drive to nursery and then to work to see how long it takes.

Oh god dont say new job is worse than just going back!!!!

I so dont feel qualified for this job despite 12months work postqualifying! OK, I've been qualified since 2004 but I had 6 months mat leave and 1yr unemployed in that time!! Not sure they understood the concept of an unemplyed graduate at my interview!

DD2 has her first settling in session at Nursery this pm, again on Weds am, a half day on Friday and a full day next Wednesday - it's all happening a bit too quickly Where has this year gone?

Am going back full time (40 hours over 4 days) in January, having been back part time since October (24 hours over 3 days, but in reality only 2 days because I took Weds as leave).

DS1 is 2.8 and DS2 is nearly 11m now.

Have a visit to preschool today where DS1 will have two sessions in January and the DSs are looked after by a combination of my mum and dad, DH's mum and dad and DH (I'll be working a Sunday) when I'm at work, so I'm very fortunate.

Will just say that I love being at work - need the break. Have felt stacks better since I've been back (I had PND) - more like "me" iykwim. Mind you, would feel totally like me if DS2 slept better [yawn] What's it like to have more than three hours sleep in a row, I wonder?! You do have to deal with childless colleagues telling you they're tired, delicate wee flowers - that's fun (and my very favourite "I just don't have any time to myself!" from a childless single man...er...wtf?!

Hot - good luck this pm - hope your lo settles in ok. Ds's settling sessions start first week of January

Have only booked DS in for Wed, Thurs, Fri as that is what I want to work and was agreed 'in principle' but cos of the restructure, I don't know what job let alone if they are expecting me back full-time which will be a big issue as I would have no childcare for Mon & Tues - god, I am starting to send myself into a panic now about how close it is and I still don't know if I can go p/t!!

thanks Xmasstocking! I know they are wrong - I think personnel are incompetent rather than evil, IYKWIM. I hope yours are better.

To be honest, I would be OK about changing jobs - I only started this one when I was 6 weeks pg, and had 2 placements in that time, so I hardly settled in (so I think I know where you are coming from Ipod, there are parts of the job I feel totally overwhelmed by, despite having been 'trained' in them...). I'm mostly hacked off that I'm spending my (totally unpaid) maternity leave sorting everything out. Grrrr.

Hot, I hope that the settling in goes well. Ours is next week. gulp.

gosh there are a lot of us aren't there?!

i'm going back 22nd january, 4 evenings
retail manager, m&s
dd will be nearly 9 months

my hours will be 3 til 11pm 2 nights, and 5 til 11 the other 2 nights

dd will go to nursery 2 afternoons when i start at 3

my biggest stress is dh doing bedtimes on those 4 nights!! she's been bf and is only just starting to take a bottle. we have yet to try bottle at bed time. getting her used to it in the day time first. i think i'll carrying on with bf each morning until she's 1, but bottles the rest of the time.

Bike - lol at hoping my personnel department are better - I work in our personnel department so I would like to think we are more competent but I don't think so!!

Am completely with you about spending time sorting things out - I feel like my matty leave has been ruined by worrying about what job I am going back to etc - and here I am, 5 weeks before going back and still know as much as I did when I left in June - if I had known the reorganisation would happen as late as this, I would have enjoyed my 5 months of maternity leave and only started to worry now!

DD2 is in nursery but picking her up at 4.15

Doing the ironing! Shouldn't I be painting my toenails or something like it - how long is it since I have had any me time!

At least I'll get the chance to have hot drinks when I go back to work!

Cross post Hot - how do you feel? Does it feel weird being without her?

Apart from leaving your babies, what else are you dreading about going back??
im terrified about seeing all the people i used to work with and im worried that i'll have nothing to talk to them about apart from ds.
im not used to having adult conversation as im on my own most days with ds for 13 hours until dp comes home

Fifi - I am dreading the fact that I am about 4 stone heavier than before pg - I know it is vain but I feel ok at home sat around in baggy trousers etc. where no-one cares whereas at work, I feel that:

1. I need to buy a whole new wardrobe as nothing fits - but we are skint so god knows how.
2. Everyone will be commenting on how much weight I have put on (I know that they won't - not too my face anyway) but still feel bad.

I realise this is very shallow but I can't get over it - not motivated at the moment to diet and to shift 4 stone seems such a huge mountain to climb that I don't know where to start - after Christmas seems good

I'm dreading being the new girl! and explaining "yes I have a baby, no I dont have a DP".

I'm a large lady anyway but aiming to get less large - been going to the gym twice a week for the last year, and hope to go before I pick DS up on the days I work.

Sod what other people say - but buy some clothes that fit - even if it is just a bare minimum of 2 black trousers and a couple of tops that you can rotate for work. It will make you feel so much better. I've seen some skinny ie size 10 people squeezing into size8's and it does them no favours, they look uncomfortable and just serve to make themselves look bigger.

Honestly, I KNOW its no fun being bigger than you want to be but you cant change overnight so deal with how you are today! And each day you will be one step closer to how you want to be - well, as long as you dont eat lots of biscuits at coffee time!

I am dreading all the juggling that working involves. The rushing around picking up children, sorting out school things and everything else in the evening, what happens when the child is ill and can't go to school? (blimey I haven't thought about that - what do i do??). The trying to run a house and a job at the same time. I've remembered this is why I stopped work nearly 3 years ago.

I also have a few worries about whether my brain will function any more

hi ipod,
im starting back in on jan 8th 2007, for 3 days a week. Not looking forward to it all.[sad[
my ds2 will be 6 months, hes going to the busybees nursery on site at my workplace.
im a radiographer, i was only qualified 4 months when i found out i was pregnant. ( we were intending to waitanother couple of years befor another ds/dd but it was a surpise, but thankgod i had qualified)

my ds1 is 8 and will be going to the schools breakfast club and 7.50 then i have to get to nursery then get in to dept for 8.45. not sure if it will all go to plan as yet.

my dp works nights and doesnt finish till 10 am so wont be there to help me get ready in themornigs. im still having to bf as ds2 is allergic to formula and wont drink his prescribed milk, i have trouble getting ds1 to school for 8.50 now, so i really dont know hjow the hell i am going to fit it all in in the mornings, i think i will have to get up at about 5 or something???

i would have preferred to have the whole year off but cant afford to not have my money coming in.