@cass005 that’s super stinky! I’m sorry that your job is going through that right now. That extra added stress is definitely not fun. I’m glad that your bosses are keeping tabs on you. We are here for you too!!
TTC #1: September 2013, BFP 01/01/14, DS 09/14 TTC #2: October 2018, BFP 02/02/19, EDD 10/14/19
@grapeskittles4lyfe I’ll also be flying with Lufthansa after 28 weeks. Did you print of the pdf from their website or are you planning to have the doctor write their own note?
Yup! I figure if that's the one they supply that's the one they'll be most comfortable with.
Thanks everyone! I will try to kick butt and ignore the baby kicks throughout
@steminist good luck! How long of a leave do you have? @grapeskittles4lyfe is there a particular store with office maternity wear that you've preferred?
In Germany, I went to Envie de Fraise, Seraphine (for like one top, because $$$) and bellybutton. But H&M is where most of my clothing came from.
I went back and forth several times between bikini/covering up the bump at the lake. I bought one maternity tankini too, just in case that’s the route I wanted to go. This may belong in tomorrow UO, but I decided I didn’t really care and hit the pool in a bikini. I thought I may get a lot of stares, but really didn’t! Accepting changing bodies can be hard!
I’m a SAHM and would always sleep until DS woke me up because I love sleep. But since being pregnant I usually wake up at least an hour before he does, which has taught me the beauty of having quiet time first thing. I can eat my breakfast, drink my coffee and do a bit of reading and be in a good mood when he wakes up (I’m not a morning person haha). The only downside to that is when he actually wakes up at the same time as me bc it makes me a bit grumpy for not having that “me” time...
You guys - guess what?!? After a couple of months of campaigning for a better maternity leave policy, I just heard from my CEO that he approved my proposal of 12 weeks fully paid maternity leave! I'm so pumped - not just because it means less stress for DH and I (I'm the primary breadwinner so the previous 3 weeks they offered was going to shrink our savings quite a bit) but it also changes things for all of the future pregnant ladies at our company! Feel good moment, for sure.
@jenferlee82 thats awesome!! I'm also our primary, but I get a short notice leave then pay at 60% for 4 weeks, which is better than what I got last time round, zip!!
@junebabyh yesterday was DS EDD originally, I was out off he waited til July😂 hope you get a baby neice today💕
@jenferlee82 That is so amazing. I truly think that all businesses should offer 12 weeks fully paid maternity and/or paternity leave to their employees because it really helps and makes a difference in a new parents life.
TTC #1: September 2013, BFP 01/01/14, DS 09/14 TTC #2: October 2018, BFP 02/02/19, EDD 10/14/19
@andromedacorrine2@emily1052@greenbean-2 Thanks ladies! It really made my day, and good timing since I was feeling overworked and stressed. Gives me a surge of new energy!
@stephanie123456 I totally agree! I'm very lucky because my CEO is a fantastic guy and was very open to changing the policy. In the end he actually said, "I don't want to be the kind of company where a woman has to take a pay cut to a have a child. That kind of company doesn't deserve anyone's loyalty."
Which of course, made me tear up because I'm an emotional pregnant woman and it was so great to hear him say that. LOL
@jenferlee82 I really love to hear that. The more that CEOs and companies change their thinking about working moms and dads, the better off our society is going to be. Also, I had a moment reading that too. My company will allow six months of unpaid leave with job protection, which two peers are about to come back from this next month... but what about those of us (*ehem*... me) that cannot afford to take an unpaid time off because (like many of you have mentioned also) I am the breadwinner so when I'm not working, there's very little coming in money-wise. They do give 1 month paid leave, so to maximize that time as well as my state's 60% disability and 6 week paid family leave benefits + PTO, I have to work up to my due date, then hopefully finagle things so I get paid 100%, which will only be about 12-ish weeks... While I know that's better than a lot of places, why should new moms and dads HAVE to calculate hours out and sacrifice vacations to spend time with/heal/bond with their babies... sorry, this is sort of my hill to stand on.
TTC #1: September 2013, BFP 01/01/14, DS 09/14 TTC #2: October 2018, BFP 02/02/19, EDD 10/14/19
@stephanie123456 I agree with absolutely everything you said! The amount of stress it causes for people to have to calculate how much time they can afford to spend bonding with their baby is unreal and just breaks my heart. DH and I were going through this very stress up until just now when the new policy recommendation was approved, and it was just awful. I'm right there next to you on that hill!
@jenferlee82, what amazing news! Congratulations on the maternity leave policy upgrade! You should take pride in the fact you are helping to change status quo for all women. Thank you! ❤
@jenferlee82 Wow just wow, I am interested to hear about your proposal and how you presented it. I am just so amazed that you did this, you should really celebrate, this is such a momentous occasional especially if your company can offer this for future pregnant employees.
Random thought of the day: I've been listening to audiobooks lately by the same author (not my favorite author, but I'm always hungry for a good thriller/mystery and her books are the ones that are currently available on Libby) who uses the same man as her narrator through all the books I've listened to. I hope my baby doesn't begin to associate his voice as the one who is his/her father. Contemplating headphones. 😂
@cass005 Thank you! Some background in the spoiler so I don't clog the thread for those that are uninterested.
Honestly it wasn't all that spectacular! I just laid out the current policy (three weeks paid, six weeks short term disability, up to 12 weeks total FMLA, etc.) and outlined the gaps between it and the policies of top tech companies like Google, Facebook, Netflix, etc. that are all publicly available and are typically even higher than the 12 weeks we were requesting. I shared "averages" for US businesses (which are VERY low, as you might imagine) and asked the question "Do we want to be average, or do we want to be like these top employers?" Then I asked HR to do some cost estimates based on common leave percentages for workforces of our size, and that helped show what a small impact it had to the P&L to make the change. My HR business partner was awesome in helping me prepare my thoughts and present the proposal. All of that said, we are lucky because our CEO is VERY employee-centric. We didn't even need half of what we'd prepared for the discussion when we met with him. He apologized for not really understanding the policy sooner, agreed that it was subpar, and approved our ask immediately. So we definitely overworked the plan, but I was happy we were prepared just in case. Last thing I'll say - we are a small company (only about 250 employees) so that makes changes like this easier to bring about than large companies. We can be nimble enough to say "This policy sucks, let's change it" and then do so, whereas I know larger organizations would have many more hoops to jump through along the way.
Holy crap. Someone tell DD to stop head butting me in the cervix while I’m inspecting! The amount of times I’ve yelped trying to do say something is not amusing
More sister-wedding shenanigans... so the big day is now about two weeks away and she has not mentioned yet what she would like DS to wear, as he is in the wedding party. They are having a Star Wars themed wedding so I knew that she wanted them to dress up like characters from the original films... but she had never confirmed anything and now we are getting down to the wire. So I re-texted her today and asked AGAIN what she would like my kid to wear. She straight up wants him to wear a 'Luke Skywalker' Halloween costume. Her friend's child (who is 10 months) will be dressed up as Yoda, and her fiance's 1/2-sisters kids will be dressed up as Leia and Han Solo (which seems weird to me but whatever)...
And she seems like she's getting snippy with me for asking so many questions and making her pick the EXACT costume she would like DS to wear. In my opinion, when it ends up looking like s@#*, I want the own-ness to be on her, because it will be what they wanted/picked.
TTC #1: September 2013, BFP 01/01/14, DS 09/14 TTC #2: October 2018, BFP 02/02/19, EDD 10/14/19
@stephanie123456 Oh my...I would be exactly like you and want her to pick out the outfit! What if you picked one and she hated it? Lord knows you don't need to be dealing with that.
For the record, it is crazy to me that the wedding is two weeks away and you are having to pry this information from her! Eeek!
My cousin had a bad ass DC comics wedding. Wish I had pics, it was just a small thing. And a good friend from high school got married on Halloween, she had a white and red dress and her fiance wore a white tux with red accents. Everyone came in their costumes. It was fun 😂 they also both listen to a band called Insane Clown Posse, so they had the Hatchet man in some of their decor. That's how their house is decorated too. Not my fancy, but it works for them😂
@andromedacorrine2 They may be having Storm Troopers there as well at some point, but I'm not sure (my sister hasn't been as forthcoming with talking about her wedding since I got KU). It's just weird to me because some parts of the wedding don't seem to fit with other parts... like is it elegant/classy or casual/fun? Not that it can't be both but just the mix that I know of so far has me kind of scratching my head...
TTC #1: September 2013, BFP 01/01/14, DS 09/14 TTC #2: October 2018, BFP 02/02/19, EDD 10/14/19
@stephanie123456 okay yeah that's confusing for sure 😂 hopefully she gets what she's aiming for!
My mom wanted to plan mine out and I had to tell her no several times cause she's too all over the place like that too. My theater director from high school, and also a very good family friend got remarried my senior year and they did a woodlands/ Robin Hood theme and had the groomsmen dress up as knights/archers and the bridesmaids as maid Marian styles! It was absolutely beautiful, they made everything themselves, down to decor(her daughter and her best friend are costume directors and own their own fashion business locally here). It was a cool clash of elegant but casual! So I get it! (Her daughter's best friend married a few years back and they did a gorgeous steampunk wedding. All outfits hand made again, the groomsmen were steam workers and the women wore tight corset styles. It was also beautifully put together 😍)
@nnaelilak i'm sorry, but what you said about anesthesia and kids' sleep is absolutely not true. I'm in anesthesia school now. Yes, it affects their sleep, but so does taking an extremely long nap during the day. I did anesthesia for children's radiation treatments during my peds rotation and saw those kids every day for 4 weeks. Some of them slept well at night, others did not. Same as any other kids. @grapeskittles4lyfe I'm so glad the surgery went well. Sorry they had to stick multiple times. That's definitely not fun! @jenferlee82 That is so amazing!!! 12 weeks paid! I'm so happy that you will get that. @junebabyh Congrats on a new niece!!! How exciting!
I was so excited, it's my last day at my current clinical rotation and my coordinator let me leave at noon. Monday I go back to my clinical site where I'll be employed at when I'm done with school in December! It will be like a nice, long orientation basically.
Today is DH's birthday. I went to a local bakery that's been featured on the Food Network and got a few slices of cake! One is some kind of chocolate and the other is a cookies n cream cake. I can't wait for him to get home so we can eat it!!!
@melanier26 I snipped this from their wedding website and covered the names...
What 😂😂😂 the wedding party is supposed to show the guests up 😂😂 that is all over the place. So they'll be in a tux and dress but the party is in costumes??
Re: Weekly Randoms 6/24
TTC #2: October 2018, BFP 02/02/19, EDD 10/14/19
@junebabyh yay for your family!! Hope the birth goes well!!
@junebabyh yesterday was DS EDD originally, I was out off he waited til July😂 hope you get a baby neice today💕
TTC #2: October 2018, BFP 02/02/19, EDD 10/14/19
@stephanie123456 I totally agree! I'm very lucky because my CEO is a fantastic guy and was very open to changing the policy. In the end he actually said, "I don't want to be the kind of company where a woman has to take a pay cut to a have a child. That kind of company doesn't deserve anyone's loyalty."
Which of course, made me tear up because I'm an emotional pregnant woman and it was so great to hear him say that. LOL
Edited because words are hard
TTC #2: October 2018, BFP 02/02/19, EDD 10/14/19
All of that said, we are lucky because our CEO is VERY employee-centric. We didn't even need half of what we'd prepared for the discussion when we met with him. He apologized for not really understanding the policy sooner, agreed that it was subpar, and approved our ask immediately. So we definitely overworked the plan, but I was happy we were prepared just in case.
Last thing I'll say - we are a small company (only about 250 employees) so that makes changes like this easier to bring about than large companies. We can be nimble enough to say "This policy sucks, let's change it" and then do so, whereas I know larger organizations would have many more hoops to jump through along the way.
TTC #2: October 2018, BFP 02/02/19, EDD 10/14/19
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BFP #2 5/4/14, EDD 1/15/15, DS1 1/19/15
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And she seems like she's getting snippy with me for asking so many questions and making her pick the EXACT costume she would like DS to wear. In my opinion, when it ends up looking like s@#*, I want the own-ness to be on her, because it will be what they wanted/picked.
TTC #2: October 2018, BFP 02/02/19, EDD 10/14/19
For the record, it is crazy to me that the wedding is two weeks away and you are having to pry this information from her! Eeek!
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BFP #2 5/4/14, EDD 1/15/15, DS1 1/19/15
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TTC #2: October 2018, BFP 02/02/19, EDD 10/14/19
My mom wanted to plan mine out and I had to tell her no several times cause she's too all over the place like that too.
My theater director from high school, and also a very good family friend got remarried my senior year and they did a woodlands/ Robin Hood theme and had the groomsmen dress up as knights/archers and the bridesmaids as maid Marian styles! It was absolutely beautiful, they made everything themselves, down to decor(her daughter and her best friend are costume directors and own their own fashion business locally here). It was a cool clash of elegant but casual! So I get it!
(Her daughter's best friend married a few years back and they did a gorgeous steampunk wedding. All outfits hand made again, the groomsmen were steam workers and the women wore tight corset styles. It was also beautifully put together 😍)
@grapeskittles4lyfe I'm so glad the surgery went well. Sorry they had to stick multiple times. That's definitely not fun!
@jenferlee82 That is so amazing!!! 12 weeks paid! I'm so happy that you will get that.
@junebabyh Congrats on a new niece!!! How exciting!
I was so excited, it's my last day at my current clinical rotation and my coordinator let me leave at noon. Monday I go back to my clinical site where I'll be employed at when I'm done with school in December! It will be like a nice, long orientation basically.
Today is DH's birthday. I went to a local bakery that's been featured on the Food Network and got a few slices of cake! One is some kind of chocolate and the other is a cookies n cream cake. I can't wait for him to get home so we can eat it!!!
TTC #2: October 2018, BFP 02/02/19, EDD 10/14/19
@jenferlee82 that is exactly the word to use for this scenario 🤣
TTC #2: October 2018, BFP 02/02/19, EDD 10/14/19