lifepassedby.com » maternity leave

Lazy, lazy, lazy

kasper — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:53:59 +0000

I’m such a slack. I have no idea where my weekend went. I guess between watching movies and working on my new layout all the time just got sucked away. I really want to get this new layout finished up, but it seems that I keep changing my mind about how it should look. Maybe by next weekend I’ll have it looking spiffy enough to put up.
I started doing the Weekend Snapshot and was really looking forward to making myself take some photos so that I’d be able to post along with everyone, but I’ll refer back to the first statement of this entry. That’s right, I’m a slack. We were supposed to go to London to my Aunt’s house for my Mum’s “surprise” birthday. The “surprise” part is a joke because my Gran told my Mum to ask us (my brother & I) if we could come down to her party. Seeing as she already knows about it, it’s not exactly a surprise. I talked to her Friday and she said that she had been practicing looking surprised. I was really looking forward to seeing everyone and showing off how big baby D’s getting, but it got postponed due to weather. We got a dumping of like 25-30cm! As I suspected it was sunny on Sunday and melted the snow pretty fast. That figures. So we’ll be heading south next weekend instead. Since I don’t get out and do stuff much, find myself being inflexible when plans change. So with the family doing nothing interesting over the weekend, I once again have no photo to show for it. We may actually make it out of the house today and drag baby D through the snow on his sled, so if we do I’ll be sure to get some photos up. FYI I don’t post baby D photos publicly (or mine either for that matter), so if you’re interested in seeing them let me know here and befriend me in Flickr.
I did manage to get some things straightened out about my maternity leave. So, I’ve been in to work and done the paper work, here’s how it’s going to play out. I am taking an Infant Care leave after my maternity runs out. This will be unpaid, but I don’t have to return to work. I will return to work on June 30th for 2 weeks until our summer starts while hubby takes 2 weeks holidays to stay home with baby D. When I go back to work my unpaid vacation time (20 days) will be processed and paid out to me which will hopefully help get us through the summer since I can’t claim EI. Then I will be back full time for the new school year in mid-August. The other hitch of this scenario is that my Dad (Mr. Financial) thought I was insane to even consider such a stupid idea when we discussed it a couple of weeks ago. To go without money when we’re stretched as it is would be suicide. It’s true, it will be extremely hard on us but I feel that it’s what’s best for baby D. So on Thursday night we all went out for dinner and while I searched for a good way to break the final news to my Dad, he said ‘so March Break is coming up, I guess you’ll have to go back to work soon’. “Actually no.” ‘Oh, so you are staying off until August?” ‘Yup, got it all cleared through work.’ And that was the end of it. No arguing, no yelling, no ‘you can’t possibly afford to stay home’. It was sweet. So one less thing for me to worry about. Yay! Now I’ll just have to think of something else…

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Imagine

kasper — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:59:22 +0000

Tuesday was baby D’s last baby sign language class. It was kind of sad since he has been around the same babies for 2 months and won’t see them anymore, but maybe if I put him in the next session we’ll see some of them again. Hubby laughed at me when I showed him baby D’s diploma from the class. He said ‘yeah you did really well in the class, but I don’t see him having learned much’. It’s true. I think I have a range of 50-60 words that I can sign and baby D’s maybe signed 1. Oh well, we’ll just keep plugging away and eventually I’m sure I’ll be thrilled that we persevered.

Yesterday after my parenting group, I stopped by work to talk about my intentions of extending my maternity leave. Hubby and I have decided that I will stay off until the beginning of July, work the 2 weeks before the summer while he takes holidays and stays home with baby D. Then I go back full time in August and we (unfortunately) find daycare for the little guy. This way I still have some money coming in and I don’t have to worry about care. It was a nice visit strangely enough. I ended up staying for like 2Â½ hours which is unusual since I usually don’t like being there very long. There may be a bit of a bonus for me – if I’m lucky. Lyn (Office Administrator – my immediate boss) wondered if I would be getting vacation pay and when, so my principal got on the phone and called around for me and ended up leaving a message for someone to get back to me. I got that call last night and it sounds like I’ve got 29 vacation days left and that I could use them, BUT (you knew there was a snag coming right?) that it would be up to the principal’s discretion because for me to use them he would need to pay my replacement out of the school budget instead of the board paying. Doug (principal) and I are fairly close, but I really don’t know if he’d be willing to do this for me. I think hubby and I are going to go in on Monday and talk it out and see if there’s any way of having that bit of extra money come in. It would be SO great if we could, but I’m trying not to rely on it. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I’ll leave you with my newest obsession. For those of you who don’t watch American Idol, this is 17-year-old David Archuleta’s version of Imagine by John Lennon. I wasn’t sure about it at first, but the more I hear it the more I love it. Enjoy.

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I see dead people

kasper — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 03:24:32 +0000

Something has gotten into baby D since yesterday. He’s just not himself. Who knows, maybe he’s finally getting a tooth. First of all this is generally a happy kid. He really doesn’t cry unless there is a real reason. So yesterday I got him up from his afternoon nap and he was wet right through his sleeper. I changed him and put him on the floor with some soft blocks and started pulling the sheets off his bed. I kept an eye on him and noticed that he kept turning around to look out into the hall. Since he had toys with him and there was no one home except the two of us this seemed strange. I found it a bit creepy actually. I’m not totally sure why. Maybe because hubby has commented a few times that he thinks that the place is haunted and that baby D can see ghosts. I always say that he’s full of crap and I really don’t believe it, but to see my son continue to check the empty hallway gave me a funny feeling. Then when my back was turned he started to cry. My first thought was that he had fallen over, but when I turned around he was still sitting exactly where he was surrounded by the same soft toys. The crying didn’t make any sense to me. I gave him my undivided attention after that and then he was fine for the rest of the day.

Today the strangeness continued. He was fine all morning though he didn’t nap more than 10 minutes. So when we got home from my “Bringing Up Boys” group and a quick visit to my work, we played for a bit. Then according to our usual schedule I gave him his bottle and went to put him down for his afternoon nap. He gave his usual tired cues, but when I put him in his crib he cried and didn’t settle down. Instead of being flat on his belly like he usually is in bed, he was up on all fours. I got him up, cuddled him and rocked him for a bit and as he started to drift off I tried to set him back in his crib. He was not having it and wailed. I still had to eat something as I hadn’t eaten all day and get the laundry out of the dryer from last night, so I put baby D in his exersaucer which is usually a big hit. Nope, not today. Again he cried like crazy. I popped him in the hip carrier I just bought (but will be returning because all his weight is supported by a strap that pulls against my neck) and brought him along as I grabbed a quick bite to eat. He kept cuing that he was tired so after I finished eating once again I took him upstairs to put him to bed, but I got as far as the door to his room and he started to whine. So strange. At this point I gave up and took him into the family room where I cuddled him until he finally fell asleep. Even then he woke up about 4 times crying but did settle down fairly quickly and drifted back off to sleep. I know everyone has their off days and I’m probably reading into his behaviour, but it’s still unnerving.

As mentioned, I went in to work this morning. I know it’s exams right now, so that’s always a perfect time to visit since there are no kids around. Don’t get me wrong, I love them and everything, but I get swamped when I go in and since I just wanted a quick visit no kids was easier. It’s so weird being back there. It’s like another lifetime ago that was my home away from home. So I chatted a bit and people fawned over baby D before going in to see my Principal. That was the main reason for going. I wanted to see what my options were for extending my leave. I have since discovered that my unemployment can definitely not be extended. Great. Even better? Little to no chance of using some of my sick days (I have like 200) to cover from the end of my maternity leave until I return in August like I had hoped. I’m so totally running out of options. I feel like I need to stay home. I REALLY want to be a stay-at-home-mom, but that will probably never be an option. August will be hard enough to leave baby D, but I’m definitely not prepared to do it now with my mental state and lack of daycare. I am able to extend my leave for up to 2 years, but with no pay. I don’t think that will be feasible. Hubby even suggested that he could take the unpaid leave and I go back to work since I make more. The problem with this is that he has a company vehicle to get him to work everyday but we have no car (I borrow my Dad’s when I need to), so I’d have to get a car immediately. I hate thinking about all this stuff it totally stresses me out and makes me crazy!!!

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