Pregnancy & Motherhood Forum

by **Answered_Prayers** » Thu Jul 12, 2012 8:13 am

jjgirl- Congrats on expecting your baby boy. How long are you going to be off for Mat leave?

by **jjgirl** » Thu Jul 12, 2012 10:55 am

I get mat leave for a year but I am probably not going to go back to work for about 5+ years, if at all. If i get bored (haha) I may try doing something at home....

How much time do you get?

by **Answered_Prayers** » Thu Jul 12, 2012 11:27 am

I get 6 months off. That is how much leave I have saved.

by **jleroux30** » Thu Jul 12, 2012 11:32 am

I'll probably take between 4 and 5 months, myself. I am a nanny, watching one little girl now. But she will have a brother or sister born just after mine, so then I'll bring my own, watch the new baby, and take care of the 3 year old when she's not at preschool. So, I'll return to work, when my boss is done with her maternity leave. She took 5 months with little G. I expect it will be similar this time too.
My DH plans to take 2 months too- which will be great!

by **jjgirl** » Fri Jul 13, 2012 8:39 am

Jleroux - that is cool that your DH gets to have time with you! My hubby will take 2 weeks about but he gets 3 weeks at christmas which will be straight away almost after Alex is born. He then gets 2 - 3 months off in the spring for spring break up, his sacrifice is having to work away from home for 4-7 days at a time.

Answered - where do you live that you have to save leave? I am sorry to hear that. Canada has a good maternity and parental leave program through employment insurance. We will try to have another child soon after Alex but I wont get insurance for that leave...ahhh well.

by **Answered_Prayers** » Fri Jul 13, 2012 8:58 am

JJgirl- I am glad your DH gets to spend sometime off with the baby.

I live in United States. I work for the Government, so I have to save my leave inorder to have off. It took me 4 years to save 6 months worth of leave. The most you can take off where I work for Mat leave, is 6 months. It wouldn't matter if I had a year worth of leave, I can only take off 6 months.

by **jjgirl** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 12:28 pm

Answered - sorry to hear that but from what i understand, it is better than that what the average american gets?

How is everyone doing?

by **Kryssy** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 1:29 pm

Sorry to be MIA we have been camping and are going out again this weekend. DH wants to get in as much as we can before I say no lol.
Welcome to everyone who joined us.
In Canada our mat leaves are all different but then the gov't will give you a year off on unemployment with a guarantee of your job still being there.

Jjgirl congrats on your little man! I have one right now and I am currently excepting another. They are so amazing!!

Answered - I am not writing a birth plan. I am just going to go with the flow. Last time everyone asked before hand if I wanted an epi or anything I said not right now. I want to try without and they never brought it up again. I know from last time things change fast, and sometimes you don't really get the birth that you dreamed of but in the end as long as the baby and I are alive it was a success! I am a very laid back person. Plus my labour was only 5 hours. I only pushed for 28 minutes. So this time I am expecting the same or less.

by **jleroux30** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 6:54 pm

Wow Kryssy, that first labor sounds like a dream. I can only hope mine will be that fast! I'm glad that you are open to whatever happens. So many of my friends have been really upset by not getting exactly what they had planned on in their birth plans.

jjgirl, its not so much that DH "gets" to have time off with us when the baby comes, its just that he's going to take it. His company won't give him more than a week paid. But, we'll go without his check for a few extra weeks. We've been saving for this "rainy day" situation!

I've been feeling quite a bit better since I hit 10 weeks. I'm still queasy from time to time, but its not quite as intense...which is nice! I go tomorrow for my second appointment. I'll see my OB for the last time before I switch to seeing only the midwives in the office. I always get really nervous before my appointments and tonight is no different. I'm hoping that they will find the baby on the doppler. My uterus tilts back, so its been hiding my last couple of appointments. (I've been in to see various dr./midwives/specialists already...here's hoping this will turn into a regular pregnancy really soon!)

by **jjgirl** » Wed Jul 18, 2012 6:59 am

Kryssy- I wish i could get out camping, but it does not look like it with DH's schedule. He works in the oilfield and his schedule isnt regular enough right now. Where do you go camping? We now live in Manitoba so I was hoping to get out and experience what Manitoba. I am used to camping in BC or Kananaskis which are beautiful and hiking / snowboarding in Banff, when I lived in Calgary.

I am really looking forward to meeting this little guy!! I am so in love

I have only 1 strong requirement on my birthplan which is that i breastfeed exclusively, no exceptions. Other than that, I am just going to go with the flow and see what happens. I have preferences but whatever, i just want us to get out of there healthy!

Jleroux - Yay for rainy day funds

I am glad that you guys get the opportunity!

I was pretty queasy and ridiculously exhausted until about 14 weeks and am on and off exhausted still but definitely did a major turn around this trimester. I am wondering what the 3rd has for me. I just keep getting rounder and rounder and everything is becoming difficult (3 months left ieee)....I do a bunch of walking and some swimming although i could do better with the exercising for sure...

KUP on your appointment!

by **Kryssy** » Wed Jul 18, 2012 8:28 am

Jjgirl DH works in the oil field as well. His shift is 8 days on and then 6 days off. He took this shift off so it worked out that he has 20 dys off in a row!! Lots of camping lol We re in northern Albberta so this year we re staying up here. Usually we are all over AB and BC.

I am very pro breast feeding, only for me thought everyone else can do what hey feel is best, with DS having a tongue tie so bad he couldn't latch or suck so it took a while. I was expressing and then spoon feeding. It was so stressful!

Jleroux30 I am very type A so it took a lot of preparing but I just kept telling myself that as long as he lived it was fine however he got here. The doctor kept calling NICU so that kept focussing me on what was important. That and a friend had just lost her baby at 39 weeks due to a cord accident. It really put things in perspective for me.

by **jjgirl** » Wed Jul 18, 2012 8:39 am

Kryssy - I love that he works in the oilfield with all the extra time off he does end up getting. His schedule is supposed to be 2 wells on and 1 well off...the time period for each well is different depending on the type of well they do. The last few wells he has had 7 days on and 2 days off...he is off this week which is nice but i have to work (boo).

If he is incapable of breastfeeding then i guess i dont have much of a choice hey, so i guess that would be the exception.

It truly frightens me to hear about people losing their babies so late...these things start worrying me now. I thought my worrying would cease after the first trimester but so much for that. This is my first baby so I really hope everything goes well. So far so good!

So you are getting pretty close eh!

by **thirdtimesacharm** » Fri Jul 20, 2012 5:58 am

Sorry I've been MIA I've been on vacation. Glad to hear everyone is doing so good! Time is flying by.

I am jealous about the maternity leave you guys are all getting! I have 4 weeks and that's actually the most maternity leave I've ever had!

My level 2 sono is on Wednesday. I'm looking forward to it but I'm team green so I'm hoping I won't find out what we are having. I'm REALLY looking forward to that movie scene moment where the baby pops out and they announce....it's a ______!!!

Hope everyone is doing great this week!

by **jleroux30** » Thu Jul 26, 2012 11:37 am

Thirdtimes...We are team green too, and we are really looking forward to finding out the sex after the hard work of delivery. I'd love it if my DH could be the one to tell me what we wind up with!

I've got my NT scan tomorrow- I'm nervous (I'm often nervous leading up to an appointment) but really excited. If all goes well we are going to tell everyone about the baby! It will be nice to have it out in the open. I've knit up a pair of booties and we took a photo this weekend of them on the beach with our bare feet. I'll doctor the photo up with some text. I'm thinking, "It may be summertime now, but come February, we'll have two tiny new feet to keep warm!"

by **jjgirl** » Thu Jul 26, 2012 2:02 pm

jleroux - Good luck with your appointment...KUP .... that photo sounds cuuuuute!!

Not much happenin' here for now, and gotta run but i hope you all are staying cool and lovin' your pregnancies!!