Midwife visit & maternity leave

Yay! The midwife came round today! Again, I'm pretty sure I recall much more prodding and poking first time round... and fewer tubes of blood!

The midwife was lovely though, she's new to our practice. And blond. So Jack LOVED her right away! He brought her all his best toys and books to look at, and tried to cover her in chocolate slobber from his Advent Calendar choccy (That's his way of saying "I like you!").

We went though my green notes, she talked me though the Bounty Pack (which is still mostly advertising), and then left with 1 tube of my pee and 4 of my blood! Ick! But everything seems to be normal from what we talked about. I have info on depression in pregnancy (well, it is that time of year *sigh*) and various grants and benefits we can claim once we're 20 weeks so it's all pretty useful! I also found out that Appletree down the hill have a drop in centre on a Wed afternoon where you can listen in to baby's heart beat (from 16 weeks) rather than book in with the surgery. Very handy! They also have parenting classes, and pregnancy Pilate's and all sorts of stuff! So come the New Year I'll be popping in and getting a list of what they have on offer!

I have my holiday and maternity sorted! I'm working this coming weekend, and then that's it until New Year! And.... I go on maternity AT THE END OF JAN! I really didn't think I'd get to come out so early, a few weeks ago I asked if I could finish when the Park closed for the season in mid Jan (all of 6 weeks) and the Boss didn't sound so sure. So I thought I'd be there until the start if the new season in March and said at a push I'd be willing to work up to Jack's birthday so long as I wasn't too big or too tired (trust me, that park is no place for a pregnant woman to be darting about). So when I went to see him yesterday and he said I can have the end of Jan I was delighted! I'm taking a year off, so Squiggle will be 7 months when I go back. And if funds do get tight I can ask to go back after 9 - 10 months and Squiggle wont be much different in age to what Jack was when I went back 1st time.

The only real worry is money. Work cannot offer me any mat pay (money is still a real worry in the company after the summer) so it's stat mat pay only, and what ever benefits we qualify for. We'll get by, and we don't need to buy much for baby. We still have all the cloth nappies and so on that we used for Jack, and I plan on breastfeeding again, so the first 6 months or so will be relatively cheap. Plus, if we have a boy we don't need to buy much in the way of clothing, and if we have a girl, we can dress up what we have with a few bits of girly stuff. Like... Jack's old jeans and a pink t-shirt, some of Jacks more generic tops and a skirt. Easy! Toys we have covering every last inch of the house! I'm thinking that by the time things start to get costly, I'll be going back to work! And with a bit of luck Mark will have found himself something too and we'll be laughing!

I'm really looking forward to getting away from the constant stress of the park, and being able to devote more time to Jack, not to mention help Mark get the house ready before I am too big to do anything (not like last time! I have NO intention of hanging wallpaper between contractions this time!). We'll have less money, but a huge amount of my money was going on fueling the car to get to work, and feeding myself while I was there. Much cheaper to eat at home where I can share a cooked meal with everyone else rather than buy in - especially - something I can take with me. Facilities are limited at the park if your just a cleaner! And it's too cold & wet for butties.

I'm actually starting to FEEL pregnant now, rather than just sick. Starting to count down the weeks! Weeee!