Pregnacy Check in for April 6

[karlamo]

Good Morning! 
I thought I'd jump in and start the thread today.  If anyone wants to take the lead on starting it each week, great!  Otherwise maybe whoever is up for it can start it up. 
Sound ok?


Pregnancy
@twoatlmoms- April 20
megd893- June 22
birdsofafeather- July 27
rosieelk- August 2
jgy- August 21
karlamo- August 28
healz413 & manada- September 8
officerofthelaw- November 11
PiradicalMaid- November 22
ionaerebor- November 23
kevinandjesse-??
calsurb- ??
leftitblank- ??

QOTW:  What are your childcare plans post baby?  Will you be a SAHP or going back to work? If you are working, who will be watching LO?

[megd893]

Thanks for starting karlamo

29 weeks pregnant today, FTM, little man on the way

I'm the breadwinner by far in our marriage, so we're still working out the details. Technically I'm allowed a full year of maternity leave here, or K and I can split it (she can take parental leave). I know I'm taking 3 weeks "off" fully once he's here and then my plan is to work from home. K is trying to get 'work from home' time as well so neither of us is on leave. However, if her boss won't be flexible, she'll likely take her full 17 week allowance at full pay as our "mat leave".
Everyone keeps telling us we'll need more... so we're trying to stay open to whatever we an to allow ourselves some flexibility.

Ps - being second on this list is crazy!

[healz413]

manada and I are 17w6d. We passed our first milestone, which was 17w2d. That was the day bleeding started last summer with our pregnancy with Tavin and Casey.
Anxiety has been higher for both of us these last few days. I would be happy to have the next 6 weeks go by quickly so that we can be passed minimum viability and passed our loss milestone which is three weeks from tomorrow.

We have our anatomy scan a week from tomorrow. That's our next big milestone I guess.

QOTW: I will be home for the first 6 months or so and Amanda for the second 6 months or so (plus at least two weeks at the very beginning). Then we will be doing daycare most likely at a daycare center.

[healz413]

Apr 6, 2015 9:01:53 GMT -5 megd893 said:

Thanks for starting karlamo

29 weeks pregnant today, FTM, little man on the way

I'm the breadwinner by far in our marriage, so we're still working out the details. Technically I'm allowed a full year of maternity leave here, or K and I can split it (she can take parental leave). I know I'm taking 3 weeks "off" fully once he's here and then my plan is to work from home. K is trying to get 'work from home' time as well so neither of us is on leave. However, if her boss won't be flexible, she'll likely take her full 17 week allowance at full pay as our "mat leave".
Everyone keeps telling us we'll need more... so we're trying to stay open to whatever we an to allow ourselves some flexibility.

Ps - being second on this list is crazy!

Out of curiosity, why would K rather work from home than take a topped up 17 weeks?
Also, do you get any top up from your work?

My work will top me up for up to a year but manada's will give her only 4 weeks topped up. So we are saving so that we can top her up for an additional 5 months and then I will take only 6 months of leave so that she can be eligible for the other part.

(For those who don't know Canada-- a person who gives birth can get 15 weeks of employment insurance for pregnancy leave and then any full-time employed parent can get up to 35 weeks of parental leave--in addition to pregnancy leave--through employment insurance. But you can't both get 35 weeks; you have to split it if you're both staying home. Employment insurance pays up to 55% of your income and some employers top that up to 90-100%.)

[megd893]

healz413 With K's job, she wants the promotions/advancements so she doesn't want to take off or have them replace her. If she can sell her value to her boss, and be able to work from home, then she doesn't leave her team and is still of value.
This way as well, she keeps full salary and we both have tons of flexibility to be with him all year.

[RM80]

Apr 6, 2015 10:38:25 GMT -5 healz413 said:

(For those who don't know Canada-- a person who gives birth can get 15 weeks of employment insurance for pregnancy leave and then any full-time employed parent can get up to 35 weeks of parental leave--in addition to pregnancy leave--through employment insurance. But you can't both get 35 weeks; you have to split it if you're both staying home. Employment insurance pays up to 55% of your income and some employers top that up to 90-100%.)

**sneaking in, sorry..**

Um, I want to move to Canada even more now!

[PiradicalMaid]

7 weeks, 1 day with C&B's baby.

I'm getting all antsy about how far away our first u/s is. Intellectually, I understand that there is no medical need for an u/s, but I'm not sure I'll be fully convinced this is happening until that happens. Our first appointment is tomorrow, but that will just be blood work and paperwork. We should at least be able to schedule out 1st tri screening at that point, though.

This week we'll also probably be choosing our birth center. We tour one tomorrow and another on Friday. I can't wait to have that all figured out! I'm excited to be doing an OOH birth this time around. Next time (when it's SO's and my babe), I'd like to birth at home, but the dads preferred a birth center for this time around.

QOTW: I won't be a caretaker for this baby Next time around, though, I'm planning to be the primary caregiver for the first couple of years. I'm (mostly) self-employed, so I'll probably do some work in that time, but it will be on my own terms and hopefully will mostly fit around SO's schedule. Last time, I had an opportunity to switch to full time work earlier than I had planned and while that was a good job for me, we ended up putting LO in daycare before anyone was fully ready for that. i'd like to avoid that next time.

[megd893]

Apr 6, 2015 10:32:41 GMT -5 healz413 said:

manada and I are 17w6d. We passed our first milestone, which was 17w2d. That was the day bleeding started last summer with our pregnancy with Tavin and Casey.
Anxiety has been higher for both of us these last few days. I would be happy to have the next 6 weeks go by quickly so that we can be passed minimum viability and passed our loss milestone which is three weeks from tomorrow.

We have our anatomy scan a week from tomorrow. That's our next big milestone I guess.

QOTW: I will be home for the first 6 months or so and Amanda for the second 6 months or so (plus at least two weeks at the very beginning). Then we will be doing daycare most likely at a daycare center.

Congratulations on passing your milestone to both you and manada
I could imagine a part of the day was bittersweet, but only positive things from here on forward.  *big hugs*

[ionaerebor]

healz413 and manada, Congratulations on passing your milestone!

I'm seven weeks pregnant today! And I'm feeling shitty. I managed not to be sick all weekend with both of our families around, but as soon as we got home this afternoon, I starting throwing up. We also told the family who were there that I was pregnant; they largely supportive; though A did get a few awkward questions about how she felt about not being biologically related to the little one, and not carrying either, but she took them in her stride so overall it went well. I still feel like it was awfully early though.

QOTW: We have pretty amazing parental leave and pay here in Sweden. I'm taking a full year off, most of which will be paid at 80% of my pay. Then A is also going to be taking 18 weeks of leave starting at the same time as me, and she also gets paid 80%. After the first year, I'm going to go back to work full time, so LO will go to dagis (our version of daycare) full time as well, at the Finnish-Swedish School.

[wittyandwaiting]

(I know I don't go here.....yet...but I wanted to say yay! to healz413 and manada for passing that milestone.)

[officerofthelaw]

We are 8w5d today. We have a sonogram tomorrow and as long as everything looks great we will get released from the fertility clinic and will get to start seeing a GYNO. We have our first OBGYN appointment at the end of the month, so everything is rolling right along for us. We talked to our 2nd parent adoption attorney today and she felt bad about the amount we had to pay out of pocket for all of the fertility treatments and lowered our adoption cost to $1200.00 and that's it. She is amazing, it feels so good to know that our baby will be protected. Today has been a great day.

QOTW: What are your childcare plans post baby? Will you be a SAHP or going back to work? If you are working, who will be watching LO?
Kris will be a stay at home mom so we will not be having any childcare costs.

Here is our updated appt. info....baby is measuring 1 day ahead.  On the sonogram the baby is mooning everyone:)  we got the back side.  We did get a 3d ultrasound too which was pretty cool.  Just in two weeks this baby has grown so much!

[rosieelk]

I am 23 weeks and two days pregnant today.

I feel pretty good. The baby has been moving around a hell of a lot recently, which it only started doing a couple of weeks ago. It makes me so happy when I'm sitting at work or somewhere, and baby moves, I can't really explain it. Other than that, there's not a lot going on. We did managed to finish painting the nursery on Monday though. I feel like we are finally starting to get ready.

QOTW: My maternity leave starts six weeks before the due date, and then continues until 8 weeks after I've given birth. I'm going to take another four months off afterwards too, and then I'll go back to work full time. My wife plans on being a stay at home mum for at least the first two years, possibly the first three.

[karlamo]

Checking in late.

Yesterday was our anatomy scan. We are relieved to say it went great! Baby is measurig in the 73% and was a little dolly. We need to have another u/s done in 4 weeks so they can get pictures and measurments of the spine and kidneys. They saw them but baby was not in the right position to take any measurements. My cervix is measuring at 4.7 which is verrrrry long. My MW said she thinks it's the longest one she's seen thus far.

It was fun to see baby Moka's profile picture compared to Rudy's. They both share the same puffy upper lip. We're excited to see what other features they have in common.

We are closing in on 20 weeks on Thursday. We need to start getting the nursery in order and plan on starting it after we get back from our Memorial day vacation.

[karlamo]

healz413, Keep on checking off those milestone markers!


Oh, and I always forget the QOTW.

So I feel like I get the best of both worlds. I work 3 days a week and am home with R and soon to be new baby 2 days a week. My wife works from home on Fridays and has a mothers helper come to watch R. R is only in daycare 2 days a week which is perfect for him. He gets to interact with other adults and kids and then he gets time with his moms the rest of the week.
This schedule works really well for us. I love my career and wouldn't want to leave it and I love being home with R too.

[kevinandjesse]

Thanks karlamo, for posting!!! And Congrats all on your milestones!!!

Nothing too new on this front at the moment. Our surrogate is still feeling good and, so far, has felt like she's had a pretty smooth pregnancy. She's happy, so we're happy

We are 25w+2days - EDD 07/19/15 - time is going so fast and so slow at the same time. I'm getting so excited to meet our LO!

QOTW: What are your childcare plans post baby? Will you be a SAHP or going back to work? If you are working, who will be watching LO?

- Since DH is an underpaid daycare teacher, financially it makes sense for DH to stay home with LO. He is looking for a PT job a few days a week. As my grandfather used to say, we'll be pinching a nickel so hard the buffalo shits - but I think we can make it work. I'll be taking parental leave for 3 weeks then spending 2 more weeks PT. That is going to be so sooooo hard. But I suppose keeping a roof over our heads and food in our tummies is pretty important. le sigh

[karlamo]

Apr 7, 2015 10:20:45 GMT -5 kevinandjesse said:

Thanks karlamo, for posting!!! And Congrats all on your milestones!!!

Nothing too new on this front at the moment. Our surrogate is still feeling good and, so far, has felt like she's had a pretty smooth pregnancy. She's happy, so we're happy

We are 25w+2days - EDD 07/19/15 - time is going so fast and so slow at the same time. I'm getting so excited to meet our LO!

QOTW: What are your childcare plans post baby? Will you be a SAHP or going back to work? If you are working, who will be watching LO?

- Since DH is an underpaid daycare teacher, financially it makes sense for DH to stay home with LO. He is looking for a PT job a few days a week. As my grandfather used to say, we'll be pinching a nickel so hard the buffalo shits - but I think we can make it work. I'll be taking parental leave for 3 weeks then spending 2 more weeks PT. That is going to be so sooooo hard. But I suppose keeping a roof over our heads and food in our tummies is pretty important. le sigh

Preach on! I've been saying this since day one, well technically week 4, lol.

[jgy]

Sorry I haven't been around much. I'll try to be better about that, but work is getting crazy for me.

healz413 and manada congrats on the major milestone. I am so beyond excited for you two. I'm also really glad you have your anatomy scan coming up and hope it only serves to reassure your confidence in Rocky 3!!

I'm at 20w4d and all seems fine. I'm the lucky winner of a second anterior placenta (had the same with Gabe), so I haven't really been feeling much yet. It's disappointing since that's my favorite part of pregnancy, and I also find it really reassuring to feel the babe moving around in there.

So far I've only had 1 prenatal visit, and since my new MW group spaces them out every 6 weeks through the second tri, my next one isn't until a week from Friday. It feels like forever. But I'm trying to focus on the fact that everything seems good, the heartbeat sounds fine via home doppler, my weight gain is under control, and I'm doing my best to take care of myself. That's all good stuff, right?

QOTW: S and I both work full time (S works WAY more than full time, but that's another topic), so Gabe is currently in a day care center that we love. This little one will also go there for a price of approximately 1 million dollars. We're happy with that decision, neither of us feels like we're particularly cut out to be stay at home parents, and Gabe really does thrive in that environment. Here's hoping Ricky the Sticky does the same!

Prior to daycare, I'll be taking 12 weeks of Maternity Leave. Disability only covers 4 weeks at 60%, so I'll use up all my PO to get paid for another 4 weeks and then have to take 4 weeks unpaid. There's no way I'd sacrifice that time with my kiddo, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't going to be rough financially. I've budgeted for it so we're living the stress now rather than during, but still ...