12-24 weeks pregnant (part 3)

Pington

Ooh my next midwife appointment isn't until I'm 26 weeks. Might she have already given me my MATB1 and i've forgotten?!

Aunty-Pickle

so, re MATB1 forms, I'm seeing midwife at 22weeks and she said she would give it to me then. It all seems rather rushed that you get them "around 20 weeks" (very vague) and you're supposed to hand them into work by 25 weeks (i.e. by the 15th week before baby's birth).

Anyway, the latest confusion we are having is over the new baby car seat guidelines which come into effect from 2016.
[see http://www.parentdish.co.uk/baby/child-car-seat-confusion-guide-to-the-new-regulations-and-products/]
The most relevant bit seems to be:

When the new regulations, called i-Size come fully into force, parents will have to keep their baby in a rear-facing seat until they are 15 months. The move will be based on a baby's length/child's height not weight.

so the new "i-Size" seats will all have Isofix fixings which raises another point. Isofix only started becoming standard in cars from 2006 which means if your car is over 10 years old you might not be able to comply anyway! So you'll have to replace your whole car just so you have a legal baby car seat?!! (Our Passat is just over 10 years old - typical!)

Maybe not so relevant for this baby - not sure how stringent they will be about the 15 month thing as that will definitely be in 2016. However, something to consider for any potential future siblings. Your car will have to have isofix fixings to use these new seats from 2018.

jediquigley

Princess_kate wrote: »

Missy- I think, well this is how it is with my employer, you have to hand in your MATB1 form by the 25th week of your pregnancy & at that point state how long you intend to be off and when you'd finish, these dates are changeable due to circumstances however.

My community midwife in the GP said she's aware of this & as I wouldn't see her until I was 25 weeks, although it will be 24 due to christmas, she'll sign it & leave it for me to collect from my surgery after I've had my 20 week scan, just need to call the surgery & leave a message for her & she will arrange it.

Re the mat b form, for me i had to inform my employer when I was going on mat leave but I did not have to say when I would be back. I think I have to give a month or twos notice as to when I will return from mat leave. I work in the nhs so not sure if it's different for different people.

I had a year off with my first child and hope to with this one but money will be tighter this time as my mat pay will be based on my part time pay rather than my full time pay like last time.

I don't remember being this tired with my first pregnancy although I didn't have a two year old to look after which takes a lot out of you.

Re names we chose 2 boys names and 2 girls names and didn't tell anyone them as people can easily put you off them. I remember my mother in law saying a list of the names she didn't like and Scarlett was one of them, this was one of my girls names and it made me feel uncomfortable, I didn't tell her it was one of our names though and we had a boy in the end.

Princess_kate

I work for the nhs also & on the form colleagues have filled in you are asked to give an indication of how long you'd be off for. I think I'd take the 9 months which are paid & than add most of my years leave on to the end, around 6 weeks rob ably so I've still got a bit incase I need it before I get my next allocation. Anyone who does work for the NHS it is apparently possible to have your maternity pay averaged over 9 months rather than dropping down to just SMP over the 9 months. May help to plan money wise!

Aunty-Pickle

*** DO NOT DELETE - To update this list, quote the post and remove the quote boxes ***

Pington - Twins 8th March (expected 14th Feb) - 20 week scan 20th October
Bubblepops - 21st March- 20 week scan 3rd November
Carrot34 – Twins 25th March - scan 10th November
Always_alone – 27th March - scan 10th November
Tilly_dreams – 28th March – 20 week scan 17th November
Danielley – 1st April - 20 week scan 12th November
x_missymoo_x - 7th April
Princess Kate - 8th April - 20 week scan 18th November
Millysg1 - 8th April - 20 week scan 24th November
Trixsie1989 - 14th April - 20 week scan 28th November
Aunty-Pickle - 15th April - 20 week scan 26th November
Phoenix01 - 25th April - scan first week December
Angelmommy - 6th May
Bezzyk - 7th May
Jediquigley - 8th may - 20 week scan 17th December
Janed9388 - 17th May - 20 week scan 29th December

WHEN YOU SEE THIS POST DO YOUR PELVIC FLOOR EXERCISES!!!

Aunty-Pickle

Princess Kate - thanks for the tip on using Annual Leave to effectively increase time off for maternity leave - I had forgotten that gets accrued!!! (hooray! :j) Haven't completely worked out finances yet - ideally I would like to be off for as long as possible but don't know how that would work out logistically/financially.

Tilly - whoop for shopping for bits and pieces!!! As we're probably staying Team Yellow we aren't buying anything blue/pink. My SIL had a baby girl in August and they were team yellow so she has given me all their newborn/0-3 months stuff :T
Re: names - we have a few choices lined up. In fact, we have two boys and two girls because at one stage it was thought I might be carrying twins!!! Just not finalised the middle names yet but that's ok! We aren't telling anyone our choices (not even my best friend ) because we don't want opinions!

Missymoo - that card is lovely! I had a look at Clintons online but it doesn't seem to be there

Pington - hope your scan goes really well today. How's your dad? Did they make it to yours in the end?

AFM I am slightly freaking out at the fact that I have a bump :rotfl:
I guess there must be an actual growing baby in there!!!! It's starting to feel real now which is just rather weird!

Pington

Scan went well thank you! T2 kept covering her face but we managed to get some pretty clear shots of them both individually. They weren't cooperating to have a picture taken together though because they kept moving too far apart when the sonographer tried.

My parents didn't make it due to my Dad's bad back but I've sent them all the photos and am going to send them a copy of the DVD so they will see everything we saw :-)

I guess I need to be moving up to the next thread now. Nooo that's a scary place!

Princess_kate

Aunty - I accru bank holidays too so I get 41 days leave in a year & as I'll be going off just before my new allocation, I'll have it all to add on to the end theoretically, will need to check Easter dates 2016 incase it falls at the end of March to keep leave for that.

Pington - So glad your scan went well & at lease you have a DVD to show your parents. Next board already, this is flying by, that's the scary one, people have babies on that one!

As for me, I'm feeling much better today, was having a lot of tummy/bump discomfort but I think, sorry for TMI, I've been a bit bunged up & suffering with trapped wind too, blimey that hurts!

Got a bit of christmas shopping today, want to look out for a card similar to the one you got missy, otherwise I'll use moon pig or funky pigeon to make my own! How lovely & exciting. Leaving things like that until after tuesday & my 20 weeks scan, can't believe we're nearly halfway already!

x_missymoo_x

Lovely news for your scan Pington, and good luck in the other thread! Hopefully we shall be seeing you there soon

As for me, I've been feeling a bit deflated with all this maternity leave talk. I've sat down (for an hour and a half!! Maths isn't my strong point ) to try and work out how much leave I can afford to take and I'm thinking it's not going to be as long as I'd hoped I really don't think we will be able to live off SMP alone for very long. I had originally planned to go back after the Oct half term when baby will be around 6 months and start mat leave on the first day of the Summer term after Easter (after my EDD but it means I would get the two weeks of Easter hols at full pay instead of being taken out of mat leave), however my due date is so close to the start of the Easter holidays that I don't know if I will last that far! If I could though, that would mean we have to live off SMP for 8 weeks, which would be tough but if we budget and save before hand we could do it.

If I have to start maternity leave before Easter though, for me to come back at the end of October I would be on SMP for 13/14 weeks which I think would be too much of a struggle. I'm sure we could do it, but we would have to be very careful with money and budget very well. To reduce this worry, if I were to come back at the start of term in September I would only be on SMP for 5 weeks, but then I'll be having less time with baby who will be 5 months, which just seems to early to leave them!

I'm hoping to go back part-time so potentially it won't be so bad if this is granted, but it's just such a pain as I have been thinking all along that I'll come back in Oct/Nov. That is still so much earlier than what I would like to, but we most definitely can't afford to live off one wage alone if I were to take the additional time unpaid.

Two other members of staff came back to work around 5 months after having their babies, one at full time and the other now part time. I had always thought that this was too soon but now I can see why they had to. I'm now so jealous of all of you who can add on annual leave etc to extend your maternity leave and have more time with your beautiful babies

Princess_kate

Aw missy, it is so hard, the maternity package is about the only good thing about working for the NHS at the moment. My SIL is a teacher & had the same struggles as you. I know she went back for the last week of the summer term to be paid for the summer holidays & then started back full time in september. Could you go back for the week before oct half term & then you'd be getting paid for half term & then return the next week part time?

It is a struggle especially if worrying about SMP, I'm lucky that I get 6 months before I go onto SMP alone but it will still be a struggle as I earn much more than my husband.

Has anyone thought abut what hours they'd return doing and childcare yet? There are so many practical things to think about as well as the fun & exciting things!