MSE Pregnancy Club 28

rubywhatashmoo

Pink Petal that is such a good idea with your OH having some extra time off once the baby is a bit older - it'll be a lovely way to end your maternity leave once you've got a routine going and she can interact a bit more with you

The nurseries I've looked at have all had prices listed on their website/leaflet things - there's not much variation apart from the one at my work is a bit cheaper but not practical to use unfortunately! It's a bit weird to not tell you upfront - maybe it's a location thing?!

Kynthia

PinkPetal take a look at a salary calculator to see what your take home pay would drop to if you went to 4 days a week. Due to the tax free allowance the amount of take home money you drop by is usually lower for your first day then subsequent days. Then see how much more than a day of childcare fees that day costs you and you find find you're okay with going to 4 days a week. Both OH and I were as it's so nice having that extra day.

Also I found nurseries very upfront with their fees. Around here they are about £50 a day but the more days a week the lower that might get in some places. I pay £60 a day for 2 days a week but I'm very happy with where we've chosen.

pink_petal

Only one of the nurseries I looked at had the price on their site! They were £40 a day but you have to provide your own lunch. The one I'm keen on is much closer to our house and they have their own in house chef who even helps the older kids to prepare snacks which sounds nice...but I'm guessing will bump the price up! But of course, they ignored me when I asked the price and just tried to get me to book in for a show round!

I looked at one in the next building to my work and figured there might be a city centre premium on it so emailed them to ask the price and again, they ignored it and sent me a glossy sales brochure!! For a nursery!! My cousin's daughter goes there so I spoke to him and he is £70 a day with no lunch provided so I think that one is out! There are cheaper ones run by the council but apparently they have 18 month waiting lists! Crazy!

psychopathbabble

Our local nursery is almost £60 per day some childminders are between £3.80 and £6... Obviously I would need to check if there was a reason for the differences in cost but I would have to look for one that was around £4 per hour otherwise it would be pointless going back to work.

The nursery I looked at listed fees but only once you had filled out a contact form!

Toots14

I'm due to go back on Catherine's first birthday so will go back the day after. That will be a year off but SMP will stop in February. I have 10 Keep In Touch days that I will use to get some money in between February and May.

I've decided in the nursery we are going to use. Gets great reviews and it's only £35 a day which seems a steal (it is the Scottish Highlands though).

Today we got our first proper laugh from her. It was heart melting. Whatever rubbish pregnancy puts you through the end result is so worth it :T

P.s congrats TP. Hope you and baby are well and settled at home now.

Beckyy

That's quite annoying. I wonder if they would tell you if you replied thanking them for the brochure and asking directly for the price list?

£70 with no lunch... do they use gold plated nappies? :eek:

ThinkPink

Thank you everyone.

So little Sebastian was born on his due date at 4am. It didn't go to plan and I never did get my water birth. But we are both well and that's what matters.

I won't go away into full details but here is my experience:

My waters went at 1am on Sunday morning. I took paracetamol and sat on the bath until 6 when contractions were regular and longer went to hospital who gave me painkillers and sent me home at 9am. By 11am pain was too much so we went back in. They had to get a consultant to do the checks as my waters had gone and I was dialated enough to be admitted, but due to a few issues had to go to the labour unit rather than mlu as they wanted to monitor baby

As labour progressed they started to have concerns for baby and myself so I'm guessing about 3am they decided to prep us for surgery and briefly tried forceps which was unsuccessful so ended up having an emergency c section.

I had a suspected blood infection so me and baby had to be treated on iv antibiotics but mine took a while to go down enough to go onto oral antibiotics. When I finally was able to my blood pressure was too high so we weren't allowed home until 1pm Saturday!! I was happy to go home as by then we had been there since 11am on the Sunday.

We are both doing fine now and oh is looking after us and is taking an extra week off so now has two weeks paternity and one weeks leave to help out.

We did tell a couple of people when I was on Labour but made it clear we would let them know when We had news. We also stuck to our decision about visitors and let people visit when we were ready and everyone stuck to that.

I tried breastfeeding but just wasn't up to it and he wouldn't latch and it was stressing me out so we went to formula, this also meant that oh was able to do the day feeds whilst I rested to do the night shift.

Overall Im glad my birth plan was flexible and I just went with the flow and followed advice from the midwife and discussed each step with my oh who was responsible for asking all the relevant questions.

I'm taking about 11 months maternity but will be off about 13 months as I will extend with annual leave. I then plan to put in a flexible working request to go down to 3 days a week. Your discussion above has prompted me though to look into nursery options as he will probably go there for a day and to family for the other two days.

I wish you all the best of luck with your labours and baby's and will be lurking on here for news.

euronorris

I'm glad you're recovering well thinkpink and receiving lots of support from your oh. C-section can really take it out of you, so rest is so important xx

Snacks for hospital bag - basic stuff for you, as meals will be provided for you (if you want them at the time - and haven't had an epidural). But I recommend packing things like pot noodles and those pasta things for your other halves. Anything you can just add hot water too. Especially if you have an induction for any reason. They wouldn't provide anything for oh during my induction, the restaurant wasn't open on the weekend, and closed at 4 during the week anyway, the hospital wasn't close to any restaurants or shops selling food and the vending machines only stocked crisps and chocolate - fine for a snack, but no good for 3 days straight. I ended up sneaking a few prices of fruit and the odd sandwich away for hubby, otherwise he would've been starving and not be able to support me as well as he did.

I know pot noodles etc aren't great, but far better than trying to survive on crisps and chocolate.

I'm going back full time on 12th December. Simply can't afford any longer on SMP. Hubby will be stay at home dad. If he went back to work, he'd only earn enough to cover nursery fees which seems pointless. Got 10 KIT days to take too. First couple of hours on Friday for a training course. I might be a bit of a wreck on Friday!

pink_petal

Beckyy wrote: »

That's quite annoying. I wonder if they would tell you if you replied thanking them for the brochure and asking directly for the price list?

£70 with no lunch... do they use gold plated nappies? :eek:

I know! My cousin actually said they are not 100% happy with the nursery either and have had to complain twice. It's just really convenient for them as they both start work really early and it's the only one around that opens from 7am.

Think Pink congratulations on baby Sebastian, what a lovely name! You are so right about the birth plan having to be flexible...so many people have said to me they've gone in saying 'I 100% want this'...but sometimes it's just not possible. You have to do what's best for you and baby at the time. I hope you'll still lurk here and keep us updated with how you're getting on!

PP x

Beckyy

Congratulations ThinkPink, glad to hear that you're both home. I hope you're recovering well from the c-section, the important thing is that you're both well and healthy.