The Official New Mom Thread Part 2

[Lisa loves Pooh]

lissawynn,

WTH??? Your FMLA counts against your retirement? That sucks, to put it bluntly.

You don't get 6 weeks of Short Term Disability? Sometimes I wonder how they expect anyone to go into teaching with some of the pay and benefits that are offered.

I know it didn't count when I worked either. When you are on disability or leave--your job is held, but we didn't accrue the corporate version of "tenure", additional sick leave, or additional vacation time. It was just a frozen time in space. 401K was not withdrawn from disability pay either (IIRC)--they only withdrew the appropriate taxes and insurance contribution if that is in your paycheck. It has been a while, so I don't remember that particular portion. At 65%...there wasn't much left in the check anyway.

 

[dizagain]

Hi! Quickie for me...DH left for Memphis and we'll be meeting him there on Friday. So after getting spoiled with him around all week, I'm on full kid duty!
I can hear Carson "talking" and it's progressing to "yelling" so I'm sure I only have a minute. The girls have helped so much today since we had a house showing and I hate to bug them again.

jill - What a great attitude you have to go with those three adorable kids!!!! Hope you're not dealing with chicken pox since DH hasn't had them!! And yes, the house is on the market and we've had several showings the last few days which is surprising with the holiday just ending.

diskim - Glad you survived your day - don't blame you a bit for skimping on the "busy work". Glad Aidan didn't get hurt wrestling with the puppy!

hillbeans - whew - you are brave. I'm sure my DH would love it if I got a Brazillian, but I just don't think I could do it! Hope you got rid of the cat hair!

disneyphd - hope the girls settled down to bed early for you! Have a great trip!!!!

robin - glad you and DH made up...I ALWAYS nag at DH and go beyond the point of reason and then I feel so bad when he starts being mean back. I'm so glad everyone was ok after the accident yesterday. Enjoy sending the boys off to school tomorrow....for once I'm thankful for the extra time the girls have off since DH is gone and they're so helpful!!

nucpharm - What great pictures! Beautiful family!

sl - hope you're feeling better and the Dr. can help!!!

BnB - welcome home! Hope the kitty litter cake turns out grossly yummy!! And I hear you on being able to finally say you're going to WDW next year...me too, just barely since we're going at Thanksgiving!!!! Hey...we can get the Unofficial Guide in October, right?

lissawynn - SO SORRY YOU'RE FEELING SO BAD!!! And that's ridiculous about your maternity leave issues....It's been a long time, but when I had Hayley in February, I took the remainder of the school year off and I know I still got small checks through the summer, so your district sounds NUTS!

glt - That was really nice of you to pick up your almost-ex. You are awesome!! How is everyone in your house feeling?

Well, the girls patiently tried to entertain Carson but he won't even go in his jumpy so that means he's DONE. SO, I need to go give him a bath and maybe a cat nap. Good night, everyone!!!

 

[Alice28]

I'm thrilled~ all my worrying might be for not?

FF & Z, lookie!

I just read this on Allears email:

Wilderness Lodge's Silver Creek Springs pool and hot tub will be closed January 29 through March 2.

Maybe the letter they sent was to all their guests booked for March? Who the heck knows, but I'm taking this as a good sign!

 

[lissawynn]

I am ready to go to bed. Thanks for the kind words from you all. To clarify about my job situation...I can use as many sick days as I have banked. To date I have 5 left. I used up what I had when Jimmy was born 2 years ago, and I had none left at the end of last year due to Jimmy and I being sick A LOT. If I had 100 days, I could take off until the rest of the year, but I'm not in that boat.
I will continue to get a paycheck while I'm on leave and through the rest of the year. They basically take our salaries and divide them by 185 (the # of days we're contracted to work). It "looks" as though we make a HUGE amount of $$$ every day, but we don't. My checks will have a nice chunk missing until the end of August when the new school year begins. I took about 6 weeks of unpaid leave with Jimmy and lost about $6,000. In addition to the hit I took in the pocket, I do not get credit for working those days w/o pay. If I have 50 days w/o pay when I retire, I have to teach those days or buy them back. I have no idea how that works or what it costs. I'll most likely just work for 1/2 of a school year and get my time that way.

I'll have to share today's drama with you all tomorrow. I am just too tired to get into it tonight.
Sorry for not responding to you all. You can bet I'll have lots of time to post once Annabel arrives.

Good night all!

 

[zalansky]

Robin - that is great news to end my crappy day! Thank GOD I didn't cancel our ressie at WLV! And I am with you, Connor goes back to school tomorrow and I am thrilled because we all need structure back in our days! I want my one on one time with Cameryn really badly.

Disphd - Enjoy your trip! May our weather in the sunshine state behave for you all!

nucpharm - you look GORGEOUS in your pics from Xmas! I love your shorter hair BTW. Thanks for sharing....oh and Matthews hair is adorable, don't cut it until the last possible nanosecond that you feel you have to. I love his curled up ends.

diz - have fun in Memphis this weekend.

Jill - I hope John doesn't have pox! And I hope the tests come back ok. I agree with everyone, you have such a fantastic outlook. Just when I get worried about Cameryn's teeth looking funky,,,,seeing your post reminds me that funny looking teeth are not so bad!

BNB - welcome back and glad you had a nice trip! Do you have any pics to share?

SL - hope your headache clears up by the time you read this.

And ladies, about this Brazlian Wax you speak of....I will tell you how I handle this. I went long ago to have my upper lip waxed and I will tell you, it was THICK. A friend had gone and had it done and said it didn't hurt, so I said sign me up. Well, that waxing of my lip ruined waxing any body parts on me forever. It was pain like no other...never again...and I can only imagine that pain in my "brazilian area". So back in my younger, more daring years I decided to try Nair "down there" even though they warn you not to. I was young, invincible and didn't care what happened to my Brazilian friend, because I was young and gutsy. Well, it did burn a tad, nothing bad....but ten minutes later I had my very own, pain free, brazilian wax thing going. I had forgotten all about that! I am going to have to try that again, maybe this weekend as DH's eyes lighting up as I tell him what I am typing - so it was good for his standards!

Ok, I am going to the dark side - All Ears Net - to spy on the refurishments.

I will also divulge we had a major scare today, my Dad was switched to another pain med (vicodin) which made him very sick and he did not look good. He made mention of just going to be with my mother (who died in 1998) I freaked as a daughter would and drove up there. He was much better by the time I got there and I am sure it was just a bad reaction to meds....but it is so difficult to put into words the things you feel and want to say when you feel like this is it - he could be dying! Such a rollercoaster of events. Todays happennings made me realize I am so not ready for my Dad to die. Oh I thought I was, but I so am not. I almost feel like the little girl I was trying to hold onto the Daddy he was. If that makes sense. But we're heading for the heavy stuff now....so thats what really sucks! Be prepared to read unintelligibble psychobabble from me in the coming weeks. Because I take my Ambien to sleep and start typing. You never know what you'll get.

Anyway off I go. For those of you with living parents, and even better, healthy living parents - do me a favor and just for today don't take them for granted. I never felt like I FULLY appreciated the things my parents did for me until I married and had kids of my own. Because now I see the struggles of life they face and still put me on a pedastal and were such wonderful parents to me. I never got to tell my mother that - but maybe if one of you feels sort of like I do - you can tell your parent those things. I pray I muster up the stregnth to tell my father these things before he dies. The day will come when all of our parents die, so enjoy them now and let them know you love them. There - that's my Anne Landers advice for the night, from someone who has been there.

 

[zalansky]

Meant to add - WELCOME LISA LOVES POOH!!!

 

[gottalovethem]

Oh Loretta, I am so sorry you have to go through all of this. I am so NOT ready to deal with that so I can't even imagine the pain you are going through. And you are right, those of us with healthy parents do need to be thankful. I hope you got some sleep.

Nucpharm - You look radiant in your photo! Love it. And wow, all those presents, the kids must have been thrilled!

Lisa Loves Pooh - Hi!

Robin good news about the pool. Sorry about DH being irritating. That's got to be so frustrating.

Disneyphd - Have a great time on your trip! Just give your neighbors a head's up so they can watchout a bit more for your house. I'm sure it will be fine. I do things like that sometimes too.


Jill - Your attitude is wonderful and I hope your children catch it. You are fabulous I hope that all goes well with dr appts. I know you mentioned before about the flat head concern. I do hope and pray that all goes well and the children come through with a clean bill of health. Prayers and thoughts your way, and if you need anything, anything at all, please let me know. I can give you all the hugs and prayers you can take!!

I want to respond to more of you, but I must get some sleep. The kids have been waking multiple times each night and I am exhausted.

Love you DIS moms!!

 

[Ginamarie]

lissawynn- That’s really awful that your school has such stinky maternity policies. A good friend of mine works for a school district as a child therapist and had the same kind of problems (She lives in Kansas though).

Jill- I’m so sorry about John’s medical stuff.

Alice- I saw the same update in my allears email today and thought of you ladies. Maybe the pool will be fine after all.

BNB- Yeah, my mom said something similar about Olivia’s sleep habits being bad because her mouth hurts and she just wants the comfort of mommy and nursing.

Zalansky- I’m sending prayers and big hugs your way. You can psychobabble all you want at us (though I think what you wrote was beautiful and very true).


DH is really sick. He went to work today, but only did a normal shift (no OT) because he was feeling miserable and threw up at work. Last night and tonight he went to bed around 8 pm. I’m sick too, but with different symptoms. I won’t get into it (really TMI), but we’re both NOT happy. He stayed home on Monday since I was sick, and I think it just got him sick in the process. Now he’s stuck working all weekend to make up the hours.

Olivia came to work with me today and was a good little snuggly baby. She’s going to be with my mom tomorrow, grocery shopping and hanging out with my little brother, so I’m going to miss the snuggles. Oh, forgot to mention that we made it to Target on Sunday with our Christmas giftcard. The Christmas stuff was 75% off, but there wasn’t much left. I did get some wrapping paper for 50-75 cents though. We also got Olivia one of those little sister cabbage patch dolls, since she just LOVED the newborn one from my sister’s set. DH was giving me a hard time about spending money on the dolls, but they were on clearance, and once he saw how happy it made her he changed his tune. She’s so cute with her babydoll, which like most other things she calls “DAAA.”

OK, off to the bathroom again and then I’m going to try to get some sleep.

 

[Alice28]

Jill- I too admire your positive attitude about your kids~ you are amazing! I hope John's MRI goes fine.

Z- I could not imagine going throught the loss of a parent right now. It scares me to death. I am sorry you are having to do this, I really am. I will tell me parents how much they mean to me next time we're together. I know I will have a nervous breakdown when it's my mom's time to go....she's my best friend.

I'm glad the news about the pool was happy news for you!

GLT- I hope you get some uninterrupted sleep tonight.

Nuc- I agree- you look beautiful in your family photo! And Matthews curls are darling.

lissawynn- we had crappy maternity leave with my school district too. When I had Sam, I still got my checks, like you described. They added up all the days I was going to work that fiscal year, subtracted my leave days, and then divided the total days worked into 12 paychecks. So, I assumed they would do the same for Joshua. Nope, because I was going on maternity leave right before the start of the new fiscal year (July 1 and he was born June 28), I had no time that I had worked under my belt, so they said, "We can't pay you when you haven't worked at all yet this fiscal year- what if you don't come back?" They told me this the week I got put on bedrest, even though I had been inquiring about it for months. So, DH and I were SCRAMBLING cause that was 3 paychecks we weren't going to be getting! It sucked. I know in CA you get paid time off for maternity leave- kind of like workman's comp or unemployment, so I was floored when I moved to OR and found out the only paid time off I was getting was whatever sick time I had saved. Nice. I had to take 3 weeks off before Joshua was born, and he was barely 9 weeks when I went back. It sucked. Long story short, I feel your pain. DH went through the same thing of having to pay back his employers' contribution to his retirement when he was on leave in Iraq. Ugh.

Hi to Lisa Loves Pooh!

GM- I'm so sorry you & your DH are so ill. That's no fun. Glad Livvie likes her dolly!

Diz- hope you can manage things while your DH is gone! Glad the girls are there to help you out!

Hillary- Yowza on the TMI about the Brazilian...that's what I'm afraid of! I just don't know if it's worth it!

Well, I counted up all our change in our change jar and it's close to $100. Sunshine has a deal for it's 'super members' where you get 6% of Disney Shopping purchases, including gift cards. I think I will buy a $100 one, and get $6 in my SR account. And that puts me at my goal of what I wanted for food money for our days at SOG. Whatever else I earn on SR from here on out is purely for souvenirs! I'm pleased to say the least.

 

[Hillbeans]

Good Morning Everyone -

I had to laugh Loretta because my Liam is so huge that he's in size 5 Diapers! I can use the 4's but they're snug around his waist. Liam is growing up so fast, he's already wearing 24 month clothes and his size 5.5 sneakers I bought on November 23rd are already getting too small!

It's interesting that you were talking about telling your parents how much you love them today because on my way into work this morning (it was still dark out and I was kind of daydreaming) I was thinking about how lucky my husband and I were to have both of our parents alive at our wedding 8 years ago. I think because the 1 year anniversary of my Father in Law's death is this Sunday and tomorrow would have been my mom's 70th birthday it got me thinking that we were very lucky to have been able to share that day with our parents. Now that i'm a parent myself I think about these things. I send you good thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.

And I have to agree with you that lip waxing is just awful - it hurts terribly and I won't ever do it again. Eyebrow waxing doesn't hurt at all.

Alice - I'm really glad the pool should be open for you. I know if you're like us we spend a good chunk of vacation time at the pool so it's important it's up and working. I couldn't imagine taking the boat over to the CL to go swimming - ugh!

Ginamarie - hope you and DH are feeling better today.

Jill - your post brought tears to my eyes. You and DH have been through so much together and you are absolutely right - you are blessed beyond words with your three beautiful children.

Gottalovethem - Hope you get some much needed sleep tonight. Glad to hear that you're doing well.

Welcome Lisa Loves Pooh!!!

Diskim/Lissawynn - Hope your first day back at school wasn't too bad yesterday!

Gotta go - more later.

 

[llij]

Good morning moms!

Z - I am so sorry that you are going through all of this with your father. Like GM said, post away as much as can b/c your post was beautiful. My parents are both still alive and doing well and I need to be more grateful of that fact. You are in my thoughts and prayers.

Hillbeans - on the anniversary of your FIL's passing. How is your MIL doing? When did your mom pass away? Did she ever meet Kevin?

GLT - You are very sweet and know that I'm here for you too if you ever need anything! I hope that the kids sleep better for you so you can get some rest.

GM - I'm sorry to hear that your dh is sick. I hope that you are on the mend as well! Olivia sounds like a real sweetie with her baby doll!

Lissawynn - Your maternity leave situation sounds like a pain. When I was pregnant with Meagan, I relied on FMLA which was good. It only guaranteed my position once I returned to work. We had no short term disability at my job so I used my sick and vacation days with Meagan. I ended up going without pay for a bit and had to "pay back" benefits once I returned to work. I hope that everything is ok at work for you and you can get some rest before Annabelle arrives!

Hi to Lisa Loves Pooh! When is your baby due?

Robin - Your budgeting for this trip is inspiring! You are doing a great job at it! Gosh, your trip will be here before you know it too. I really hope that the pool situation works out for you as well. That is awesome too that you are going to meet up with FF and Zalansky! Make sure that you all take pictures!

Dizagain - Good luck with the house showings. I hope that it sells very quickly for you. I remember how tough it was to always have the house spotless in case someone wanted to stop by and see it.

DisKim - I think I missed a post about your work. Is your principal making you all do a bunch more work? I hope that work goes well for you and that your days have been relatively quiet. How is the dog doing?


Well, I don't think John has chicken pox after all but he definitely has some strange virus. He still has the rash all over but it is fading a little bit and hasn't erupted and doesnt appear that it will crust (sorry for TMI). He is a little bit of a cranky pants this morning and I can't say that I blame him....poor little guy! He is currently napping so I better take advantage of this and get some work done.

I really appreciate all of your kind words. I think that you guys are inspiring and amazing! What a great group of women you all are!

Well, I better go clean up around here. I'll check back later!

 

[BuzznBelle'smom]

Morning all! I can't believe Luke is sleeping so well today--probably making up for the weekend, when he slept really lousy, but I'll take it! My house is a shambles, but what else is new? At least I changed all the sheets and towels, so when DH comes home, it looks like I've been slaving away.

Loretta-- to you on your dad. You are NEVER ready, ever. I was a wreck when my dad died--I was such a Daddy's girl, it wasn't even funny. The good news is, I never felt like there was "unfinished business" or anything, but I still miss him. With my mom, it was different, because we weren't close and I felt like I wish I could have known who she really was, not the mentally ill person that I spent time with. Even so, I found myself missing her so much this holiday. A friend of mine told me that the two greatest gifts a parent can give their child are life, and the parent's own death. Tough to think of your parent's death as "gift", but what it means is, it's the parent's way of telling you that you'll be okay, you've gotten everything from them that you need and you can continue on without them.

Okay, I'm probably not a whole lot of help here. Please take my comments in the spirit with which I intend them. And feel free to vent anytime.

Robin--I hope the pool thing works out. The pool would be a huge deal for my gang, and nice as the other pools are, hauling gear and kids around is no kind of fun!

Oh, the kitty litter cake was a huge hit with the cub scouts. We got a Candyland cake, which was also popular.

Jill--Everyone is right, you have three wonderful kids. We all have bumps in the road, you just have bigger ones than most of us. We went through a lot with Robert when he was little, and it really taught me patience. And, if we're not in the ER, it must be a good day!

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Meant to add - WELCOME LISA LOVES POOH!!!

Well thank you! I snuck on, but won't be an "official" "new-again" mommy until March.

 

[Alice28]

BNB- you always make me chuckle- I like your 'if we're not in the ER, then it's a good day.'

Here I am, up totally early as I told DH I would get up with him to put Sam on the bus. Oy.....I haven't gotten up at 7 in probably 3 weeks, as Sam had strep right before school got out and we didn't get up early those days. I'm such a baby, but I was getting used to staying up til 12 and getting up at 8:30 or so. Molly's nap schedule is so off. I'm going to get her up by 8:30 this morning, cause she's been sleeping til 9:30 or so and not napping til 4! Then she wants to sleep til 6:30 and it's hard getting her to bed by 9, to say the least.

Hillary- Liam is a big boy! It's funny how we have some really big babies here on our thread. I keep hoping Molly will slow down a bit. She was standing next to my neighbor's DS, who is 6 months older than her, and they're the same height! Molly might have been a smidge taller! Crazy...

Hi Jill! Thanks for the budget compliment. I'm good at budgeting small stuff. How we're going to pay the balance of the trip ($3,300) is another, . Our tax return will be enough to pay half of it, my mom & dad are giving me 1K towards the WL room, and the other $800 will go on a credit card to be paid off later. Whatever, I still can't wait! It will be a wonderful trip & I'm grateful my parents are helping us be able to stay at the Lodge for 5 days. And I'm happy they're going too. And DH is going! I haven't had a trip with all of us in, well, 4 years.

And ETA to Jill- glad it looks like John doesn't have C. Pox! Hope it clears up ASAP.

GM- I started to read your TR last night....so far, I like! I didn't tell you guys, cause I'm starting to think I'm a freak, but the pink eye showed up again yesterday. WTH!!!!!!!!!!! It's been several weeks, if not more than a month- I've washed every linen, surface, clothing....anyway, it hurts my eyes to look at the computer screen for too long, otherwise I would have read more....I will though!

Did I tell you all that Sam has an ENT appointment later this month? They got him in on the 23rd I think, so I will find out if they think he needs his tonsils out.

Anyway, I'm just blathering on---hope everyone has a great morning!

 

[justhat]

Robin I just wanted to pop on here to tell you that AP rates are out for your trip. I know you were talking about trying to lower your WL rate and I think I read it's $131 off per night at the deluxes for your time frame. And given how long you'll be there the cost of the AP compared to your ticket isn't huge and you'd definitely make it back on the rooms (especially since you'll have 2 rooms). I know you want the dining plan and all so maybe you don't care, but just wanted to throw it out there since the SOG overflow rates weren't what you were hoping for.

I have to run to the post office to mail about a million things and hope to get back on later this afternoon.

 

[Ginamarie]

Jill- That’s would be great if John didn’t have chicken pox. Chicken pox are the WORST to deal with, especially with a baby. I’ve never had them myself, but I’m scared to death of them!

LisaLovesPooh- You’re allowed to sneak on the thread early. This way you can read about all the wonderful things you’ll be in store for soon (sleepless nights, dirty diapers, teething). Seriously though, we’re a good bunch.

Alice- I can’t believe your pink eye might be back. You’ve had the worst luck with that lately. I was getting in the habit of sleeping late last week too, especially with Olivia up so much during the night, but it’s a cold reality when you realize you need to get somewhere by 9 am! I’m glad you’re enjoying the trip report though. I’m hoping to write some more over the next couple of days because we’ll be between WPASADI challenges (IF we make it to the next round).

I’m still living in a sick house. DH was up a lot during the night and is home sick today. I was also up at night, and like a doofus was keeping a huge cup of water on my nightstand to stay hydrated. So of course around 3 am, I found a way to knock over the whole thing. Water was all over the place and I was too delirious to do much cleaning up. I just made sure nothing important was getting wet and told DH “it’s just water, the carpet will dry.”

The good part was that DH and I went over our options for cruising this spring, since we have a $500 gift certificate that we need to use by June and finished earning another certificate with all of our Disney spending. We made our final decision and booked it this morning. 10 nights to the eastern Caribbean. I’m sooooo excited. We’re not going to have any money left over really for shore excursions or extra activities, but I’ll be living it up with the free food. It even crossed my mind to look into that Brazilian, but I know I’ll be too much of a wimp to do it.

Since we’re sailing out of NY, it means we saved our airline credit from Jetblue, and I can still use that towards a WDW vacation later this year. I just have to make sure I make enough money now so we can afford everything. We’re also planning to do DCL for 2008, so I have to factor in that our deposit will be due this spring. So I know all my excess income for 2007 will be spent on vacations this year.

OK, back to work now since I’m really need to earn some more money!

 

[Alice28]

Just to clarify, if you have an AP, and an AP rate on the room, you cannot get the dining plan?

 

[justhat]

I think that's the case. We bought the DDE card though (for FL residents and AP holders from any state) and it was $60 and saves you 20% on all food and non-alcoholic drinks at sit down restaurants. The card more than paid for itself with us on just 1 trip.

 

[Strawberry Lemonade]

Just a drive-by from me as I'm late for a meeting...

I had my dr appointment this morning - classic migraines. I've got Imitrex pills to keep on hand and if they become any more frequent, the dr will do a workup and give me a preventative.

llij - So glad John doesn't have chicken pox. I hope he feels better soon.

lisa loves pooh - Congratulations and welcome! Don't worry about not being "official" yet!

zalansky - Sorry about the scare with your dad.

I really have to go. See you later!

 

[Ginamarie]

Just to clarify, if you have an AP, and an AP rate on the room, you cannot get the dining plan?

That's the way it works, yeah. You can only add the dining plan if you're paying rack rate for the room.


I THINK that this might not last that way though. It used to be a complete no go for cast members to add the dining plan to their reduced rooms, but a few days ago they came out with a new (amazing deal). For late January through early Marck (with blackout dates for winter break) cast members are entitled to 60% off rooms (usually 50% is as high as we get) AND they could add the dining plan for a reduced price ($20.99 for adults and I think $9.99 for kids). I think they're testing it out to see how it works and what the profit margins wind up at. If we can get that kind of deal later this year I'll be all over it.