maternity leave spin off thread

[DeChRi]

So I spent about 2 hours laying awake last night stressing about work. Like heart racing and total stress. Without going into details, it is a high stress and poor environment in general, and being at the end of pregnancy, that x10. So I wake up twice to pee and work floods my head. I had no kiddo this morning and could have spend the morning in bed but I am having coffee at 6:45am thinking about work.

HR will not let me work past my due date, so this Friday is set to be my last day. I have 11 paid days off yet this year. 5 of those have to be used before maternity leave kicks in, leaving me with 6 which I had planned to roll on over to next year. However, I think that I am going to talk to my boss today (who is also on maternity leave right now, but is a friend of mine) and see if I would piss anyone off if I took paid time off Wed, Thurs, and Fri and just be done after Tuesday. I can't sleep, my drive for baby to come early is ONLY to get out of working, and it is making me nuts.

Do you think it will make me look bad to go back and do that now?

[Da WIC Lady]

Considering the boss is also on maternity leave, I think she would be sympathetic to the cause. Before I realized it, I was scaling down my own hours at work. I still have to go in on Monday to turn in travel paperwork, but I keep wanting to have the option of going in when I want to. I don't have paid leave, and that's the other thing driving me batty. Then I think about it, and I really don't want to end up getting stuck there if I go into labor.

Anna

[Curlita]

DEFINITELY leave early if you can, Joanna. There is no reason to be putting yourself through this much stress at this point in the pregnancy. I wouldn't worry about it "making you look bad" -- if we start worrying about getting pregnant (and all the associated affects) making us look bad, then we start buying into the 1960s mentality where we don't deserve to be in the workplace anyway, KWIM?

Besides, you have the time coming to you. You already earned it. Take it! Get the hell out and come home so I don't have to feel guilty for abandoning you to your desk! (because it is all about me).