Wednesday, February 23, 2011

The "Plan"

Why would I even consider coming up with any semblance of a "plan"? Because I am crazy like that. But as details about visitor's travel arrangements have started to materialize, I can't help the fact that my brain starts laying out the calendar and analyzing how the next few months could play out. The date I really have my eye on is Monday May 9th; that is the first official day of Andy's summer break. So as you can imagine it would be ideal if I didn't have to come back to work until then because we could basically do a baby hand-off and not have to worry about finding a few days of daycare.
It shouldn't come as a shock that I have my maternity leave intricately planned. I know exactly how many hours I have saved up between my Sick Bank, Personal Leave and Vacation Time and I have laid out a few different scenarios as to what I can do. At the end of the day, I decided the smartest thing would be to only take 8 weeks of maternity leave. If this were an ideal world and we were made of money I would take the full 12 weeks and spend the extra month rolling around in my piles of money....wait I guess if I am dreaming big I might never come back to work and spend an hour everyday rolling around in my piles of money. But this is real life and I have to think ahead. So if I take 8 weeks that will leave 2 weeks of vacation time for the rest of the year. Sounds like a lot of time, but when you realize that has to last 9 months and babies can be volatile little people, it could be a crunch.
Plus we have exotic travel plans. In June we're taking the Nugget to visit his g-parents in Philadelphia and in November we have my family reunion in Louisiana....which if you are a fan of food wrapped in bacon, is a "must attend"....in fact I am pretty sure Andy would divorce me if we were unable to go this year. What can I say? The boy likes his bacon and he also likes agitating gators. I used my strategerie to arrange these trips so it would only use a day and a half of vacation for each one. Depart Thursday afternoon, come back Sunday. You get the idea. But basically that means if Nugget is sick more than 7 days out of the next year I am in big trouble! Oh and I forgot there is always the possibility that I could get sick....shit, I forgot to factor myself in.
Anyway, this post isn't meant to come off whiney. In reality the fact that I have the opportunity to be home with Nugget for even a couple weeks is such a freakin' priviledge. I keep thinking of women who work out in the fields, squat and have their babies and then go right back to work. Makes me sound like quite an a-hole.
So to make a long story short, it all boils down to March 14th. March 14th is the day that I could start my maternity leave and then Andy would be out of school when I go back to work. Now I am seriously trying to be one of those "go with the flow" people. I know how asinine it is to even think that I can control any aspect of Nugget's arrival. This boy is going to rock my control-freak world! And I realize that I am potentially the only pregnant woman in the history of the world who is actually hoping to stay pregnant into her 41st week. But I can't stop that part of my brain that looks at March 14th and thinks 'everything would work out perfect if I could just make it to that day'.
It isn't unfeasible to think that Nugget could be at least 7 days late. Technically I am only asking him to make it to Friday March 11th....at noon. If we're getting specific.....not that I ever get specific about anything. Dang I am such a dork. Now that I have put this information out there in the universe I bet this little guys is going to show up tomorrow, just so he can be like 'better get used to me not listening to you now....you're in for it'. I am pretty sure he is in there snickering right now and rubbing his hands together as he plots the distruction of my ability to control things.

6 comments:

  1. March 9th is my goal date. A little early but the perfect amount of time with PTO, semi-paid leave, etc. Any later and work gets shitty, any earlier and I run short of PTO. I think its okay to 'plan' but be okay when Nug has his own thoughts. :)

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  2. As a control freak also, I can understand where you are coming from. I also had 2 children 11 months apart. It definitely makes it hard to control things! As long as you have a good attitude about how things come and interrupt your planning, you'll be less stressed and more free to control another day. :)

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  3. For what it's worth - I'm glad you're not going to have to squat out in the fields to have your baby and then go back to work! ;)

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  4. Isn't it crazy the places where new mom's get 6 months or even a year off for maternity leave! I'm a planner too so not being able to set a date and stick with it is a hard concept to wrap my brain around.

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  5. It doesn't sound whiney... It sounds complicated. Good luck!

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  6. Great, now I'm imagining you squating in a field. :) Love a good money rollin party, invite me over when the time is right!

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