Big Day!

Tomorrow is a mini milestone...not only is tomorrow November 1st, a day that I can officially say (at least I hope so...LOL) that I will get to meet my baby girl this month, it is also the day that I move into the teens in terms of days left. Tomorrow I am 37 weeks and 2 days pregnant...which means I have 19 days until my due date. I know she may not come right on her due date but its still pretty cool to think I have less than three weeks!

I'm having a little dilemma when it comes to maternity leave. I fully intend to take 12 weeks of time off from when she is born. Originally my plan was to work right up until I went into labor, whenever that may be. Then I decided if she didn't come by my due date that I would start my maternity leave that week regardless. Its Thanksgiving week so I would already have a few days off anyways. Then a few weeks ago I started getting really sick again, like different sick than what I was feeling in the first trimester. I was dizzy and lightheaded all the time, throwing up and the Zofran wasn't helping. It was really wearing on my mentally to think I could potentially be sick like that for another 7 or 8 weeks so Eric and I decided that I would officially start my maternity leave the week before my due date. We figured having a specific day in mind when I get to quit working as apposed to some arbitrary day I go into labor would help me mentally get through those rough times. Well here we are about a month later and although I am really tired, my feet get swollen every time I'm on them for any extended period of time and my heartburn is raging but....I'm not sick. Don't get me wrong, I could do without the heartburn and lack of sleep but its livable and again...I'm not sick. Now I think maybe I should just bight the bullet and keep working. I have friends that have done it both ways. A good friend had to start her leave two weeks before her due date as it is her companie's policy, she said she really enjoyed the time to just relax and prepare for labor. However she works for a private company that offers paid and unpaid maternity leave so she had a lot more time to work with. Another friend worked until the day she went into to labor and said it was no big deal. I mean sure, she didn't want to be there those last couple weeks but it meant more time with baby (that would be paid!). I think I'm going to play it by ear and see how I feel in the next two weeks and if I'm fine maybe Ill at least work another half week.

What do you think? Go ahead and start my leave, even if it means another unpaid week on the end or suck it up and work until my due date????

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