This week starts the transition from the second trimester to the third, so yay for a third trimester baby! We are definitely in the home stretch now and Ellie has been making herself known more and more. I can feel her on the outside almost as often as I can feel her on the inside, though Tom has still only felt her once. It takes a lot of patience and a lot of just sitting with your hand to my belly to get to feel a kick. It's also starting to feel more and more like I have a real baby in there instead of just mysterious pops and bubbles - sometimes she'll stick her little butt out and I can feel the outline of it in my belly. She's also been trying to stretch out more the past few days...sorry, little girl, but there's limited space in there! When your momma's only 5'1", you just have to make do with the room you've got. It's funny to feel her little feet up under my ribs though, and not the most comfortable thing ever.
Yesterday I did receive some surprising news from my boss. I am being laid off. Not only am I being laid off, but my hours are also being cut down to 32 per week effective immediately. I knew the layoff was coming - our company is restructuring and there have been rumors of layoffs going around for months now. I did not know about my hours being cut. All things being equal, the timing is really good for me.
My biggest fear was getting a layoff notice before I went out on disability leave. That would mean I would only be eligible for 2 weeks of severance pay, instead of the 6-8 weeks of disability pay I will be entitled to when I go out for maternity leave. However, it seems as though that won't be the case. Layoff notices were set to go out in November, and will come no sooner than then. Since I am set to be off on maternity leave from October through January, I will be ineligible to receive my layoff notice until I return. So basically, I will go out on maternity leave in October, the other people in this round of layoffs will receive their notices while I'm out in November, and the day I come back in January I will receive mine. At that point, they probably won't have any work for me, so I'll just have to come in for the day as a formality and will receive my severance pay.
As for cutting down to 32 hours a week, well, I suppose that could be worse as well. Now that my doctor's appointments are two times a month, I basically have to work a half day from home or try and scramble to make up hours as it is. So now I just won't have to worry about making up those hours and I'll get a day off here and there as well. I wish I could have had a bit more notice than "effective immediately," but what can you do? It'll be fine. Now I just have to make it through the next couple of months pretending I still care - I have a baby coming and it's not like I have any sort of career to come back to. Now that I've been told I'm not needed in so many words, it's very difficult to do my job.
How far along? 27 weeks and moving into the third trimester!!
Best moment this week? Sitting in Ellie's room, snuggling her new purple blanket and imagining what life will be like with her here.
What I am looking forward to: Having a nice, relaxing (hopefully!) weekend at home :)
Weekly Wisdom: I think the midwife was right - I'm fairly certain I'll be feeling her pretty constantly by next week. These last two weeks have really seen an increase in feeling her movements.
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