Well, it's Halloween, and my company actually allowed, even encouraged, costumes!

I thought I'd take advantage of the opportunity to wear jeans without having to pay the United Way or some other 3rd-party organization $5 for the "privilege." (Yeah, I'm still bitter over the dress code changing, and jeans, denim skirts, and tennis shoes being banned!) So I donned a pair of maternity jeans I bought over the weekend for $5, along with my Halloween Horror Nights t-shirt ("2x the Fear") from last year, and my worst pair of comfortable tennis shoes.

I then stuffed a pillow into my jeans to make me look even more prego, pulled my hair up in pig tails, and wore a pair of nasty-looking hillbilly teeth. Prego Hillbily was the most comfortable costume I've ever worn, except the teeth, which made talking and eating difficult! Alex said I should have painted on a black eye and tattoo to make the look even more complete, but that might have crossed the line!

One of my biking buddies saw me in my costume and looked confused. "You're not THAT far along yet, are you?"

"Nah," I replied, "I'm just under 17 weeks. I'm stuffing," I added, showing her my pillow.

"Oh," she said, "well are you showing much yet?"

"It depends on who you ask. The people who know I'm pregnant think I'm showing. The people who don't know just think I'm fat."

:-D

One of Alex's co-workers recommended a day care he used, so we decided to check them out at lunch today. It's one of the two contenders thus far of the three centers we looked at.

Nice place, and it's affiliated with a church between our house and work. It rated an "A" and the latest inspection reports seem really good. I'm not sure how many more child care centers I'll be able to find that's nearby, but I really want to check out more than just three!

Today's place seemed like it was very well staffed. There was a max of 8 babies in the infant room as opposed to 12 at the other place. However, the infant room at today's place was a closed-in room, as opposed to the more open layout of the other center where any adult would be able to see what was going on.

The food program seemed a little better at the other place, too, but I can't be sure. At today's place, they require parents to provide baby's food when they graduate to baby food, but that can be a plus. The other place provides all the baby food, but what if my child is allergic to strained peas and I didn't know because I didn't feed them strained peas yet?

The playground at the place we went to today seemed a little better too. Bigger, more shaded, mulch instead of sand, and a little bigger.

One thing that concerned me, was I saw one of the staff members changing a diaper on the floor of the younger two-year-olds room. Hmmm. Not sure how sanitary that is. I didn't get a good look because she was behind one of the tables, but I guess there could have been a changing mat under the child.

The security was the same at both places - video monitors. And the neighborhoods seemed pretty similar too - not the best, but not crackville or anything.

I just don't know. There's still plenty of time, but it's such a difficult decision!

The longer I work at this crappy company, the more motivated I am to find a new job after the baby is born. God must have a real doozie of an opportunity waiting for me down the road to bring such motivation into my life.

Today at my team meeting, my lead said that the boss man wants the following conveyed to all the teams:
he's concerned about the downtime as "there's too much laughter in the area" and it has to stop!
Excuse me?!?

This from the little man who, in a staff meeting, told us that we could be reprimanded for being negative, so stop being negative! So from what I understand, the following work rules apply:

1. Do not be negative. If you are caught being negative, you will receive first a verbal, then a written reprimand. (Do I have to point out the irony of being reprimanded for being negative?)
2. The problems in the department, according to Little Man, are so much bigger than any of us think. (But that's not negative.)
3. Don't be happy and laugh. If you look or sound like you're enjoying your job, then you obviously aren't doing it right!
4. Don't be too gloomy either. That will bring morale down, and could be construed as negative. (See rule #1)

How ludicrous! I honestly feel like I'm trapped in Alice's wonderland. If only I can find that white rabbit, maybe I could get out of here!

Oh, yeah! One more thing that applies just to me:
Little Man considers me "high risk," as I'm pregnant and my husband may not "allow" me to go back to work after the baby is born! Stupid sexist jerk! Makes me want to rip that stupid-looking curly Q comb-over thing right off his shiny bald head!

First, let me say how grateful I am that little Jelly Bean is doing well. We had our monthly check-up today and the heartbeat was 152 bpm! I was a little worried at first, because Bean was hiding and/or moving and it took the doctor a few seconds to detect it. Still, he found it and told me about the old wives tale that a HB over 140 bpm indicated a girl. Ha! So much for the organ grinder's prediction in my dream!

So as we were waiting for the doctor to come in, Alex and I were griping to each other about me not getting any maternity leave. I mean I'm sure the company would be perfectly happy if I just cleared out a drawer in my file cabinet and then just squat down and have the baby in my cube! Then I could just shove the baby in the drawer and not have to take ANY time off from work! Of course, those cheap %#$^$ would probably bill me for the carpet cleaning afterwards!

Let me clarify this no maternity leave thing. This Fortune 500 company that's always touted being so "family friendly" has the following policy:

• Under FMLA, I can be out for up to 12 weeks without fear of losing my job.
• Alex is also entitled to such leave under FMLA. HOWEVER, since we both work for the same crappy company, the company requires us to share those 12 weeks! In other words, if Alex went out for FMLA for the baby's birth, he would have to take the time from MY leave. (2 full-time employees get to share 1 full-time employee's benefit.) If we weren't married, this would not be an issue.
• When I do go out to have the baby, I must use all of my sick, vacation, and personal days for the entire year! (Yep! That leaves nothing for doctor appointments later on, or if, God forbid, I get sick!)
• Once I use all my time, I go on Short Term Disability (STD) at 60% pay. (And I have to PAY for STD on each paycheck now!)
• STD will only pay me while I'm under a doctor's care. Once the doctor releases me to go back to work, which is usually 6 or 8 weeks, I won't even get the 60% pay. So if I want to be out the full 12 weeks, I will have to be unpaid for the last 4-6 weeks.
• I must continue to pay my portion of health insurance premiums while I'm on 60% pay STD.
• If I stay out longer without pay, then both my portion of health insurance premiums and the company's portion will be solely my responsibility.
• If I do not return to work after being out on STD, the company can bill me for their part of the health insurance premiums they had to pay during the time I was out.

What a crock! Talk about motivation to go find somewhere else to work! I think I'll start looking for a new job right before the baby's due. Then, I'll use up all my sick, vacation, and personal days at this company, and come back just to hand in my 2 weeks notice. That way, I can get at least a FEW days off with the new company for next year. If nothing else, I'll have more holidays (my current company gives only 6 holidays for the year: new year's, memorial day, July 4th, labor day, thanksgiving (just one day), and Christmas.)

Anyone out there hiring QA analysts or tech writers?