I am so sick

of man flu.

Baby T and me both had a cold and now S has it and he's pathetic. I'm am so over him lying around doing nothing except complaining and snoring most of the night so I can't sleep. Especially when baby T had his best nights sleep in ages - only waking up once between 8pm and 8am.

On the job front, I've applied for two and found another one I can apply for so fingers crossed I at least get an interview for one of them. I also went to the sales and bought some smart clothes for interviews since none of my smart stuff fits any more.

Sorry I'm being a bit crap about blogging at the moment but my time seems to be used up in other things.

A tooth! - for reals

After at least 3 months of everyone telling us that baby T was going to get a tooth any minute because "he's drooling so much", or "he's chewing all the time".

Last Thursday after a marathon daytime nap on Wednesday (nearly 4 hours) a long sleep and a very red bum - a bottom tooth finally broke through his gums. He's been fussy and cuddly since so I think it's bothering him a bit or maybe another one is on the way - who knows.

On the work front I've seen a job I'm going to apply for and sorted out a few people to contact about opportunities, I just need to get my CV (resume) updated and polished. Also I'm going in to my (ex)work tomorrow to sort through the boxes that were packed up before I went on leave to see what is mine and should be sent to my house. I'll also get a chance to talk with the CEO about why I've been laid off and get him to promise to write me a stonking reference.

I'll also have to decide soon whether I'm angry enough to want to make a case out of the fact that I was laid off 2 days after returning from maternity leave. The discrimination laws here are pretty strict and since (so far) I'm the only one to be laid off I potentially have a pretty strong case. On the other hand the world I work in is very small in Denmark and I need to get a job when there are a lot of people looking so it may not be wise to make a fuss.

Careful what you wish for

On Sunday night I said to S "I wish I didn't have to go to work tomorrow". Well as of 4pm today (Tuesday) I don't have to. It seems that the remaining investors have instructed the company to save money and since they've survived the last 9 months without me and outsourced my main expertise I'm the most obvious person to cut. I may not be the last however...

The good news is I'll be paid until the end of April so I guess this is a little like extended, fully paid, maternity leave which means I can be home with baby T until he is one. However, I do need to find another job and hopefully before I stop being paid since our mortgage is not small. Obviously this may not be easy since the biotech industry generally is suffering from the credit crisis right now. I guess I'd better polish up my cv and start emailing all my contacts ASAP.

The icing on the cake was when they tried to change my booked day off to come in tomorrow so we could have a meeting. I assumed this was to talk about what my role would be now I'd returned and but luckily I turned down this kind offer since I would have been supremely pissed off if I'd gone in tomorrow just to be told I was being laid off.

Relieved and slightly disappointed

I got home last night to a big grin from baby T and a happy S so I guess they coped fine without me. Which was a relief but also a little disappointing, I mean shouldn't there have been at least a little trouble or crying when I wasn't there? I guess today might be different but for their sake I hope it isn't.

S will be on leave until the beginning of March and I have Wednesdays free (a few days of holiday left) until at least the end of January. We signed up for a February start date in the nursery but the length of the waiting lists mean this isn't guaranteed (state nursery system is cheap but the place happens when it happens). We'll just have to work something out if we don't have a place before S is due to go back to work.

As for work, it was fine I didn't do much as people have been in big meetings and too busy to talk to me about stuff but apart from a few tears I coped ok. The company has evolved a lot since I was away and I'm not completely sure what my role will be but there is potential so I will stick it out for a while at least to see what develops. Unfortunately we are a very small company and one of our investors pulled out last week so the future is a little uncertain. It's "business as usual" for now though....

So that took a bit longer than I intended

Our Christmas and New Year break was great and baby T was mostly wonderful. We did have a few nights of broken sleep due to overstimulation and lack of daytime naps but otherwise all was great. We saw lots of family, climbed a couple of mountains (including taking baby T up to over 1000 metres/3000 feet) and relaxed together.

He also seems to have turned a corner in eating the last few days and is eating a lot more baby mush. But he's also very clingy which isn't great because I'm going back to work tomorrow. Related to this is the fact that he is tending to sleep late - great when no-one has to get up but not so great when I'd like to feed him before I leave in the morning (he's still not great taking milk from anything other than the breast so I think this is a good idea). I plan to wake him up before I leave I hope this isn't a bad idea, I'm also hoping that it will shift his days because sooner or later he will need to be up and ready for daycare (more about this in a another post).

As for going back to work - I'm very nervous, the company has changed a lot in the last 9 months so I don't really no what to expect and I'm sad to leave baby T after spending virtually 24/7 with him since he was born. Lets just say there have been tears and there may be more. Baby T will be with his dad for at least the next month. I'm sure there will be posts about how this is all going.

Oh and for your pleasure - baby T with just some of his new toys (did I mention he's sitting up on his own now):