Becoming a Stay at home Mum!

I held off writing this post for a good few weeks just in case the world wasn't on my side and our plans maybe fell through...luckily everything went swimmingly and guess what....I'm now a stay at home Mummy!

As some of you may know I only just returned to work at the end of January after my Maternity leave finished and wrote about my inpending return to work and my first days back, but after the initial 'OMG I have to leave my baby and start wearing work clothes again' (what...no more comfy pants) it turned out to be really great. The team I work with are all super stars, we all get on soooo well and talk about all the things you shouldn't really discuss in an open office, especially when your headset can beep any second! 

After being back a month or so the option for Redundancy reared its head, at first I didn't really think twice about taking it but after speaking with Matthew and also my friends I came to the conclusion that it could be a great opportunity to soak up all of Finley's first years with me being at home with him. 

Even though I have so many great friends at work, when I think about the job itself, was I still enjoying it...not really. Before I had Finners I used to love my job and put sooo much effort to be the best I could be at it...a keeno if you will haha. But since returning, I have too many other daily worries and thoughts to properly delve into advising on how to manage an employee who has shown up drunk at work...again! 

My mind is pre-occupied thinking about if Finley has eaten his breakfast okay?, is that sniffle he had before I left got worse? Has he started walking today and I missed it? eeekkk! Plus the fact he woke up every hour the night before is not helping my productivity today. 

Perhaps if I was working more than only two days it may have been easier to dive into work and really get involved in some juicy cases, but with me only being there a tiny snippit of the week I never managed to get that work head screwed back on fully. Plus I worked a Friday...that's not a proper work day...we got Bacon Butties and it was Dressdown, who can concentrate with all that going on.

After a weekend of calculating and discussing we took the plunge and decided that I would become a stay at home Mummy! Aggghhh!

I admit it I am a little scared, and had a slight mental panic attack when I singed the official leaving letters but feel very lucky that we are in a position that I can take this time with Finley whilst he is still so tiny.

Luckily one of my bestest friend Keri also left on the same day....we had a fab day of cakes, McDonalds breakfasts and maybe a few tears! We were spoilt rotten by the team and then headed out after work for some tea, a giggle and a few drinkies....now I hardly ever drink, maybe two or three times a year so after 2 glasses of Wine me and my friend Becky were expecting a lifetime ban from pizza express for laughing way too much and way too loud! Oh well, we still manged to sweet talk a discount from them hehe.

Of course I will miss my job so much, I have been there since I was 18 and achieved so much in the 5 1/2 years I worked there but everything comes to an end at some point and I have a really positive outlook for what the future holds. I don't know if I will be a stay at home Mummy for the rest of Finley's toddler'hood, (its all money dependant and possibly how sain I stay) but for the foreseeable future I can say that we will be having lots of family fun times. Lets just hope that the Sunshine is on its way so we can make the most of this time and have a fab Summer. 

If anyone else has any tips how to survive being a stay at home Mummy please let me know :) or if you are contemplating it I'd love to hear what you plan on doing in the future.

Love Kayleigh x

A little blogging holiday

Well Hi...as you may have noticed I took a few weeks 'blogging holiday' as life seriously got in the way! They say things come in threes, well the passed week has been 3 x too many = far too much seriousness for me!

 Here is a run-down of just a few bumps in the Bamber road we had - 

There has been a major piece of work Matt and I have been working on which saw me writing, deleting, re-writing then cross referencing about a gazillion documents...for days on end! Luckily that is all singed off now and I can place it in my mind 'work out' tray! 

Finley had his 13 month injections which he was NOT impressed about at all, the poor soul wailed his eyes out after having a total of three short jabs in the thigh (see everything does come in threes). He has had a rough time ever since - meaning mummy also having a rough time of it too :( I will write up in a separate post about the full experience as I could find nothing online when I was frantically searching for symptoms of injections.

Finley just hasn't slept! I really thought we had near enough cracked it, he was sleeping almost 12 hours occasionally waking but after a few minuets would drift back off into a baby slumber, BUT this past week has been crazy! I think this boy has had a serious falling out with the sleep fairy, waking more than a new born, some nights every 20 minuets for hours on end! I am crossing my fingers it was a phase but even as I type I just have that feeling tonight will be another rough one.

Plus this week I am having to make some serious choices about work...hmmm I am still deciding and have no details as yet but I will definitely keep you updated. 

Matt, Finley and I took a lovely day trip out to the lakes with his parents :) They have the most beautiful holiday home out there - I have a million shots to share with you but the one above is me in just a part of their garden...wow! Our whole house would probably fit twice in just this tiny slice of land haha.

There is probably so much more I have forgotten but I am still getting over a very busy 2 and a bit weeks. I hope you are all doing really well and I have some serious reading to catch up on with all the posts I have missed. 

Let me know how you are all doing? 

Love Kayleigh x

A cheeky morning with Finey

This post is a little bit of an accident really, I was just snapping away on the camera trying to get some shots of Finley sporting his festive jammies when I realised he was just being plain cheeky! At the moment it is almost impossible to get a picture of him sat still...instead he is always doing the 'I promise I'm being good Mummy/Daddy' face, whilst climbing up any furniture he can find!

To be honest I'm not surprised, I think he is getting me back for disappearing a few times this week. On Wednesday I had to leave him for the longest time ever...13 hours 40 minuets to be exact!!! *Sigh* and to add to my already mummy anxiety I was over an hour away in Manchester! For all those people who may be interested I was at the Employment Tribunal courts observing, so concentrating on cross examinations took the edge off wanting to constantly sob and call home. 

Then the next day I was out with all my bestest work chums for the works Christmas Tea, it was a quick Chinese before we got drenched running to the car to get home to Finners.

Anyway, I wanted to share a few of the lovely snaps I captured of Fin being a good old cheeky chap! I wouldn't expect anything less of an 11th month old baby boy....and I have a sneaky suspicion he isn't growing out of it any time soon! That is fine by us, we just love our spirited bun full of giggles and mischievous glances. 

Theres the 'look' I was talking about!

As I chased him back into the front room out of the Kitchen he headed straight to the DVDs, this baby just doesn't want to take it easy.

Let me know if your little ones are keeping you on your toes? Oh oh oh guess what.....the Christmas tree is going up tomorrow! YAYAYAYAY 
'I love you, I lovvveee You, I LOVE YOU' -can you guess my most fave Christmas film from that quote??

Love Kayleigh x

Maternity Leave Vs Work update

I have realised that since I updated to say I was popping back into work I have only done one post, don't panic I survived but I think it was a little bit of an information overload and my brain needed to settle down again.

So how did it go? Surprisingly very well, Finley was perfectly happy getting some Daddy time and from the sounds of things he didn't even know I was missing! I thought I might be this emotional wreck waving off my baby but I knew he was with his Dad and having loads of fun :) Perhaps if he was at nursery this would be a different story just because it isn't someone you know very well taking care of him. 

I walked into the office and it was the weirdest feeling, it felt like I had never been away but on the same hand when I look back it feels forever ago I was chatting to disgruntled managers about their problem employees! Everyone was coming over chatting to me and waving like I was some celebrity haha it soon wore off by the second day.

I wasn't doing 'real' work but some training that had been organised so I didn't have to use too much brain power. During the training little memories of past cases and policies were flooding back, one of the major things I was worried about was how I wouldn't remember anything and look a total douchebag but there was 'geek of the class' answering in detail why employees go to tribunals! I thought all that information had been crushed and overtaken by the sleepless nights and belly tickles. 

Finley wasnt fussed I was off to work yesterday :(

After the training I had the dreaded 'return to work' chat with my manager! 'noooooo' how can Finley be so old that I am even contemplating working properly again. Luckily work and especially my department are very flexible and are happy for me to return part time. I couldn't imagine working full time these days so I have settled on 16 hours a week. That's if nothing changes work wise before I return.

Quick tip here - before you return to work please check out your rights and also what benefits you may be entitled too or even what you may loose if you return. If you have any questions on why I came to my decision just ask :) I would also advise strongly if you are planning on returning in the next few months pop in like I have a few hours a week to get used to it. You will be entitled to get paid for this so definitely comes in handy when you hit zero pay.

From this week I am classed as back in employment but using my accrued leave until January, I have waved off my maternity leave and will miss it dearly but I knew that it would never last forever. I just hope these last few months I have off will go as slow as possible for me to capture Finley's baby-ness just that little bit longer.

I would love to hear if you have recently returned to work or if you decided not too and be a stay at home mum?

Love Kayleigh x