I originally thought that the reason there might be a higher level of stress yesterday would be due to weaning Ian off the shield in an abrupt (cold turkey) manner. In light of how little sleep I got Wed night, I decided yesterday was not the day for that. I might work on it today while Paul's parents are here, but if not I definitely will work on it this weekend. By Monday morning I want the shield to be a thing of the past. However yesterday proved to have a few unexpected, very stressful moments.
Before Paul left for school, he asked if he could have some cash. I had only $2, and he took it. I planned to stop at the bank on the way to Sarah's to get some money from the ATM so that I could pay Sarah. When I looked in the place where we usually keep the cards, I couldn't find them. I called Paul, and he didn't know where they might be. I looked in a few other places and then decided to write her a check and search more when I got back. We went to Walmart, and then I dropped Nadia off at Sarah's. There is a McD's inside the Walmart, and this was the first time I noticed that Nadia is aware of what the golden arches represent. She got very excited and was pointing to it. They learn this at such a young age, LOL! Ian slept on the way to Walmart (which amazed me - I thought I might try having him sleep in his carseat inside the house although in the past he hasn't liked being in the carseat At All), and he slept while in the baby wrap while we shopped. I was wishing he had slept that soundly at 3am the previous night! He cried all the way home though; I nursed him as soon as we got home.
After I finished nursing him, I put him back in the wrap and searched some more for the card. In that same place we keep a couple of credit cards that we haven't been using for awhile. In light of my panic over the missing ATM cards, I called those two companies to cancel the cards. They certainly work very hard to try to convince you not to close an account! The one card I had since 1990, and they were saying it would really hurt my credit rating to close it. I still closed both accounts. I never pay any interest or fees, and we haven't used these cards for a long time; so I have no idea why they really wanted to keep me as a customer. I called Paul back to tell him that I still couldn't find the ATM cards. He then looked in his wallet and found both his card and my card. We later recalled that I had given him my card to take home when I was staying in the hospital in December. On his way home from school, Paul realized he didn't have a carseat in his car. So I quickly got in the car to make sure I got to Sarah's before she needed to leave. I stopped at the bank on the way home to cash two checks and found out that I could have gone there this morning as the drive-thru opens at 8am. I didn't realize they open that early. Once I knew Paul had our cards, I then was able to take a nap after the next time I nursed Ian. I kept him in the wrap while I rested for 2 hours (and I did sleep a little).
When Paul got home he got the mail, and after nursing Ian after we got back from Sarah's and the bank, I went through the mail. One letter was from the HR director at my university. My stress level skyrocketed when I read the letter. She said that my doctor approved me for a 6 week recuperation period (it's supposed to be 8 weeks after a c-section). She said they were allowing me to use 4 days of sick leave (Jan 19-22) and one day of personal leave (Jan 25). I knew I wouldn't get to use the usual 8 weeks of sick leave since Ian came early as 4 of the weeks were during the semester break and one was during final exam week of the fall semester, but I wasn't planning to return until Feb 15th (versus January 26th). In the letter she stated that they are expecting me to return on March 22nd at 50%. They thought I'd take 100% unpaid leave from 1/26-3/21??? I don't think so!!! I planned to use my sick and personal leave and then come back at 50% for the rest of 2010. I left her a voicemail last night and also sent her an email. I told her I had a c-section (therefore am allowed 8 weeks not 6), have 2 personal days (not just 1), had another surgery on January 18th), and that I was planning to return to work as soon as my paid leave was exhausted. According to this letter, I've already been on completely unpaid leave for 4 days. Ugh. I really hope she calls me back today. I hope I'm not left hanging very long. The university has done very well especially since both babies came early and Nadia was due during the summer. If Nadia had come on time, I would have been able to use 4 weeks of paid leave, but since she came early, I only got 2 days of paid leave from that c-section, and I figured this time I'd get 3.5 weeks of paid leave. If both babies had been born during a semester, I would have been given a total of 16 weeks of paid leave, and I'm expecting I'll only get a total of 4 weeks. They're trying to get that down to 1.5 weeks.
Hopefully we'll get this resolved today. Thankfully it's already not bothering me as much as it did yesterday evening. It was a shock especially since I emailed her on December 14 from my hospital bed to clarify the dates of my personal/sick leave since Ian came early. I assumed that since I hadn't heard from her since then, that the dates I stated in that email were correct. I can't believe she waited until I was supposedly already into 100% unpaid leave (which from my communications with her she should know I never planned to take) to contact me. Hopefully this will have as happy of an ending as the missing ATM cards did.
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