Job Situation

In the past few days, Nerdstar's job situation has become kinda crazy. Being a contractor usually means no real job security. Well, there are one year at a time contracts that can be renewed. Her current job started last July, and it's always been in the back of our minds that she might not have a job to go back to after maternity leave. Yes, her contracting company should hook her up with something even if a current job ends, but you just never know what they'll have available. We don't generally worry about it too much, because there are several contracting companies in this area always looking for people. Agencies like CIA, DIA, and NSA hire tons of contractors with language/analytical skills through several big private companies in this area. There are always projects being bid on and the contracting companies are always trying to line up personnel in case they get the contract.

But, last week the government agency she's working for got serious about having some projects consolidated and re-bid by the contractors and such. Her private company informed her on Wedneday that her and the two other linguists she works with would have to take a new language test on Friday. Also, that the government was also going to start requiring a special type of polygraph test that is rarely given. Yikes. Nerdstar's always had to do the language tests for the Army, but this one is very different.

Last night after she got home from work it all started going south. Her and another linguist didn't pass their tests. She was surprised, it had a lot of science terms and she didn't have that kind of dictionary with her for the test. As for that type of polygraph - it would take months to schedule and get the results from. Her private company really dropped the ball on that part, she asked them about it a year ago and they blew it off.

So, now we have no idea how much longer she'll be working on this current project. The reason that matters is for insurance and short term disability for her maternity leave. Technically, she has to work until June 6 for short term to kick in. Ugh. How long she stays on this project is up to the government management. We have no idea what they're planning. (Yes, it sucks having two sets of managers.)

She was on the phone with a couple of the managers in her private company all last night. It seems they're really trying to work things out for her.

But, in addition to even working on this project a few more weeks - long enough for insurance and short term disability to be fine, there's the whole problem of having a job to go to after maternity leave. Again, her private company is looking for some options, but who knows what exactly will happen.

We're not overly worried yet. We know this is the life of a contractor. It's also why I was so concerned with the IRS paying up on that home buyers credit. We've known we needed to have some money saved up for this possibility.

As if all that wasn't fun enough, there's also her status with the Army. It's currently "pending discharge" and we have no idea when that will happen. Because of her language skills, she gets a decent amount of money every month being in the reserves. We don't know when that will end either. (Her last year of military service has been stupid, it would be a whole different long post.)

So with 49 days until Noah Maxx is supposed to be born, this starts to unfold.

The latest, at 32 weeks and 5 days.

Hello everyone! It's Nerdstar again and we are headed towards Noah Maxx's delivery! He has been really active and his head has also been pointing southwards so that means that he's getting ready to get out of the belly. I have no idea whether or not he'll come early or later than his due date, but as long as he's healthy and delivered safely, I won't be that worried.

Am I anxious about the delivery? Of course! This is something that I've never experienced before and not knowing what my pain/discomfort threshold is, you bet I'm feeling some anxieties! We did not opt to take childbirth classes due to the fact that our hospital was not offering them and also we didn't want to go through the trouble of traveling somewhere further to get these classes. Besides, there had been plenty of babies born without the moms having been through these classes.

I've been quite lucky so far in regard to how easy this pregnancy have been. I've never had any morning sickness, had to go on bed rest, or had to be monitored closely due to medical reasons, and so most of me is expecting that Noah Maxx's delivery will be smooth too. I'm not saying that I've not had any discomfort. I have swollen ankles, bouts of low energy, and just a few weeks ago, a massive allergy attack of my skin, but really nothing that bad.

Thanks to the GF, she had been letting me take it really easy and doing most of the driving on weekends when we'd go somewhere. Not only that, she has also been doing most of the reading on childcare and education whereas I have simply been working and growing Noah Maxx :-)

Needless to say, we cannot wait to see and hold our boy!

Baby Advice Books

So far I've read two books, The Happiest Baby on the Block and then Babywise II months 5 through 15 (I think it's 15.) I have The Happiest Toddler but haven't read it, and am waiting on the Babywise infant book from the library.

In some ways these two sets of books are opposites. So it was kinda funny/brain hurting to read them back to back.

The premise of Happiest Baby for infants is that babies need a 4th trimester, but due to head sizes of humans don't get it. Therefore, for really fussy babies - and the book seems to be mostly for fussy/colic babies more so than happy ones - you need to do these 5 magic things to get them to self calm. The idea is that until about six months it's impossible to spoil the baby or set bad habits, so make the baby happy.

Babywise is all about moral development, I gather even in infants, and the parents setting the schedule and rules. It reads a little cold, but there does seem to be some good practical suggestions in there. It's written by Christians, which I suppose could annoy readers who aren't. Then again, with some of the ideas, the few Christian parts might not be the most annoying parts.

But really, until Noah Maxx is born, and we know what his personality is, there's no way to know what's going to work best for him.

Because it only took a few hours to read them both, I'd say it was worth the time.

Seriously Shy!

Hooray!! We finally got to see our cute boy! Of course, he had his fist planted in his eye 80% of the time. Then, because that wasn't enough to hide behind, he added his legs and feet up by his face, too! Wow, to be that flexible!!

Here he at least moved his hand to upside his head...



And here he's trying to put his foot up his nose.


He's measuring perfectly dead average for his age. That's good. Next time we see him he'll finally be outside the belly. We can't wait!

The baby shower

On Saturday afternoon, we had a baby shower for Noah Maxx at a friend's house nearby. The funny thing was that the friend who had arranged everything switched the starting time of the baby shower at the last minute, from 2 to 3 PM so that there will be ample amount of time for her own little girl (her daughter is 18 months old.) to have a nap. Of course, and GF and I didn't know about this, so we showed up at her place about an hour early.

One person bailed at the last minute because she had a last minute closing on her new house, and another thought that the baby shower was at our place so she drove all the way to our place....finding it empty. She got really tired from all the traffic and decided that she didn't want to go any further. She did leave the baby's gifts at our house prior to departure though.

There were four people who came to the shower, one was a colleague from work, another was this girl that I had deployed to Iraq with, and the last two were a friend of mine from my reserve unit and his sometimes girlfriend. We chatted, had this enormous chocolate marble cake, had this really good citrus punch, and some other snack foods. Since we really don't have a lot of friends, I'm just grateful for the ones who did make it!

We didn't play silly games during the shower, which was just the way that the GF and I had intended. When our friend's baby girl got up, I went into her room and changed her and brought her out, baby Jo is such a good baby! She was friendly and receptive to everyone there! Our Ramen dog (we brought him to the baby shower, since our friend also have a dog that's pretty friendly.) was on his best behavior, getting everyone to pet him and letting baby Jo play with him.

We're really thankful for all the stuff that we had gotten at the shower! We got some of Jo's clothes, baby carrier, a baby rocker (they will be returned when our friend has her second little one.), lots of baby clothes, baby bottles, baby wash, baby shampoo, gift certificates to babies r us, and some great advice from the people from the shower written in this spiral notebook.

I was really surprised that we had gotten that many gifts for Noah Maxx! We were also amazed about how many things that a baby needs right when it's born! The reality is setting in ever so much more that, in 66 days, our little man will be here!

I will write about the rest of the weekend in my next entry, it's getting late and both the GF and I will have get some zzzzz's in before we hit work!

Handsome and Naked!

Nope, not Noah Maxx (although I'm sure he is!!)

It's Ramen dog:

Whew

Thank God this wasn't literal!!



Here's the last piece of furniture for Noah Maxx's room - the glider. (That's Ramen dog failing to get out of the way.)