Aflaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaac!

I've been exhausted lately after going back to work so I've been coming home and reading blogs rather than writing mine. I was also feeling particularly uninspired until I read this post
on Her Very Own. There are a lot of things about coming off bedrest that are fabulous and obvious. The baby(ies) is/are safe, you can get up and do what you'd been dying to do... and you often have no energy or money to do so - especially if you were on unpaid medical leave for your entire lounge act. Oh man, I so should have called my blog Lounge Act! Damn!

Anyway, I thought I'd take a moment to count and recognize my lucky stars and talk about this topic. I could so go all political right now because it sucks that we even have to worry about this and I imagine some mothers have to choose between having a place to live and food to eat and their babies' lives. We were lucky enough to have significant financial help from our parents during this time. Some of it's a loan because none of us has struck it rich with a line of hip hop oven mitts or some such genius creation yet. But, of course, it didn't stop there. They sent maternity clothes as I grew out of size after size, came and helped take care of the Bean and me, called on boring days... we are so lucky.

Here's the scary thing - I don't know what we would have done without all that because my union screwed me.

My union has what's called a sick leave bank in lieu of offering short term medical disability coverage. Everyone puts in a bit and then you can withdraw in a time of need. Any time. Except the first year. Nope, if anything happens to you that first year, you are screwed my friend. And that was me. What is so magical about that first year that one shouldn't be covered? Isn't the whole point that something like this happens any time, without warning? I plan to do what I do best to help shed light on this problem... complain. Luckily my union is not the cement loafers kind - it's an educational union so I'm more likely to end up having to write "I will not have a high risk pregnancy my first year after moving to a new state" a thousand times.

So, here's the shout-out to the IF community. If you live in the US and you are undergoing IF treatment that may put you at risk for multiple or a high risk pregnancy, please check your short term disability coverage and consider getting some on your own, saving up money, or making some sort of plan (I've known of people who moved back in with their parents)... just in case.

Whether or not you've done this, please consider giving a little something at Boulder's online shower for Akeeyu. Because for most of us Lounge Acts (Double damn!), the thought never occurred to us. We never thought past a positive beta or POAS test. I mean, what kind of person going through IF goes out and plans to lay out cash each month for something that might never happen? And who has the cash left over after treatment anyway?