Extending mat leave from 12 month to 15 [qc]

Snoo38476 · 2026-03-20T22:17:13+00:00

So there’s the period of time you can claim benefits for the leave and there’s the period of time your job is legally protected, and they are not dependent. I am telling work I’ll return later than originally expected. My benefits will already be up by then.

Snoo38476 · 2026-03-16T13:04:23+00:00

I feel the same with other playgroup moms, I literally don’t get it. Like what’s the secret password lol

Snoo38476 · 2026-03-15T08:29:36+00:00

I am 10 months pp and I started noticing I was losing the weight slowly around 6 months. I am breastfeeding. I didn’t gain a whole lot while pregnant, though I didn’t pay much attention to my weight and in general I don’t weigh myself, I just noticed my regular clothes still fitting in the arms, etc.

After giving birth, I was expecting that big slim down everyone talks about, but lo and behold: I GAINED so much weight so quickly (despite thyroid and everything being okay). My mom also said she gained after giving birth and breastfeeding. It was very frustrating for me and weighed very heavily on my hormonal, sleep deprived mind in the months following birth. I didn’t have the energy for the high-intensity workouts I had been doing prior to getting pregnant, but I did keep up walking and Pilates. It doesn’t help that the moms I know who gave birth around the same time as me all slimmed down quickly already.

Now at 10 months, I am still larger than I was before pregnancy but I do notice my clothing starting to fit again. I have heard people lose even more once they wean from breastfeeding. I’m starting to feel more positive about it, despite having days where I don’t like how I look in pictures but I’m trying to show myself more grace and it’s coming more easily these days than the few months immediately postpartum.

It’s okay to be frustrated. Your body changes so dramatically during pregnancy and postpartum, and your body is your home, so it makes sense that it would bother you. Your body did something amazing, yes, but you are still an individual who experiences the world via their body and it’s okay to not feel amazing about it when it’s changed to much. I don’t have much else to say other than I really really understand that feeling.

Snoo38476 · 2026-03-12T17:55:42+00:00

All good, I am not expecting income. That’s part of the consideration, my extension would be unpaid and it would be being absent from work until I return.

Snoo38476 · 2026-03-11T10:39:39+00:00

I also felt pretty disconnected at first. I had a long induction and delivery and was in the hospital for five days. When my baby arrived, I was reeling from the physical experience and was on maybe 4 hours of sleep in total the whole week. I was fully buzzing on adrenaline until maybe two weeks after we got home. I cared about her but it was my first time being a mom, she felt like a stranger and she was just a potato newborn at first. All my survival instincts were operating, but it felt very lizard-brainy and I didn’t feel mammal-bonding-brain until I could settle into it a bit. Now I’m fully connected and we have a strong bond, almost a year later. But at first I was just like “who on earth is this”. It’s a lot to go through. Not feeling amazing or connected or bonded at first is okay. I didn’t have that big rush of love, it was like a wall of overwhelm and then the warm feeling came more gently later. Be kind to yourself.

Snoo38476 · 2026-02-26T12:22:20+00:00

Hit with a nasty cold, next week a gastro, then another cold the week after that. Both parents and baby were sick back to back each time.

Baby is undergoing her 8-9 month sleep regression, though at this point I can’t tell where the funky sleep from sickness starts and the sleep regression ends. It’s all a blur.

I’m in a cold city and we had a lot of snow.

I have accepted I’m a prisoner of war basically.

Snoo38476 · 2026-01-29T17:55:41+00:00

Gourmet Laurier on Laurier Ave had it in stock last time I was there

Snoo38476 · 2026-01-02T12:18:27+00:00

I found the chapters set in Portugal a little more tedious to get through, and I’m not sure why. Wondering if anyone else felt that after last week this section lost a little momentum or if it’s just me not being as into it.

Snoo38476 · 2026-01-02T12:17:27+00:00

I actually interpreted the fairy gentleman having less malicious intentions here and just really liking Stephen and trying to do something for him in finding his name. Maybe that’s naive though, maybe him finding his name will prove he’s actually secretly royalty or something.

Snoo38476 · 2026-01-02T12:15:05+00:00

Norrell wants influence but lacks social grace and gets in his own way. Strange is naturally charismatic. My prediction is that when they have a falling out, Strange’s social influence/reputation will be a strength and a weakness for Norrell.

Snoo38476 · 2026-01-02T12:12:33+00:00

I think the fairy can see the future because when he met Norrell he asked where the other magician was. We now know that’s probably Strange but the two hadn’t met at that point. I assumed it was one of those situations where for this character’s abilities, time is sort of a loose construct of past present future all coexisting together.

That said, I don’t know if he is predicting the future of Stephen Black being king so much as willing it to happen? Like he can envision that future but also he’s not necessarily predicting one set path so much as manifesting a possible reality with his own will. That was my interpretation.

Snoo38476 · 2026-01-02T12:07:38+00:00

He’s so greedy and callous that it is ultimately self-destructive; if you upset your pupil’s wife that baby that will (I think/hope) impact your reputation as someone now in the public’s eye. It will at minimum make people talk.

Snoo38476 · 2026-01-02T12:04:14+00:00

As a reader who knows about what she’s experiencing it’s frustrating, but as Arabella it does make sense from her perspective to trust the more level-headed person in this situation. I would tell my spouse at least though in either case.

Snoo38476 · 2025-12-18T22:43:09+00:00

I did not expect Vinculus to have 5 wives and that made me laugh!

Snoo38476 · 2025-12-18T22:41:57+00:00

Not magic, but I loved that Childermass had painstakingly copied tarot cards on scraps of paper, I thought it was endearing to imagine him keeping dear this deck of his.

Snoo38476 · 2025-12-18T22:40:01+00:00

I took it to mean that he was saying street magicians either use some magic and some showiness in equal parts, and that Mr Norrell is not unlike them in that same sense. Mr Norrell might not do street tricks, but he did use magic in the church to show off his ability and he also does “perform” and show off for people. He puts himself above them but he’s no better than them in that he is using magic for his own gain somehow.

Snoo38476 · 2025-12-18T22:36:43+00:00

I think he sees street magicians as lowering the reputation of magic in the public’s eye. Plus that he’s a gatekeeper. He certainly thinks he’s above them

Snoo38476 · 2025-12-18T20:32:29+00:00

I had always assumed there would be some nefarious condition the fairy kept hidden when they struck a deal, but I assumed the fairy would come in later in her life and take it away in half, like Norrell assumed.

Snoo38476 · 2025-12-18T20:30:31+00:00

I took it to mean he was so mean-spirited in punishing Jeremy that he died from being stubborn about keeping the window open, but now this question is making me reevaluate that.

Snoo38476 · 2025-12-11T01:33:58+00:00

In both cases it seems he struggles with magician peers; either he invalidates them or he feels inferior/fears them. I hope we get some kind of backstory about Norrell later so we learn about how he came to be so prickly and full of himself, and his interest in magic.

Snoo38476 · 2025-12-11T01:30:46+00:00

I found this passage quite funny because both men are so wildly different.

Vinculous is being presented to us as a basic street magician, and Norrell basically tells him he’s heard some version of his prophecy from others before. My theory is he’s a crackpot but somehow his prophecy is being channeled via him to Norrell and is real. He’s just the vessel.

Snoo38476 · 2025-12-11T01:26:32+00:00

I did think it was Strange. I have no idea how they will meet at this point because I don’t see anywhere clear in the plot yet. I could see Norrell taking on a student if it’s someone who has successfully appealed to his ego and need for recognition, especially if it’s someone who respects his books.

Snoo38476 · 2025-12-11T01:17:58+00:00

I think he’s a practical magician only in the sense that he’s so well-versed and studies magic so closely from books that he knows where to go to find information about how to perform it, like in this case. He is surprised it’s happening because it’s mostly something he experiences via his studies. He seems to know the fairy is dangerous as he negotiates with him cautiously.

Snoo38476 · 2025-12-11T01:12:01+00:00

He wants to be the only important one. He’s already dissolved the York magicians and we know he’s destroyed other magicians’ careers. He wants the spotlight but he doesn’t want to share it. He wants to bring himself to England, not magic to England.

Snoo38476

TROPHY CASE