Secret - OUT!

Well, it's done. The people at work know that I'm expecting another baby. This will be the third maternity leave with the same employer and naturally, I was a bit skitish about telling them. Not that they have a rule about how many maternity leaves you're allowed to take, but it makes me feel like such a breeder. Seriously, the people I work for and with are mostly child-free. And of those that do have children, they only have one each. Here I come, the low woman on the pay scale - knocked up again. I imagine they all think I'm crazy and to tell you the truth, I guess I kinda am! College educations will get paid for, somehow, if that's what they all choose to do. Can't worry about that now.

Anyway, the way my well kept secret was exposed is quite something. Most of the people on my floor stream into work at about 11:30 a.m., noonish. I'm the first thing they see when they open the door to the Executive Office Suite. Around noon, this awesome woman that I work with opens the door, looks at me, stops and just says "I see you pregnant". Do-do-do-do.

At this point I shake the goosebumps and know that I've gotta go with it - can't deny. I was kinda speechless and by not vehemently denying it, she knew she was right. I took this as the universe's big, obvious way of telling me that this was the day to spill my secret. And at least when I got around to telling my boss the news later that same day, I had the cool story to go with it. Kinda made it easier to approach the subject. I told her and we laughed and she put my mind at ease by telling me that she didn't want to see me go and that she'd work with me to make my schedule a little bit more flexible when I came back from maternity leave. Whew. I also reassured her that with two car payments, a mortgage, etc. that I needed to keep working. It will be a logistical nightmare come January but so many more women out there have it worse than me. At least we have the cars and the house. And we're happy in them.