Bebe,  Update,  Baby

Baby Care Plans

We had a great plan for how we'll split the parental leave for the first two years of Jordan's life... until we found out that the new parental leave bill won't take effect for babies born before August 2022 and as I couldn't keep my legs crossed for that long, we had to change our plans.

In general we have a few principles that we'd like to honor when it comes to taking care of our little one. These are things that are important and possible for us but I would never judge anybody else's choices or principles. Each family does what's possible and right for them.

Our first principle is that we take turns caring for Jordan at home until he's at least two years old. The second one is that he shouldn't be separated from both of his parents for more hours than he's old in months.

Our original plan was that once the baby's born, I'll stay home on maternity leave and after that on parental leave, staying home for about a year, all together. Eerikki would stay home on paternity leave and then take all the vacations he has saved. After that, around February, he'd go back to work and then stay home for a year when my parental leave is over, so when Jordan is one year old. This wasn't possible in the end as the current parental leave is too short for this so we've changed the plan. Now, we'll both be home, as in the original plan, until February. But now, I'll return to work at the end of February and Eerikki will stay home on parental leave. He'll stay home until fall and then I'll stay home until Jordan is 2 years old. He'll also take his paternity leave at some point when I'm on my parental leave so that I can work for those 9 weeks.

Then the "not absent longer than the baby has months" thing. I don't think we'll take this so literally that we can't be away for a bit longer if the baby's asleep, for example. This is also just for someone taking care of him other than us, one of us might need to be away for a bit longer even though we both work from home when we're working. I've been working on my PhD from home since I started it so after I return to work, I'll still be home available for the baby and able to nurse him throughout the day whenever needed. So even when we go back to work, we're both still around for the baby day and night.

Our plan was to give him pumped breast milk but unlike I expected I haven't found nursing uncomfortable like I thought I would so I'll keep nursing him for the first year and Eerikki will only give pumped breast milk when I need more time for work or need to sleep longer.

So that's our plan! How things will go in reality is something we'll have to see in time, things rarely go exactly as planned, after all.

Speaking of unexpected, Jordan is still spending most of his time on my lap either eating or sleeping. That's why I've been writing, and translating, less frequently as I don't get on my laptop that often right now. If I have time to pump, I tend to save that milk for nighttime so that I can get more sleep. At times we do give a little bit of formula too just so that I can have a short break or get some extra sleep.

We've started going for stroller walks too, which has been really fun. Jordan sleeps a few hours on these walks and I get some exercise and fresh air. Jordan has also grown so much! He's been growing at a really good pace so I guess all this nursing is paying off :).

2 Comments

  • Kia

    Hei, haluutko vähän selittää tota auki että miksei ole mahdollista sun olla ekaa vuotta kotona ja Eerikin tokaa? Kun siis voisithan sä pitää äitiysloman, vanhempainvapaan, sitten pari kk hoitovapaata ja sit kun Eerikki jää niin hän pitäis isyyslomat ja jäisi sitten hoitovapaalle. Vai mitä tarkoitit?

    • Sissi

      Moikka! Siis mahdollista se olisi juuri noin kuin kirjoitit, mutta taloudellisesti se ei olisi ollut meille mahdollista. Siksi teimme sen näin, että Eerikki pitää kaikki vanhempainvapaat ja koska ne täytyy käyttää nyt heti ensimmäisen vuoden aikana, Eerikki jää kotiin nyt ja minä palaan töihin äitiysloman jälkeen ja olen kotona sitten toisen vuoden. <3

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