First pregnancy as a teacher, limited leave
I found out I was pregnant this summer and after the joy wore off the “holy crap how am I going to do this,” sunk in. Here’s the main concern: last year I did all four NBCT components and, naturally, burned through a ton of my leave (I’m carrying over three days 😬). My due date is March, which means tons of unpaid leave (my state does not offer paid maternity leave), but it also means tons of appointments before I even deliver.
I’m trying to schedule appointments after work, but it’s been really difficult so far, so I’m really worried about using up all my leave and going negative. I’m hoping my admin will be flexible and let me go to some of them during my planning (we have 84 min blocks) which mine leads right into our hour-long lunch block/study hall time. That gives me an almost three hour chunk of time I could leave and come back during without putting anything in anyone else.
Have any of you been in a similar situation? How was your admin? How did you handle it if they were not understanding? How common is it to go to these appointments on planning? For context, our hours are 7:30 am - 3:20 pm and my Dr’s hours are 8:00 - 4:30, so it suuuper tight.