I Quit!

(sorry this might get wordy. I warned you!)

So, this is how it all went down...

• We found out that we were expecting Lovely Babe 2 on a Thursday
• We told our families that weekend (at my family's 50th reunion no less!)
• I walked into work on Monday morning to put in my 2 weeks notice. 

We've made the decision that, for our family, I'm going to stay home.

It was the right decision and it was definitely time. The anxiety that I felt about telling my employer that I am pregnant again was enough to drive that message home for me. I didn't post about it at the time because I was to much of a mess, but my job as a female chemist and my first pregnancy DID NOT get along.

During the first pregnancy, I was afraid I was going to lose my job or be forced to work in an environment contaminated with documented reproductive hazards - on large scales. I was forced out of my group because they made claims I wasn't being productive and wasn't working 40 hours a week.  All completely untrue, but what they were claiming could have cost me my job. They didn't want to work around my limitation mandated by a company health assessment. After being forced out of my lab group, they had nowhere to place me because of hazards. They attempted to move me to a different lab without a health assessment, and told me about it the morning that I was supposed to transfer. I finally had to get HR involved and threaten to contact a lawyer. Then, when I came back from maternity leave, no group wanted to work with me because of the terrible rumors about me. I had to fight for my job and reputation while caring for a newborn, breastfeeding/pumping at work and being completely sleep deprived. Pumping at work was a large hurdle, because I would "disappear for large chunks of time" for no reason. And I continued to catch crap about having to leave early to get a sick Firefly from daycare.

I had been passed over for at least 3 promotions, denied raises and bonuses. But there was not much I could do about it because it was a she said/she said situation.

Anyways! that anxiety left me with a feeling of peace about our decision. So I walked in and gave my resignation. Unfortunately, my immediate supervision is a very good friend and I have worked with him for almost 4 years. There were tears his not mine, seriously and hugs and sad faces, for 2 long weeks. And there have been sad face messages since. I do miss our daily half hour coffee breaks every morning, but morning cartoon time more than makes up for it.

So far, quitting has been a wonderful decision for all of us. Now if I could only get a handle on this morning all day sickness...