I will soon be unemployed

And I guess it's a good thing. I'd rather keep working but my employer is unable to accommodate our need to work locally.

My husband and I drive a tractor trailer for a living. We have a scheduled run from south Florida to Atlanta five days a week. It's 7,000 miles of driving every week with no time off or at home. We're constantly moving.

My OB has been okay with me driving as long as I promised to get up and walk every two hours. Pregnancy is a state of hypercoagulation which means blood clots are more of a risk. Add that to me sitting 11 hours a day and you have a risky situation. My OB stressed this to me, reminding me of the NBC news correspondant, David Bloom, who died while riding along with an infantry division heading to Baghdad. I had just watched a television documentary on the initial days of the Iraq war and I remembered his story.

It's been a struggle to stop and walk every two hours because of the tight schedule we're required to keep. It's been more of a strain on Chris because he's had to do more of the physical work than before. He's also been driving a larger share of the miles because I'm so tired. Obviously we couldn't continue doing this job forever. Eventually we need to be home for the baby! We've been trying to ask for different jobs for over 8 months. For one reason or the other (all legitimate) our manager has asked us to continue to do the run until the timing is better. Well with the economy, the timing isn't going to get better for a long while.


After my 15th week OB appointment, we decided to speak with our terminal manager again. This time I needed a firm date to stop driving. I had hoped to get an office position. I had done that part time four years ago when I drove locally so I definitely had the experience. But did they have an opening?

So we had the sit down with our manager. He congratulated me when I told him I was pregnant and would need to stop driving that run soon. He of course figured something was up with all the doctor appointments that I had. I actually told him that I had two miscarriages over the last year for some reason. My voice broke! That's the first time I've told anyone out loud other than very close family. I just didn't want him to think I'm a sickly person and normally needs a lot of time off. That last year has been the exception for my normal attendance.

There's a hiring freeze right now that actually may last until the end of the year. He can't create an office job for me, said he was sorry to lose a good driver but with the economy as it is there's just nothing he could do. I understand that and expected it. May 31st is expected to be my last day.

As for Christopher, the manager has been trying to create a new nightly run for a while. He's going to work on that and try to get two city drivers to take over our run. So hopefully Chris will either have a night job driving about 430 miles or he'll work in the day making city deliveries. If they can't find someone to take the job from the city, then Chris may be out of the job too. The night job would pay better plus it's less physical work.

Chris told me that he didn't want me to work any where else so that's a relief in part. If he doesn't get to keep his job then that may change. Now we wait and see.

We're prepared financially. The plan is for me to be a Stay At Home Mom. I guess now I'll be a Stay At Home Baby Grower. It's still intimidating though to think that I won't have a job for much longer. I've been working since I was 15. I've never depended on anyone else. A baby brings big changes!