I had my great post-partum medical visit yesterday, and I forgot to discuss the most important thing!

I need medical certification for being out on short-term disability, and for going back to work. All that stuff involves paperwork and signoff at the doctor’s office.

Did I bring it with me? No.
Did I even mention it? No.

My next visit isn’t until the end of May. But my plan is to go back to work half-time in early April.

In any event, in order to get partially paid by short-term disability insurance, I need to document that I am temporarily unable to return to work. By "document," of course I mean that the doctor needs to sign some papers indicating when I can’t work, and when I will be able to return.

Oops.

I’m also a little annoyed with my HR department, who gave me a stack of paperwork, but never told me that in addition to notifying them when the baby arrived, I also needed to apply online directly to the short-term disability insurer. Concerned that 3 weeks had passed with no checks arriving, I called HR yesterday, and they gave me the URL.

The web site says that processing the claim will take 5-7 business days, by which time they will mail me some documents to sign, which I then need to return to them. So clearly we’ll be looking at close to 6 weeks after The King’s birth before I get the disability checks. It also said that if the disability is due to the birth of a baby, you can fill out all of the paperwork up to 30 days before the estimated due date. Wish I’d known!

All I can really say about that is thank goodness that the 2005 bonus came in at approximately my estimate, and was deposited the week after The King was born. Otherwise, we’d be seriously stressed out.