How much time did/will you take off after bub????

[travelmumma]

Hey Mummas,

DP (soon to be DH!!) and I are going to start TTC in a month, and are trying to figure out our work/study plans for the future.

How much time did/will you take off when you had bubba? Do you wish that you had taken more/less?

When did you take it off? How many weeks? How many weeks were you when you told employer/college/university and how did you do this?

Our options at the moment are either for me to take 4 months off after birth (from uni and work then start both up again with bubba in part time child care), and have DP work full time..

OR

To take 18 weeks off work after birth and take a year off uni to be with bubba and then work part time after my maternity leave runs out.

Thoughts, opinions and suggestions very welcome!

xxooo

[tank]

I am about to start working again in a week.  My son will be 8 weeks at that point.  My partner went back to work full time when he was 2 weeks old.  When I go back to work I will work 3 days and my partner will work 3 long days and we will have evenings and Sundays off together as a family.  We had to do it this way because neither of us got paid time off and I am the breadwinner but don't want to put him in childcare until he can actually interact and enjoy going and I want him to only get breastmilk.  When I am working my partner will be taking care of him so I feel a little bit better about leaving him so early but I am still nervous. 

I don't have any advice for you except fort take as much time off with your child as you can finantually do.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a working mom or stay at home mom, both are equally admirable in my book.  Now that my son is here I just want to spend every waking (and nonwaking) hour with him. I didn't want my life to change much and do the best I can to do the same things (that are possible) that I did before having him with him now.  I love my job and knew I wanted to go back so I planned it so that I could go back but part time so I can still enjoy his childhood and do activities with him during the day and so can my partner.

I don't have any advice for telling your boss when you are taking your leave because I am technically self employed but have a boss that I answer to so I gave her an idea of what I wanted to do early and then gave her my final plan 4 weeks before I wanted to return to work.

[LilMomma83]

I had a FT job and was a FT student when I had DS1, I took 12 weeks (mostly unpaid, but, FMLA none the less) plus 2 "transitional" weeks where I worked PT. I told my employer in person when I was 13 weeks pregnant and I worked with him and his boss to write up an official maternity leave plan which was finalized by 26 weeks. I got permission from my professors at school to get "incomplete" grades if he was born before the end semester (he was born the week before finals during the spring semester) and I skipped the summer semester, went PT in the fall and had all my finals turned in by the end of the fall semester (that was the deadline).

With DS2 I was working PT and going to school FT. DS2 Was born at the end of June so I just skipped the summer and returned to school in the fall - he was about 7 weeks old. I worked until he was born and took 6 weeks off then went back PT. I did work a few times before the 6 weeks was up since I otherwise would have had no pay at all. I told my boss as soon as I found out I was pregnant lol but we really made a solid plan when I was about 30 weeks or so.

With DD I was thankfully not in school anymore, but, busy looking for jobs! I managed to land one when I was about 9 weeks pregnant, and I hid the pregnancy as long as possible. I ended up writing a letter that included a suggestion of what my maternity leave would like and telling my employer when I was around 20 weeks. I made my own deadline (36 weeks) to have everything in place. I am currently 2 weeks into my 6 week leave. Since I am so new to the job I only have 2 weeks vacation and thankfully some holiday mixed in. I am planning to work from home 1 day during week 4 and 1 day during week 5 since I'm entirely unpaid those weeks otherwise. My boss had origionally said I couldn't work from home but she changed her mind lol. 6 weeks seems really short to me for some reason...maybe because of the holidays and my recovery going slower this time...but I can't believe I'm already 2 1/2 weeks into it! Booo! I am planning to go back to school sometime soon..was going to go back in January, but, I think I might wait a little longer...it feels like it might be to much. I can hardly deal with the idea of going back to work at the moment...

One thing is, until you are holding your baby in your arms there is no way to really know what you want...

[*MamaJen*]

My advice is to be grateful you live in Australia and have access to paid maternity leave. In the US, we don't have any mandatory paid maternity leave (except in a couple of states), and most companies don't provide it. We do have 12 weeks of mandatory unpaid leave, but that's only for companies with more than 50 employees, so about 40% of women aren't even ensured unpaid leave. It's pretty crappy.

As far as specific choices...it really depends. Some women adore being home with their kids, and some women really miss having a job or studies. If I can possibly swing it, I think that for my next baby I would love to have the option of working a part-time or flexible schedule for the first year or two. Financially, would you have the option of just doing school (or work) for the first year?

[livacreature]

I took 3 weeks off before birth and 8 weeks after. I wish I could have worked until the end of pregnancy but it wasn't happening. Honestly, I still feel torn. We both work ft but do all care between us, so it is very busy and tiring. I'm glad not to have my 2 month old in daycare though.

[mamapigeon]

I took two terms off from school, so DS was around 5 months when I started classes again.

[Mama2ChicknLil]

SUPER lucky to live in CA, FMLA is paid at the same rate as disability for the same amount of time, so I got 3 months off at 55% my regular pay. This last month was covered by sick/vacation time I had saved. I go back on January 10th, Kai will be 4 months old. Part of me wishes I could stay out until he's 6 months, another part of me is desperate to get back. If I weren't the primary breadwinner for our family I think returning PT would have been ideal. Sigh.

[Ragana]

I took off three months after each birth, but I was OK with that since DH was our caregiver. The first time was much harder, because I still worked outside the home in an office. The second time I had my own business and needed time to work, but could still see the kids during the day. Both were exclusively BF, so it can be done both ways, although again, the first time was harder since I was in an office.

Oh, one little tip - if you are TTC in a month, have a good idea of what you are going to do. You might have a certain length of time in mind that it will take to TTC, but let me assure you, there can be surprises! We thought it would take 6-8 mos. or so, but instead it was 10 days!   Needless to say, plans had to be moved up.

[modestmothering]

I am planning to take 5 unpaid months off.  We are going to definitely be struggling financially.  Maybe I will take up to a year, depending on how we feel.  Then, my husband will be a SAHD because my earning potential is much higher than his and I really love my job. 

[Mom2OnePlusTwo]

Hi,

With my first I was still in highschool.  I had my daughter in July and went back in September.  I was living with my sister at the time.

With my second I was in third year of my Bach of Social Work.  I had M in February, finished off the academic year at home and then started in September for my graduating year.  The advisor was telling me to quit and come back when my son was one.  Umm...no thanks!  Having a child doesnt interefere with my life, it only makes it better!  I had worked part time throughout my pregnancy also so I was entitled to one year of maternity leave so 55% of my regular pay up to a max of 400 and some per week. I was allowed to go back to school and still be on maternity leave.

With my third I was working full time and out of school so I had the full maternity leave which is one year in Canada.  I enjoyed it with my three kids because I knew we had completed our family at that point so no more mat leaves!

Whatever works the best for you and your family.  You can plan all you want but when the baby arrives things may change.  With my second I thought I would take a couple of weeks off and just go back to school with him in a sling.  Didn't happen!  :)