S/O Work... What's the Plan When LO Gets Here?

[Deleted]

I am a teacher in a private school. Last year when my Aug 14 baby was born, I was fortunate to be able to go back PT. I teach 3 middle school classes 12:30-3. It has been a dream schedule and the perfect balance for me to keep up my professional life while getting so much time w LO. The downside was I only got 6 weeks of leave. Actually seven since he was born at the end of the first week of school. I worked in service, but they did not have me start my classes at 39 weeks :-P

If I go 40 weeks this baby is due w 9 weeks left of school. However I am only teaching 2 classes the last 9 weeks. I have a new boss, and I am hoping she may just let me take it. It's unpaid anyway. If I do only get six weeks, I will only have to work 3 weeks in May and then be out for all of summer. If that does happen we will either get a babysitter at home, or H will do it. This LO will not have to go to daycare until 5 mo which is so awesome!!

[queenofjacks]

I don't get any paid leave so I'll only take six weeks. I work for an agency that places behavior specialists in elementary schools, so I'll go back to work for six weeks and then be off again for the summer.

[jocountry]

I work FT and am our primary breadwinner. DH works full time too. I get six weeks paid and had hoped to take another four or so unpaid.
But I work in agriculture. So with a Feb 29 due date, I will have to be back as soon as I can or my business will suffer. Luckily I work from home so can start answering my phone when I feel up to it, and start traveling days at six weeks. I'm bummed but that's spring.
We will also be calving and so it will be total madness for a few months!

[almachs0786]

I don't have a choice but to continue working - especially with twins. I'll probably take 10 wks mat leave (assuming there are no pregnancy complications that force me to take time off before babies come). I'll continue to work at my current employer, but hopefully only for another year, then the plan is to work privately for a surgeon instead of for a hospital.

[jess9802]

I will continue to work FT after having this baby. I will likely take eight weeks of maternity leave, just as I did last time. I'm a partner in my firm so I will continue to get a draw against my collections, but not billing for that long of a time period means my salary will be lower for a while. I'm okay with that. My mom will continue to watch DS and the baby three or four days a week at our house, and my MIL will watch them the other week days. That's a change that makes me a little nervous.

[SheilaTheTank]

I'm going to push for 12 weeks leave. It will be all unpaid except for two weeks. We planned for this before TTC thankfully. I'm going to try looking for a part time job the fall after the baby is born. I need to get the f out of my job anyways and since I'm incredibly underpaid as it is, I should be able to find a good part time job.

[adorebel]

I clicked SS: I'm a PhD student, so I work full time writing my dissertation and teaching my students, but I set all my own hours for writing and grading and only have to be in the office 3 days a week for 3-4 hours at a time. Kind of a WAHM, but not quite. I should get 6 weeks paid leave.

[songbirdsinging55]

With my first, I planned 6 weeks but then I had an emergency gallbladder surgery after a bad case of pancreatitis. At 5 weeks PP. So I ended up with 8 weeks but it was all unpaid.
This time, I think 8 weeks is just right. It will be unpaid (aside from 2 weeks vacation) but we have a small savings built up and will continue to add to it ob. We are lucky to have MIL who is retired and watches DS 3 days a week.

[rlpointer86]

I'm already a SAHM and that won't change after this one comes.

[Missy0483]

I will 100% unwillingly be going back to work. I plan to take 12 weeks like last time, but this time I have a car payment so I really need to start saving. We have to use our vacation first (10 days) and sick time (6 days I believe) and the remaining is unpaid FMLA time. We have no maternity leave or STD coverage. My work isn't very family friendly The last time I came back from maternity leave my job was changed and I received more work with no more pay, it was pretty stressful. I'm not looking forward to returning at all. This whole topic makes me sick and angry that we don't have some kind of maternity leave.

[Deleted]

Aug 6, 2015 17:08:43 GMT -5 britts22 said:

I'll take my 12 weeks off and then bring my baby to work for 2 months. My office has an "infant at work" program that allows any mom to bring in the baby until 5 months. I'm a little nervous about juggling work and childcare but it's a nice program so I plan to use it.

That sounds AMAZING. What a cool benefit.

[KK_8721]

I am a SAHM now so no change.

After pregnancy #1 I took 4 months maternity leave. When I went back to work, DH stayed home. Then he got a job 7 months later and we both started working while my mom watched the girls. A month later I started staying home. We've done it all! Me SAH makes us all the happiest.

[OrganicRosemary]

I'm currently SAH, so I'll continue after LO is here. I'm sorry to all you mamas that are unwillingly having to go back to work. I was in your shoes after #1, just started staying home a few months ago. Being a working mom (wanting to be or not) is no joke.

[chatterbox]

I've been on Childcare Leave since my daughter was born in June 2014. I'll definitely stay home for at least the year after #2 is born and then we'll see after that. I can take until my youngest is 5, unpaid of course. A lot of it depends on what happens with DH's career. I would like to go back to work in some capacity though.

[AlphabetFish]

My current plan is to stay at home. We are military and it's quite doable to live on that one income since housing and insurance are taken care of.

I do work part-time at a job I like right now, so I might try to keep that, and there are also some high paying full-time jobs coming up in my department, so we'll have to see if I were to get any of those. If I did, well, the money would be pretty amazing and I might have to stay.

However, it's always been my dream to stay home with my children--at least while they were very small--so that I could raise them as I saw fit. Someone's going to have to be taking care of my babies, so it may as well be me if it's at all possible. That's how I feel.

[noodles84]

I sah currently and will continue to do so. I will probably not return to full time work till all of the kids are out of elementary school. I wouldn't mind finding something part time in a few years.