Figuring out maternity leave yet?

acrose0226

Anyone else starting to calculate how long you can take for maternity leave? At my company, I'll get 6 weeks full pay, and then have the option to do 6 weeks as Family Medical Leave (with a weekly stipend from the state, albeit small) plus an additional six weeks at zero pay. We're starting to try to figure out if/how many weeks I can do as medical leave and/or without pay, how much we'd need to save up in order to live X number of weeks without my income, etc. We're so used to just budgeting for the two us that trying to estimate expenses for baby's few months of living is tricky. 

Anyone else thinking about this yet? Any second time moms have any advice? 

awillis13

Assuming I don't go early (last time I had to be induced at 37 wks and was put on bedrest at 35 wks), I will deliver after we are out for the summer (teacher here).  I'll have 6 weeks most likely if I am still in my current school district, and 8 weeks if I find a job closer to home.  I have to decide if I want to take 4 weeks unpaid at the start of the school year.  If I was still in my previous district where I had professional status, I would do it no question, but I'm in my first year in this role and in this district so that plays a factor in my decision.

halfthetree

I'm self employed, so won't get any paid time off. But we are saving and I'll take at least 4-6 months off.

MotherofDragons

12 weeks unpaid. We are saving for it. 

jesselayne8

All my leave will be unpaid.  I'm trying to take at least 12wks.  

tjvan

I'll get 8 weeks fully paid maternity, 5 weeks fully paid vacation/flex days, and I think I'll take 5 weeks unpaid FMLA. So, I'll get a pretty nice chunk of time.

zseirecarg

12 weeks unpaid. My company gives an additional 2 weeks paid. Not sure if I will take the 2 in addition to or within the 12. I have about 3 weeks of vacation time saved up and am working to save money for the additional weeks left that will be unpaid. I have almost two weeks of sick time, but after reviewing my my company manual - I don't think this can be used towards maternity leave (so i'll just use it as sick days before and after and for doctors appointments). Will figure out more for sure once I tell my boss and will then talk to HR about a plan. 

noellehm

I get 8 weeks paid and then I can petition for 4 more weeks at 60% pay, which I'm planning on doing. DH gets 4 months of paternity leave at 100% pay (?!), which he will take after I go back. I'm beyond grateful that we can push back childcare costs, and stoked that DH will have time to bond with the baby and experience being the primary caregiver, but a small irrational part of me is a little miffed he gets better paternity benefits then me, haha. I was surprised to see so many people have to take unpaid leave (reality check for me). That stinks.

JAGinMI

@tjvan Isn't FMLA just covering 12 weeks off, regardless of whether it is paid or not? I am confused as to how the FMLA weeks are in addition to your maternity and vacation weeks?

JAGinMI

My work offers 12 weeks at 100% pay.

Mistiemorning

I believe my company gives us 2 weeks paid leave for mom and dad which is great then he will have to go back to work and I will be eligible for family medical leave act which protects my job for 12 weeks and an added bonus is new moms can take short term disability pay for that time so I'll get at least 80% of my normal pay while I'm gone. 

silliegirlie143

For those of you who haven't already checked into how FMLA works with your maternity leave, I urge you to do so before assuming it's in addition to your paid leave or vacation.

Most companies simply view FMLA as time towards job protection, not additional time off. I used to work in HR and I can't tell you how many women were extremely disappointed after talking with me about how much time they were actually getting vs what they thought they would have. Also, research maternity laws and time for your state. Some states, like California, offer coverage beyond FMLA

I am thrilled to have paid maternity time with my current company. They may even let me take a couple extra weeks of disability on the back end. 

delujm0

Agree with @silliegirlie143 last time FMLA for me ran concurrent to the paid 6 weeks of my leave.  so I got 6 paid and 6 unpaid and then went back to work.  this time my employer has a new awesome policy of 16 weeks fully paid, all of which I'll be taking.  we have to take it all at once and again it runs concurrent with fmla, so there is no job protection if you want to go unpaid after that.

Luckily I have the ability to work from home as well so if i need to be on bed rest i can just do that and not use leave.  last time I started leave the day after DD was born, as she was born on a Sunday.

berg

I started a new job in August and got pregnant a littttttle quicker than we thought.  So I do not qualify for FMLA since it will be under a year.  I do qualify for 8 weeks STD at 60% pay.  My company offers one week fully paid and then I have 4 weeks vacation.  As long as this is an uneventful pregnancy I should be alright to take 12 weeks.

LAMCH1980

My entire leave is unpaid. I'll have a csection and I have a physically demanding job, so I'll have to go back as soon as my body will allow me. Last time I took 6 weeks. Some people I work with only take 2. 

Assiram42

I have to use all vacation and sick leave first, then possibly donated leave. However, I'm a fairly new employee, so I'll be saving for 6-8 weeks of leave. I'll work from home by then, so I think 6-8 weeks is all I will take.

kfry22

We only have the sick time and PTO that we have accrued. Right now I have four weeks off. I'm hoping I have at least six or eight by June. It's going to be hard to accrue sick leave as I also have to take it for every doctor appointment. I'm a manager so I hope I can work out a deal where I work from home the first week I'm back and then start working back in the field. 

sevenn

With my current EDD I will be between jobs and will take about 8 weeks "unpaid" (aka. unemployed).  I haven't approached my new employer yet but I'm hoping I will be able to move back my start date to give me a bit more time.  If I deliver prior to finishing my first job, I've got paid mat leave up to 6 weeks.  It's hard since delivery is so unpredictable, especially this far out!

michaela0704

Mine situation is a little odd... I'm not sure how FMLA will apply to me as I have been interviewing for a new role at a subsidiary of my parent company.  So if I get it, I won't be employeed 12 months with this specific legal entity when I take leave but I've been with this company in roles within 2 different subsidiaries for almost 7 years.

I'm opting not to go for the VBAC so it'll be 8 weeks off per doctor for just myself to recover from my C-section.

If I don't get the new job, my current company does sick time, so I have 6 weeks accrued (which is the max)... so how it should work is 6 weeks fully paid by my sick time, 2 weeks paid 60% salary for STD for a total of 8 weeks, then PTO/vacation sets in so I'll take 3 - 4 weeks depending on how much is left to be fully paid weeks 9, 10, 11 and maybe 12.  Worst case I'll be fully paid 9 weeks, 60% pay 2 weeks, and 1 week unpaid for the total of 12.

If I do get the new job and they are willing to do the 'standard' 12 weeks even though I may not be eligible for FMLA, they don't have a sick policy so I would get 8 weeks fully paid while I'm out for me/recovery, then I have to take vacation for weeks 9, 10, and 11.  I'm not able to rollover PTO/vacation so I'll lose my extra vacation time I've saved up this year... so only week 12 will be unpaid.  11 weeks fully paid, and 1 week unpaid for the total of 12.

One this I should also add... some employers make you count your OB/CNM visits towards your 12 weeks as it is up to 12 weeks for the same condition within a rolling 12 months.  So some may think they can take 12 weeks unpaid and be protected by FMLA but that isn't always the case, plan accordingly.

tjvan

JAGinMI said:

@tjvan Isn't FMLA just covering 12 weeks off, regardless of whether it is paid or not? I am confused as to how the FMLA weeks are in addition to your maternity and vacation weeks?

The FMLA 12 weeks runs concurrent with the vacation/flex time, but doesn't start until after our formal 8-week maternity leave ends. So the most a woman could take is 20 weeks.

delujm0

JAGinMI said:

@tjvan Isn't FMLA just covering 12 weeks off, regardless of whether it is paid or not? I am confused as to how the FMLA weeks are in addition to your maternity and vacation weeks?

This varies by employer, so it's wise to look into your specific leave policy.  Ours specifically reads that the 16 weeks of Parental Leave (formal maternity leave policy) runs concurrent with FMLA, so there is not protection past the 16 weeks.  Some employers do give additional job protection past the formal leave policy and some don't.  This will really be specific to your employer, and not what other people have available to them, so you have to do your own research.

JAGinMI

delujm0 said:

JAGinMI said:

@tjvan Isn't FMLA just covering 12 weeks off, regardless of whether it is paid or not? I am confused as to how the FMLA weeks are in addition to your maternity and vacation weeks?

This varies by employer, so it's wise to look into your specific leave policy.  Ours specifically reads that the 16 weeks of Parental Leave (formal maternity leave policy) runs concurrent with FMLA, so there is not protection past the 16 weeks.  Some employers do give additional job protection past the formal leave policy and some don't.  This will really be specific to your employer, and not what other people have available to them, so you have to do your own research.

Thank you - I was actually just confused about her policy. I am familiar with how my employer runs our program, which is no maternity/paternity leave, just "short term disability" and FMLA starts as soon as your leave begins. I had no idea that others had the ability to take a maternity leave that was not necessarily concurrent with the FMLA benefit. I thought that as soon as anyone took a leave from their job, for any qualifying reason, FMLA began. Learn something new every day!

brij2006

I'll take 12 weeks. 
We receive 2 weeks paid by our employer, however we are not protected by FMLA since we have under 50 employees. But they're usually pretty good about allowing us to take the time off we need (took 12 weeks with DD).  I also will have 10 vacation days I can use to get paid.
We're big Dave Ramsey fans and have worked his financial plan for 3 years now.  So he recommends during pregnancy to go into "storm cloud mode."  Where you crimp down the budget and stockpile money until mom and baby are home and all the medical bills are paid.  So even though this time around we have no debt, we're treating this as storm cloud mode again and piling up as much cash as possible just in case.

I am also not 100% sure about coming back to work, so the more cash we have in savings, the better I'll feel.  I'm not telling my employer yet that I may come back and change my mind, but I'm just going to take it one day at a time.  If I get back to work and feel that's where I should be, I'll stay.  If not, I'll give a lengthy notice so I can train a new person, or will chat with them about going part-time.

mkrel

I will get 6 or 8 weeks at 80% depending on vaginal delivery or c-section. We are only able to carry over a small amount of PTO, and already have a few necessary days off planned, so I will only have about two weeks of PTO to add to that.  I plan to take the full 12 that FMLA allows, so we are just saving for those unpaid weeks. 

acrose0226

It's so interesting to see everyone's different work/state/FMLA policies. I wish the U.S. were like many countries in Europe -- I have colleagues in Europe who get up to a year of leave (not with full pay, but still nice to have the option of additional baby bonding/delaying child care expenses for as long as possible!).

How much do you estimate for baby expenses the first few months -- $1,000?

staceymwiggins

I'll take at least 8 weeks.  I'll have 3 weeks vacation pay and the rest is on me.  Maybe our new prez will get the 6week paid leave into play before and I'll be able to use that.  If not, we will be saving anyway.   I work for a small children's home and my boss has OK'd bringing baby to work for a few weeks before I am ready to send  to daycare

delujm0

acrose0226 said:

It's so interesting to see everyone's different work/state/FMLA policies. I wish the U.S. were like many countries in Europe -- I have colleagues in Europe who get up to a year of leave (not with full pay, but still nice to have the option of additional baby bonding/delaying child care expenses for as long as possible!).

How much do you estimate for baby expenses the first few months -- $1,000?

This is almost impossible to estimate...depends largely on how much of the medical bills you will be responsible for versus your insurance covering, if there are special circumstances that require additional medical care (premature birth, etc), and whether you are formula feeding or breastfeeding...I mean a lot of things can vary here.  For me, I had my medical bills covered by money that I had already saved in an HSA, and I was able to exclusively breastfeed, so really our only additional expenses were diapers and increased electricity costs (since I was running the A/C all day long for that summer, whereas if I had been at work we would have turned it off or up significantly during the day).  I did save money on the gas I didn't have to buy because I wasn't commuting though.  I mean diapers aren't cheap...and newborns go through a LOT of them...but really our normal expenses didn't go up much until daycare got involved, and then again when DD started eating solid food.  We had received basically everything big we really needed at our showers.

 

This time I see a few larger expenses coming, like needing a double stroller, and another monitor, and eventually more convertible car seats since they'll both be in them at the same time, but otherwise I expect more of the same hopefully.  If we have a boy this time, i'll have to buy some clothes.  It is SO HARD to actually find gender neutral clothes, even effing onesies for girls have stupid bows on them, it's ridiculous.  DD does wear a lot of "boy" pajamas because I figured that's one thing that no one will judge me for, and I just really want to be able to reuse SOMETHING if we have a boy this time!  All of our big stuff is neutral, so that's not a concern.

LMMama

I'll be in between jobs when I deliver. I'm currently interning full time and that ends in May. Looking to secure a job for next September at a school. So going by my EDD I'll probably have about 12 weeks unpaid. My entire internship is unpaid, so we've saved enough to cover me through the end of the summer. Gonna need that new job asap though.

meilay

I spoke with HR a couple of weeks ago to hammer this out. My job offers two weeks paid and that's in addition to FMLA, not concurrent. So I'll take a minimum of 14 weeks, with 2 weeks fully paid and 12 weeks at 60% pay with short term disability. We really need to get on saving to cover the missing part of my income but we're still trying to recover from some setbacks earlier this year.

amberp1528

@LMMama we are in the exact same boat! Except I will not be taking a job in the school until the following year as I want to spend the first year at home and daycare around here for the first year is upwards of 300 a week so it makes more sense for me to stay home until they are one and start daycare then and it goes down 50-75 a week. I am a little worried about scheduling appointments while interning as I am only allowed 3 abasents total just woundering what you were going to do about that? 

LMMama

@amberp1528 Daycare here runs about that much as well, unfortunately imma need to work!

I'm not too worried about my appointments. How late does your doctor's office schedule till? I know mine goes until 5. I figure I will just schedule all of mine for later in the day. 

swanbrooner

I'm a teacher, so I won't have to worry about the time I'm taking off over the summer. I am planning on taking the first quarter of school off using 5 years worth of sick days that I've stockpiled.

Our school corporation is so supportive of taking extended time off for maternity leaves. I could take up to two years (unpaid of course) if I wanted to and still keep my job.

wifeinraleigh28

Being in a field where my pay comes directly from the clients I provide service for, I don't get paid if I do not work. So any time I take is unpaid. I'm planning to take 3 months, which we are saving for, and then I'll be going back to work. I know it's going to be hard but we will make it work. DH will receive his full salary no matter what time he takes off to be home, fortunately!

amberp1528

@LMMama mine is only til four and I a half at the elementary gets out at 2:30 and we can leave at 3 so that is fine but the other half is high school at they get out at 3:30 and can leave at 3:45 so no real help there! 

ashleyl31

I'm a teacher and will be out for the summer when I deliver. We can then use vacation/sick days and take up to a year off without losing our job. I plan to take off at least 9 weeks at the beginning of the year when school starts back in August. I have around 30 paid days and the rest will be unpaid, but they stretch our checks for us. 

ashleyl31

swanbrooner said:

I'm a teacher, so I won't have to worry about the time I'm taking off over the summer. I am planning on taking the first quarter of school off using 5 years worth of sick days that I've stockpiled.

Our school corporation is so supportive of taking extended time off for maternity leaves. I could take up to two years (unpaid of course) if I wanted to and still keep my job.

I'm a teacher as well and we can take a year (unpaid) and keep our job, although it may not be at the same school or grade. 

I have a child who is almost 4, and used all my days with him. I've built up about 30 right now, which is still much better than a lot of people in this post, so I'm happy. 

brooklynmama718

I'm already getting the ball rolling on this. One less thing to worry about during this crazy time. I will take FMLA which is 12 weeks paid at my school (I'm a 7-12 teacher). In addition, I'm taking 8 weeks paternal once that runs out (also paid). I just submitted paperwork to be completed by my ob gyn office and should get it back by early next week. That will put me from June 7th (estimated due date) through December 28th or so. After that, I'll decide if I want to take the rest of the year off, unpaid if course. I can get on my husband's insurance but need to start budgeting/saving since I don't want to feel guilty about losing so much $$. I think being with baby would beppriceless, but I'm not 100% sure about it yet.  

Did anyone else begin paperwork or am I just the crazy one? My doctor today said isn't it early? Lol 

awillis13

I will most likelu be on summer vacation when I deliver (assuming I don't go early like I did with DS, but even then it will be just about the end of the school year).  Depending on when I deliver will determine how much time, if any, I take at the beginning of next school year.  I will probably only take 8 weeks though (which might only be a week or 2 at the beginning of the school year), because this is only my first year in this district.  Also, I'm planning on job hunting this spring so I may be starting a new position and won't want to have to take time off to start a new job.

Ahutch428

I will have a month off because of summer vacation, then I will use FMLA and short term disability for an additional 3 months. 

gabadoo

My job is giving me 11 weeks fully paid (concurrent with FMLA) thru a combo of STD (6 weeks...unless I have a c-section, then 8 weeks) and PTO (4 weeks vacation, 1 week faculty benefits from the Med school). I'm shooting to extend to at least 14 weeks, ideally 16-18 weeks so that I can stretch it through the end of Sept., but that will  depend on how much $$$ we can save up in the next 5 months! We live primarily on my income...so, it's tough to take too much unpaid time off between student loans, mortgage, child care/school for my 2yo son, my husband's new business and NYC living in general! I'm going to chat with my job's HR dept and OB's office about the paperwork needed this month.

caribbeanmama-2

@gabadoo are you in academia as well?  At my job there is no maternity leave per say but there is STD for 3 weeks, then if you deliver in the summer there is flexibility schedulewise if you are
on a 9 month appointment, and then it is customary to request teaching relief for one semester at full salary.  I've heard of faculty at other institutions getting 2 semesters teaching relief gasp!