When will you start Maternity Leave?

ishka338

I was looking at my calendar and trying to find a good time to start my maternity leave and wondered what is normal?  Will you work up until the very last day possible?  I am so affraid of my water breaking at my desk, so I was thinking at 35 weeks I would be ready to stop. 

What's your plan, if you have one already?

Telly21182

I want to spend as much time with baby as possible so I plan to work until I pop!  Now, ask me again the closer we get and that may be a different story, but if all goes well that's the plan!

DowagerCountessofNJ

I work at home with exception for 2 or 3 days out of the month.  I plan to work up until I go into labor but I'll ask my doctor to write a note that I'm to work from home the last 45-60 days.

ishka338

Telly21182:

I want to spend as much time with baby as possible so I plan to work until I pop!  Now, ask me again the closer we get and that may be a different story, but if all goes well that's the plan!

I hear this, and I guess maybe I should have added that I'm not planning on going back to work, so if it were really an option, I'd start in March!

IdigDirt

I am hoping to wait as long as possible. I hope my water does break at work so I at least get an extra part of a days pay.

Pockety

I would like to start today!!!  Work is driving me crazy!!!

But I will probably wait until I pop, or within a few days of my due date.   

DuckDuckGoose123

I plan to work up until the end as well, if I can, but I'll probably see if I'd be able to telecommute for the last month.  My office is not close to my house, and the hospital I'm planning to deliver at is 5 mins from the house, so it makes sense to be out there.

ShandaB

I plan to work until either my water breaks or my MW tells me I shouldn't return.  I was hoping the MW was going to tell me not to return to work yesterday because working during 1st trimester sucks!  I'm so exhausted some days I feel like I'm not going to make through the day.

jcsumm0

You need to think about what suits you best.  If you think you'd like some time for yourself before the baby comes to get everything ready, schedule it a few weeks before.  Others like to go right up to the due date.  As one of my friends explained it, she knew she would go stir-crazy just sitting at home waiting for the baby to come.  She actually scheduled her mat. leave for a week after her due date.  She's a teacher, so she'd just leave sub plans ready every day, knowing the baby could come any time! 

Then again, you can't plan everything.  Another one of my teacher friends scheduled herself 2 weeks off before due date.  Her last day teaching was Friday, she went home expecting 2 weeks to get ready, but baby came Saturday!

LeeLee930

Pockety:

I would like to start today!!!  Work is driving me crazy!!!

But I will probably wait until I pop, or within a few days of my due date.   

courtneybrooke921

I'm due June 13th so I think my plan is stop after memorial day (which is 2 weeks pre-baby). It will be unpaid but I think this is my goal to avoid being at work when going into labor.

I will start my paid maternity leave once baby comes

MommaA117

hopefully up until the end.

BosMama626

Telly21182:

I want to spend as much time with baby as possible so I plan to work until I pop!  Now, ask me again the closer we get and that may be a different story, but if all goes well that's the plan!

 

Same here.  I also work 1 mile from my house, so if I need to leave, its pretty easy for me to get home fast.

Birdies08

I'm debating between working until I go into labor and taking leave starting at my due date. My STD insurance doesn't kick in until I actually have the baby, but I can use some of my vacation before hand.

LauraOTR

I plan to work until a week before my due date (unless I go early, of course). I work in a school system, and the leave isn't that flexible. It also depends on how much leave I can save up before then....right now, I have 15 days leave saved, and I'd be using up 12 days from a week before my due date and the end of school. If I end up saving up a lot more leave (as in, not getting sick at all, yeah right), maybe I'll take an additional week or few days off.

ccorso

I want as much time as possible after the baby is here...so I will work as long as is safe for the baby - hopefully up to the day I deliver!  That is the plan. Of course, if something comes up - this will all have to be re-adjusted. I am trying not to put too much pressure on me to do this pregnancy and delivery this way or that way - I am going with the flow!

b55c

luckily i'm due at the end of june which is also the end of the school year.  my thought right now is to take about 2 weeks off before and then i'm very lucky that i'll have the summer off.  once i talk to hr, i'll figure out if i can swing any time in september also.  (although i may just be dreaming!)

JavaVino910

This for me! Exactly.

Edit: Sorry! I meant to quote Telly 21182. This is what she said " I want to spend as much time with baby as possible so I plan to work until I pop!  Now, ask me again the closer we get and that may be a different story, but if all goes well that's the plan!"

MrsAllison33

I get a whole year off since I'm in Canada and I'll probably start mat leave 4 weeks before I'm due.

Debbie0580

I would like to work until 2 weeks before my EDD, but we will see!  I work in schools so I'd like to work as close to my due date as possible.  I'm also in Canada, so I get the full year, but I'm going to talk to HR about the possiblity of not having to come back the following June, and instead start back in September 2012 (which would give me 14 months at home, two of which I'd receive no benefits).

ShandaB

MrsAllison33:

I get a whole year off since I'm in Canada and I'll probably start mat leave 4 weeks before I'm due.

One year!  Holy Crap! Apparently, I need to move to Canada.

Turtle143

Pockety:

I would like to start today!!!  Work is driving me crazy!!!

But I will probably wait until I pop, or within a few days of my due date.   

I would like to start today though but only because I have all-day sickness and I move around the clinic looking like a zombie all day. I'm exhausted from being sick. Before getting PG, I had planned to work as long as I can but now I wish I can just stay at home! DH can very well afford to have me stay at home but I just feel bad though I'm sick. I feel like I should be able to push through. Ugh.

egpitt22

I worked up until the end with my son, and I hope to do the same this time around.  Fortunately, I went into labor at home, because I was very scared of my water breaking at work!

CarlaAndJames

I'll work as long as I can! Makes me a little nervous because I work about 30-45 minutes from home/hospital, so suddenly going into labor from work could be bad news bears!

Maybe my friends are lucky, but it seems like it's not all that common for you to just be 100% fine and then BAM water is broken, in labor, get to the hospital now like on tv. Most of them started having contractions and then they got closer, and closer, etc. I'm hoping I'll be able to tell that the baby's coming in a day or two and know when to not go in to work. But we'll see!

pumpkin_head

We get two weeks before the due date, so unless anything happens sooner, I'll be going out around 38 weeks.  I went out around 35 wks last time and was bored out of my brains!!

Telly21182

bureauaitken:

Telly21182:

I want to spend as much time with baby as possible so I plan to work until I pop!  Now, ask me again the closer we get and that may be a different story, but if all goes well that's the plan!

 

Same here.  I also work 1 mile from my house, so if I need to leave, its pretty easy for me to get home fast.

I also forgot to point out that I work a few miles from home (yea new office!!) and the two hospitals I'm debating to deliver at are really close too... one is between work and home, and the other is still only 10 minutes away...

Thankfully we're not due in the Winter!  Every year on my birthday my grandma tells me about how she had to pick my mom up to take her to the hospital during a blizzard and how my dad nearly didn't make it to the hospital in time.   

Krislax13

I work in retail, so unless I have serious problems I will be working up to the day I plan to deliver.  I think I am due on a sunday and it would be great if I had the thursday-sunday off before.  Thankfully my schedule is very flexible so I can spend most of my maternity leave at home with the baby and not waiting around before.  Of course it could all change if he or she decides to come early!

LaRue86

I plan on working until I pop, but we will see as it gets closer and how much paid vacation I have saved up. I am waiting to see if the doctor changes my due date at my 20 week appointment as the baby is measuring 9 days larger than my lmp date. I know the date we conceived, but it is still a 6 day difference.

 We have a family vacation planned the first two weeks of September so I would like to be able to still be on Maternity leave for that

M&M227

I'm a teacher so ideally I'd like to work as long as possible.  School is finished June 15 (unless we have to make up snow days) and I'm due on the 19th.  But, I know it will become difficult towards the end.  I have like 25 sick days so I may take a week or two at the end of school. 

Syncronicity09

I plan to work until I go into labor.

aniceucchik

Last time I was due 8/2 and I left work 7/11, but I worked FT at Target and was on my feet all day and lifting heavy things and climbing on ladders. I had J 12 days into my leave. I SAH now and had to quit and go to PT only b/c he wouldnt take a bottle in time for me to go back to work, so I will be stuck at home this time around, already.

rainstar752

DuckDuckGoose123:

I plan to work up until the end as well, if I can, but I'll probably see if I'd be able to telecommute for the last month.  My office is not close to my house, and the hospital I'm planning to deliver at is 5 mins from the house, so it makes sense to be out there.

I like this plan- I currently have over an hour commute, so it would be nice not to be so far away the last month.  I'll have to see what my boss thinks!

JuneBug0611

I'll work until I go into labor if work will let me be that hazy about it.  If they require me to choose my last day in advance, I'll make my last day my due date, June 10.  I want to save all my leave time for when the baby is actually there. I would go absolutely crazy sitting at home alone waiting for the baby to arrive.

YouAreMyILoveYou

Last time I left work 4 weeks before my due date. I don't have paid leave and I get to take as much time as I want, and by 36 weeks I was just OVER going to work -- not to mention the week prior I slipped on ice in front of my building and landed in L&D for most of Christmas Eve!

I was all set to have a month to spend with my DD before she became a big sister and BAM -- 8 days later I had the baby! I didn't even have off long enough to get bored!

This time I will probably do the same thing. I want some time with my girls before the new baby arrives. I also have crazy fast labors (DD1 was less than 4 hrs and DD2 was less than 3). I work in Philly and have to take 2 trains into work. It would be a disaster to get home from work if I went into labor there. I'd probably give birth on one of the trains!

northtamarack

I am a teacher and I end school on the 6th, but I'm not due until the 26th.  I'm pretty happy about that.  This year is my first year teaching and I'm also coaching a varsity sport, so I'm really looking forward to relaxing before the baby gets here.