North Carolina Babies

Maternity leave with #2

I am due in October.  I plan to take off about 12 weeks, and return to work Jan 2.  2-3 of those weeks will be unpaid.

Did/Would you take your first child out of daycare to stay home with you? 

The perfect situation in my eyes, is to leave Allie in daycare part-time (2-3 days a week).  BUT her daycare doesn't offer any sort of part-time.  So I'd either take her out, and not pay at all... or leave her in and pay the whole amount.  Taking her out, would save me well over $1200.  That would help so much for those unpaid weeks.  But I worry about her being bored, me being exhausted, etc.

Thoughts??

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Re: Maternity leave with #2

  • Would she lose her spot in daycare?  I'd be worried that when I went to send her back they would have filled her spot. 

    But on the other hand, your maternity leave is falling over the holiday season so there would be so much to keep her entertained:  Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.  Plus you may even be able to send her off to Grandma's for a week. 

     

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  • Ummmmmmmmm..........leave her in. You have no idea how exhausting it is going to be, and very very hard to entertain a 3 year old when you have had little to no sleep. If she is used to constant activity, sitting at home with mommy and a newborn is not going to be fun (and if she is like Jocelyn she'll let you know that). There were so many days I wished I had a daycare option to send Jocelyn to when Cam was born. She needed "her" time too.  I did get her in 2 weeks of camp which was a great break for all of us. 

    It was like one never ending day because I would be up all night then, finally get sleep, then Jocelyn would be up at 7 ready to play all day, whereas I would be wanting to sleep/rest. If Allie isn't napping anymore that means literally no break or rest all day for you. 

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  • I agree, leave her in. She will be out plenty with the holidays for you to see her and bond with the new baby. Plus they are on a schedule and do so much fun stuff that I wouldnt want AT to miss out on so my vote is to inhale the NB since you have the time this time and let Allie still play with her friends and learn at school. 

    Ill be doing the same. Its going to stink bc DH will have to take him every morning and its the opposite way of his job but I actually get to stay home a little with this one so I want to enjoy every quiet minute!  

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  • yep, leave her in. we didn't really have an option because henry would've lost his spot at school, and there's no way he would've gotten back in. so he'll be at school mostly full-time, even though i'll be staying home 6-8 months with audrey. it's going to cost us a fortune ($1075/month), but it's worth it for our sanity.

    i think it also depends on what your child is like. henry is very, very, very active, and it would be next to impossible for me to do as good of a job parenting him if he were home all the time.

    i'm glad i have some alone-time with audrey, i had a whole year home with henry, and i'm sad i'll have less time this time, so i'm glad it is one-on-one time. we snuggle in bed and nurse all day Smile

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  • I agree 100% leave her in. Keep things normal for her and help you out a lot! For all the reason mentioned above and from what we did. You won't regret it Smile
  • I am taking three months off, like you.  My plan is to keep DS home for the first month.  His daycare is closed the week of July 4th, the baby is coming July 9th and DH will be taking two weeks off.  We have to pay by the month, and I'm not paying a full month for one week of daycare.  Also, MIL will be here during the last week, and I'm sure she'll want to spend time with DS.  After the first month, DS will be going back to daycare, giving him routine and me a little peace. :)

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  • I would leave her in.  You'll want to get some time to rest and bound with DS.  That won't happen very much with DD home.
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  • Leave her.  It will be the best for her, and for you and the baby.  You can always keep her home every now and then or pick her up early if you want. 

    The only thing that sucked for us was I still had to get up every morning and take Eli, DH couldn't do it.  I hated that, but we survived.

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  • imagemrsmikey:

    The only thing that sucked for us was I still had to get up every morning and take Eli, DH couldn't do it.  I hated that, but we survived.

    That's the other thing, her daycare is opposite DH's work.  So I'd likely have to take her every day.  That will be a pain, getting up and ready and baby ready, and bringing baby in daycare while dropping her off... :(

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  • It did suck, but it was better than keeping him home with me.  OMG, I can't imagine what that would have been like.  I would have loved to have been able to stay home, snuggle in bed with her, let her sleep or eat or whatever.  But having him home all day every day with us would have been hell.  He's so used to all the interaction at daycare, he would have driven me crazy.  It was worth it to have the 1 on 1 time with Amelia.

    And when I went back to work, we were already in the routine of getting up and getting out.  It really wasn't that bad, I just kept her in her carseat and covered her with a blanket.  His teachers were really good about making sure the other kids didn't bother us or touch her.  It worked out.

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