maternity leave

So, how long before your due date did you start your maternity leave?

At first I thought, oh I'll work up until baby comes. Then a few months ago I decided it would be good to start my leave one week before my due date. Then I thought baby would come super early (like, before Thanksgiving, which is tomorrow!). Then I saw someone in my babycenter.com birth club say they were taking off two weeks before their due date.

That would be in a little less than two weeks. And it would be so nice. SO so nice. But I don't know if I can justify it. What do you think? What did you do? I know every person is different, but what do you think is reasonable here? I would just feel dumb if I took off two weeks before, and then she came two weeks late (so, a month of unnecessary leave).

One of my coworkers told me I "didn't look happy" today. And it is probably true: I am tired, and everything aches and hurts. But, still not what I wanted to hear, you know?

Comments

lynandsky said…
So, I worked a 13hr shift on a Thrs (already 3 days past "due" date) and went into labor Fri night. HOWEVER, this was not necessarily by choice - it had more to do with the formalities of my maternity leave and getting paid for leave as long as poss. Plus, even though I worked 13hr shifts, it was only 3 days of 7 each wk. It allowed for some days to recoup afterwards. A Mon-Fri gig would be REALLY hard.

If you can work it out job-wise and financially - take advantage of time off!! :)
November 22, 2012 at 6:52 AM
Todd + Rachel said…
I worked full time up until the day I went into labor. I always got comments about how miserable I looked, and trust me, I feltmiserable!! The way I saw it though, I'd rather have the time off AFTER baby came to spoend time with her. But it depends on how much time you are getting off, I was given 8 weeks and I didn't want to waste any of that time just relaxing before she came because we already had everything ready. Plus, the days in the last couple of weeks (after 38 weeks it got so much harder for me!)drag on and on SO bad that working actually made them go by that much quicker. That's just me though.
November 23, 2012 at 10:37 AM
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