To Jump Ship?

As previous stated the fortunate thing about being one of the last to be pregnant is, you can rely on people and friends for advice or just seeing what they did in their pregnancy/postpartum period that worked.   Therefore, I already have the skinny on daycare's, pediatricians, etc.  So when it came to me considering what I wanted to do if we did have a baby and what I would like to do for maternity leave, the answer for me was simple….

I was not quitting work.  

Yes, my child will be in day care and I will be one of those terrible moms that works and that means that I do not love my child- I am mentally prepared to hear it all.  To be honest, I have worked really hard to put myself thru grad school and want to keep working.   I have a dream job that no matter how much I hate the politics, my schedule is set and I never have to work nights or weeks- pretty much unheard of for midwives. 

Furthermore, me working means saving for our future and also our bugs education, which is so important to both Joe and I! If i quit, basically it would decrease our savings and the money we could put away for bug for school/college. 

So I will keep working. 

As a government worker- my maternity leave is non-existent. 
This is something I knew from day one and because of that have been saving my sick leave over the last 4 years.  I currently have 12 weeks of paid leave saved– either sick or regular.  I hope to have 14-16 weeks saved by the time the bug actually arrives, but we will see.   

 After having a long discussion with Joe and both our financial planner- I came to the conclusion that I would like to take 6 months off.  3 paid, 3 unpaid.  Fortunately for us, all of our bills can be met on Joe’s salary, it will mean not putting money into savings or investing money for three months, but I think it is worth it.    Joe has totally been supportive in this decision! 

Then came into the discussion that fact that Joe is working on his PHD and going to school full time.  While walking Clemson one day he asked if I would consider going down to part time- and I think my answer was.  “It would be the ideal solution- I could keep working and be home with bug a little.”  So I will be asking to go from working four 10 hour days to three 10 hour days.  So 30 hours a week instead of 40.  I am holding my breath that my work is going to approve this request.   I am hoping so since I have been there for more than 4 years and also since I am a hard worker.   

This is the part that has me nervous- I am asking for a lot but I also have given a lot over the last 4 years.  Covering while people have been deployed, or out on their maternity leave, or out on their drill leave.  It is my turn Damit!!!

More important I do not want to be one of those women who can't handle a newborn and work.  I want 6 months to get my act together, breastfeed, and get my head on straight so when I come back to work I can work and not be occupied.  I also want to give time to bug to develop more an immune system.  Better developed immune system means less calling out sick for me. 

So I had my meeting with my boss last week and it went better than I could have planned. 
I had a written letter with my wishes regarding my maternity plans and was just honest with what I needed to make our new family work and still be a contributing employee.    He was actually very receptive and was suprised that I had already talked to human resources and knew more than he did about maternity leave.  I am the first civilian, not military, that he has had.
I will not know for a couple weeks if they can work with me on my requests, but I am hopeful.

What I learned from my meeting were a couple things:
1) Be honest and ask for what you would like
2) Be specific
3) Do your research before
4) Put everything in writting that way they have something to refer to
5) Be polite and thankful

So think good thoughts !