Well that was fast!

I can't believe that today is my last day of maternity leave.  Little Frog Face is 9 weeks old today and after the holiday weekend, I start back to work full time on Tuesday.  It is very bitter sweet for me, since I do enjoy my job and look forward to getting back in the swing of things and start with our new "normal".  However, I will miss staring at his sweet face all day.  I have actually been off work for 10 weeks, but it flew by so quickly!  With my daughter, I worked until the Friday before I went into labor and delivered her on a Tuesday.  This guy however, decided to be overdue so I took the week before his birth off since I was having tons of contractions and did not think I could handle the 100 degree heat any longer.  But those are stories for other days.  Today I am talking about maternity leave.

I am sure that many working mothers would agree that the United States has a really sucky system in place for new mothers.  According to the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) we get 12 weeks of unpaid leave if we have been with the company for at least a year and the company has at least 20 employees.  The key here is "unpaid".  In order to get 10 weeks off with my little man, and still receive a paycheck, I had to use almost all of my vacation and sick leave and I requested to only receive pay for 32 hours a week instead of 40 so that I could stretch my time out even farther.  I also had to make sure to hold back a week or so of sick and vacation so that when the daycare germs and cold and flu season kick in, I would be able to stay home with my sickos.

I know some countries, like Canada, have a much better maternity leave package.  They get 6 months of fully paid leave and then can take another 6 months at half  pay.  As appealing as that sounds, I would probably go stir crazy with cabin fever after 4 months or so.  In fact, I am impressed I did not go crazy staying home this time since I started getting really antsy with Goober by this point.  However, having that kind of option available is fantastic.  I know of too many new mothers who are forced to find care for their 6 week or even 2-3 week old babies because they just cannot afford to stay home with them.

But there is no use crying over spilled milk (unless that milk is breast milk, then by all means, cry away!) so back to work I must go.  I am thankful that I had this time with my Frog Face and will probably miss our afternoon naps snuggled up together the most.  But there are many things to look forward to as well, such as being able to pee without a wailing infant or a curious preschooler interrupting.  It is the little things after all that make everything worth while!

Frog Face on his birthday

Frog Face today at 9 weeks