Hi Bohne,
Eight weeks is pretty significant itself; when I saw "immediately" I was thinking more like "as soon as the c-section has healed."
Great that you have the ability to change your mind for up to two weeks after the birth... stuck after that, though?
It sounds like you're quite resolute and I bet things will work out for you as you expect. It was the one area that surprised me the most about having a baby I think, though -- I had quite extensively prepared to maintain my independence post-baby, and wasn't prepared for the degree to which I became addicted to the sight of her.
That's just my experience though, everyone's different, and thanks for answering my questions. Best of luck!
Oh yes, I was resolute about returning to work, too. I was an older mom...just a few months shy of 40 when I had my son...so I was quite entrenched at work. I couldn't imagine not wanting to work. Until, like others have said, the baby came and everything about my life changed.
You would have thought after all those years watching other people have kids, I would have at least had a clue what it was like. Turns out, all my convictions were nothing but misty daydreams.
I knew he would be my only child (the odds were WAY against us having even one)...and suddenly...completely unexpectedly...I didn't want to miss a single minute of it.
I'm glad I left my options open.
I know without a doubt that I don't want to work full time with my kids. Part time, maybe just to keep my identity as someone other than "mom" but financially, it's tough to do. A single income household that provides enough for a family is hard to come by and those that do get by are often just getting by. That's not the kind of life I want for my kids either.
I want to be able to give them what they need, some of what they want and still have the funds to pay bills and vacation and do all the things that my family did when was little.
So we are sort of playing it by ear so far as what to do when kids arrive. It looks like I'll be working but you never know.
There are certainly many (most?) working moms who work to put food on the table. I know there are those who feel strongly about the idea of stay-at-home parenting as well as those who feel strongly about breast feeding. I tend to assume that each individual makes the best decisions possible under the circumstances. I used to work with a number of women who would've given their eye teeth to be able to stay at home if it were a financial possibility.
I was lucky that my original training as a med tech allowed me to leave my corporate job and find part time work in a hospital. When M was born I reduced my hours even further to just every other weekend. I stayed there until she was almost one and then decided to start my own home-based consulting business. I've been doing it for 13 years and I know I've been extremely lucky to find a path that allows me to be well paid and call my own shots.
As some of my contemporaries at the corporation where I was employed continued their climb up the ladder I would sometimes wonder what my life would have been like if I'd stayed. Not wistful, exactly, just wondering. I don't miss it and I know how lucky I was to cut my own path.
Bohne, depending on your circumstances, you might find more than one way to make it all happen.
