Maternity Leave - The Real Deal

As I come up on the last 2 weeks of my maternity leave I have some time to reflect on the whole process. I was blessed to be able to take basically 3 months off with my little guy because I had so much sick leave on reserve. And honestly even that doesn't feel like enough time. I wish I lived in one of those countries where you get like 6 months to start off with! But regardless I wanted to share some of my experience.

This blog post doesn't have details of my maternity binder yet because it's still at school so I haven't been able to get good pictures of it. But I will do a post on that asap.

Preparation:

-Find out who your school's contact is for planning leave & don't be afraid to bug them! 

I have no idea how many emails I sent to our "Leave of Absence Coordinator". At first I was reserved. Only asking the basic questions. But as I got further into planning I sent her every question I had. I realized it was better to be safe than sorry. The smallest mistake or wrong piece of info could have a major impact on your plans. For example, I thought the school day was 8 hours and it turns out it was 7.5. That little bit of a difference added up!

- Start looking into your options early on!
From my experience I was offered 6 weeks of leave initially. I knew that wasn't going to work for me so I started to calculate how much leave time I had and dividing that by the number of hours in a school day. Then I took out a school calendar and started counting the days out. I played around with the number of days I had but basically decided to use most of them, leaving about 3 on reserve. With FMLA you can take up to 12 weeks but there is no guarantee that those days will be paid unless you have time off you can put towards it.

**Tip: Consider coming back in the middle or end of the week to make the adjustment a little easier. My first day back is a Thursday**

- Plan for the unexpected

All my planning and calculations were great until I went into labor early! I actually found out I had pre-eclampsia and had to be induced (wasn't expecting that!). With my original math I planned to work until Nov 3rd and my due date was Nov 5th. I actually worked until Oct 25th and was in the hospital the next day. I say all that to say you may want to plan to take leave a week or so before your due date to give yourself a cushion. I just knew I'd make it to my due date but clearly Lukas had other plans. Plus due dates are an estimate! Another option would be to not utilize so much of your leave that way if you have to step out early you still have some time that can be put towards it.

- Prep your students and your classroom

Students: As the time for me to leave came closer I really didn't know how to address it with my students. Initially I was hesitant for some reason; I guess I knew some students would be sad, others would be preparing to let loose on the sub. I just didn't want to think about it. But the longer I waited the more possible it would be for me to leave without getting a chance to prepare them at all. So a few weeks before my due date we discussed what would happen when I left. I sent home a letter to parents explaining the dates of my leave and what would go on during my absence (a long term sub would be hired in). I took a few more opportunities at the end of the day or during morning meetings to talk about my expectations while I was gone and how I would return with plenty of time left in the year.

Classroom: I organized my classroom as much as possible. I put labels on drawers and cabinets. I took pictures of certain areas and put them in my maternity binder (more on that in another post). I also realized that no matter how I prep, I have no idea what I would come back to and I made peace with that.

During Maternity Leave:

- Try to ignore work

Key word - Try! I occasionally checked my email and I must admit I went up to the building to drop off graded work I never got to bring back (because grades were do soon!) but other than that I tried to mentally clock out. Time flies by before you know it! Cherish it and enjoy time with your little one.

- Productivity is not important

If you're like me you may overestimate what you'll accomplish while on maternity leave. I thought maybe I'd get a chance to blog a few times, make a couple TPT products, stay on top of household chores. Yeah that wasn't exactly how things went. The first few weeks I was focused solely on taking care of this tiny human and sleeping whenever possible. I did attempt to stay on top of chores because I swear a messy house gives me anxiety but I had to realize that I couldn't do it all.

- Take advantage of your lack of schedule

Midday trips to Target were like a vacation! Same goes for trips to the mall. There was much less of a crowd and it helped me get used to getting out the house with a lil cutie and a stroller. I also took the time to go to Stroller Strides, an exercise class for mommy's and their babies. It's run by an organization called Fit4Mom. You should definitely check to see if you have one in your area. Super fun.

(Clearly the classes wore him out!)

- Plan for your return when necessary

Don't wait until the last minute to think about your return. In my county you must submit a "Return to Work" form a month before you actually return. You also want  to consider arrangements for nursing if you are planning to do so. I got plenty of good information from other teachers on my Instagram when I asked for some advice. (Check it out @MartinTeachingCo). I also scheduled a meeting with my principal about a month before my return to arrange when I could pump, where, and any other arrangements. I plan to follow up with my pumping at work experience in a later post.

Thanks for reading! What tips would you include for expecting teachers mamas?

And just for fun here's another pic of my little guy