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We are considering the same thing, Adira. We are saving up enough to cover me for 3 months after the baby is born. Here are the things I think about with pt vs. ft:

1. Health Insurance. If I stay full-time, I get paid a stipend for the health insurance I am not using at my company. That will cover mine plus some of the baby's health insurance on my husband's plan. If I go part-time, we won't get that.

2. Daycare during the part-time hours. How much will it cost? Would it be better to get a Nanny over sending him/her to daycare? Would it be worth it to do part time or would my paycheck be covering just daycare? If that's the case, I need to be full time.

3. Time with the baby. If I go back full-time, my hours are 8am to 5pm. I leave the house at 7:30am and get home around 5:45pm. That's not a lot of time to spend with the baby on weekdays. I feel like someone else will be raising our child. If I went PT, I could have more daytime hours with our child.

4. Going PT is better than leaving the job completely because then, when you're ready for FT again, you have your job and probably can go FT with no problem. I'm considering doing PT for one year and then going back FT when the baby is a little older.

It's a pretty frustrating thing to think about.

Before I went on maternity leave, I had agreed with my employer that I would return at 80%. There was no option to work from home.

We had a tough time finding childcare, the only option that could take him for the 4 days was a 40 minute drive in the opposite direction, so I made the decision to stay at home.

Insurance is separate from employment where I live, so thankfully it didn't factor into the decision. We also prepared by banking my entire salary for 3 years, which in hindsight, was so worth it.

Ideally, I'd love to work part-time after having children. However, the bank branch I work at now is only 10-15 minutes from home but there is no part-time position available and won't be for the foreseeable future. So if I want to stay with the company I'm with now, I'll have to travel at least 20 to 30 minutes for a part-time position (2 or 3 days a week). Which will cost me more in fuel costs, plus childcare. If I stay full-time, I can stay where I'm at but I'd be paying for childcare more days a week. Since we're just ttc, I haven't really researched how much childcare will cost in my area. I have had a very close neighbor/friend who has said she would love to watch our child 3 or 4 days a week (she's done childcare in the past, plus we love & trust her). Her price would be very reasonable and my MIL would probably handle the other day or two a week. I sometimes work Saturdays and DH would be home with baby then. Unfortunatley, I don't think we are in a position for me to not work at all (plus after being unemployed for almost 2 years, I realized I need to get out of the house regularly!). So I think working full-time is going to be our best option.