Hellobee Boards

I am sure you are doing the best you can. My first pregnancy I left during busy season, I worked insane hours until the day before I delivered. Somehow I did it with no issue, each day when I left (I delivered two days before my due date) I left a neat list of status of everything I was working on so someone could easily pick it up.

This pregnancy I am not leaving at a time that is normally hard but I am now the head of the department and there is a complex transaction everyone is prepping for. It is going to prove to be more difficult this time. We are in a busy time this month with quarter close and I am exhausted, 33 weeks, I have no idea how I did it last time.

Hang in there and just try to do what you can. Can you talk to someone to ask what they want you to tackle? Taking on new projects is sometimes unavoidable but it may not be the best use of you. Good luck!

Yes I just started maternity leave this past week and the timing was not great! Part of the issue is they didn’t hire my replacement until a week ago so it was very stressful trying to train her but also keep up with work. I ended up telling my boss I was going to just take sick time from 39 weeks until delivery, because having a hard and fast end date helped him realize I was really leaving and SOON so he started to prioritize what he really wanted done before I left. Good luck, it sucks when things are so crazy at the end!

I'm 37+5 and will leave work behind. I've been clear with my managers that my workload is intense and I've wrapped up as much as possible, but not everything will get done. I've done my best to document everything, but I don't think it's reasonable to expect that they won't notice your absence.

@summerfruit: totally agree!

Went into labor at 30 weeks, had prepared nothing, was even on a specific rotation with daily responsibilities starting at 6 am and I had to text some coworkers when I left for the ER at midnight begging them to find a sub for the morning. I then took 7 total months off because he was in the NICU for so long. If the stuff you're doing is important they will figure it out

@agold: Yes! My job is very demanding and we get “projects” weekly! However when I was pregnant i left with no shame! I think you just have to get to a point mentally that it’s work and it will always be there! I left around 34 weeks! I finished my projects and told them if they assign me more then it’s going to someone else- I’ll be back in 7 months!

I returned recently and ofcourse the work was there but my point is - it will always be haha!

Don’t worry! Happy delivery!!!!

I left before the big project I was the project manager on was finished. We had a couple of set backs during the project due to delays in other departments. When it became clear that I would have to leave before it was over, I started meeting with my replacement to fill him in on what was going on.

I started working from home full-time around 38 weeks. Around then, I started having weekly meetings with my boss about the transition and saved all my work each day on a shared drive in case anyone had to take over unexpectedly.

I ended up getting some test results back from the doctor and had to come in for an emergency induction right before a big work call, so I just messaged everyone and told them I wouldn't be online anymore. I saved everything to the shared drive one last time and headed to the hospital!

I worked up until the Friday before my c-section on Tuesday at 39w 2d. I was able to train my fill in person for a couple weeks leading up to my last day. But I still felt like I had so much going on. I wrote probably 10 pages of procedure for everything I do for him to reference and still ended up fielding a couple emails and texts while in the hospital.

Get whatever you can done, and work should understand you can only do so much before you start mat leave. Don't stress yourself (which I know is easier said than done).

I'm extremely worried about this. My boss is not supportive and I fear she will steal my clients. She's just that type of person. My plan is to give the important ones my cell and I'll talk to them while I'm on leave. I'm guessing I can't take my full 3 months b/c of how busy my work schedule is. And then I have to figure out what to do about the 9 days at our Las Vegas convention that I'm supposed to be at, 4 months after giving birth....

I wouldn't stress about it. Work on what you can and when it's time to go on maternity leave, leave with no guilt. Not like they didn't have ample warning.

Try not to stress! Things at work will continue on without you! I feel like as soon as I was around 30 weeks I became totally checked out of work. It was our busy time too but I was too exhausted/distracted to focus. I just made sure to document everything and spend a lot of time transitioning my work over to colleagues. When I finally went off work at 37 weeks I did keep in touch and checked my email regularly but then once the baby was born I went totally offline. I figure SO much can happen during my 18 month maternity l leave there is no point trying to keep track of things. I’ll deal with it when/if I go back.

I don't remember the last time my job felt slow.

I run a large team. At the beginning of the year I was running a team with about eight employees, and four other team leads also reported to me. I have been wanting to appoint someone to replace my team lead role, and my maternity leave accelerated that decision. I have appointed two managers to fill that gap in my absence and hope to have enough coaching time for them to be ramped up before I go on leave.

I need to finish assigning backup managers for the client work I oversee.

Then my boss will have to run point with the six managers who report to me while I'm out. I am a little worried about how that will go considering how jammed he is.

I am expecting twins, so I set a deadline of 28 weeks (end of second trimester) to have my transition plan in place. Then I will do as much as I can for as long as I can. The reality is that with a high risk pregnancy I have an especially unpredictable third trimester, and it takes time to train a new manager. So I planned ahead. I don't expect to roll those changes back when I return so it's a worthwhile investment anyway.

I expect to work from home for awhile at the end of my pregnancy. That makes management tough but with twins I don't think I will be able to commute.

With my 4yo, I worked a week past my due date but the last two weeks I exclusively worked from home.

There is never a convenient time to have a baby. But as someone mentioned above, the work will always be there.