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12 weeks.

4 weeks paid (Vacation and sick leave) and then I worked from home 3 days a week and went into the office the other 2 days for a couple of weeks before going back full-time. It sucked.

My only saving grace was that my mother would come from the next state over and stay during the week and go home on weekends until DD was 3 months old and started daycare full-time. Mom always brought her to me at lunch, and even afterwards, I always spent my lunch hour with my DD at her Daycare until she turned one and moved to a class with one nap in the middle of the day.

This time I will have STD (at 66% of my pay) and I hope to take at least 8 weeks, but even though my husband works hard at his job, I make double his salary due to the nature of my occupation. We just cannot afford for me to take unpaid leave and my company does not have a maternity leave policy.

I took 16 weeks with my first and returned half-time on a permanent basis- I had FMLA, our company's maternity pay, STD, and vacation time and got paid pretty much the whole time.

With my second I took 4 weeks off (part-time didn't qualify for maternity leave so I used PTO and continued my work from home duties), but baby was stubborn and showed up 2 weeks into my leave. I returned 2 weeks pp- I felt great and recovery was only about a week, so it wasn't bad at all.

15 weeks, all paid at 100% (12 weeks maternity leave and three weeks of accrued vacation time).

#1 - 12 weeks, one month paid through sick leave, vacation time, and donated sick leave time.

#2 - 12 weeks, hopefully at least one month paid through same avenues as above.

I could take longer, but I don't know how long we can go without my paycheck.

It makes me really sad looking at these posts. I can't believe our country doesn't have a better federal law to support parents.

9 weeks, all unpaid.

For future little ones I plan on taking 12 or more. It will all be unpaid, but I've started a savings account specifically for leave time. I will be prepared!

6 weeks at half pay and then an additional 6 weeks paid because I got to use my saved up sick leave. I also got some extra weeks added in there due to the holidays, so it worked out. I had her in October and went back in January.

I took 12.5 weeks, but did a few half-days in the office toward the end to ease myself back in. I had hoarded my sick and vacation time for a couple years in anticipation of having to use it for maternity leave, so I ended up not having to take any unpaid leave. I likely won't be able to do that to the same extent if we decide to have a second child, so if we do, at least some of my leave would have to be unpaid.

I took 8 months. The first 4 were paid because I had sick and vacation leave I could use. It's crazy but my union says I can be out for 4 years on leave. It's unpaid unless you have time banked.

6 weeks unpaid. I checked my e-mail and did some continuing ed during that time. DH SAH and brought LO into work once a day to breastfeed until 12 weeks, because I was most worried about establishing breastfeeding. I felt physically able to work by two weeks postpartum. While I would have preferred my leave to be paid, I was fine with the length of time. I am lucky that LO has always been an excellent sleeper, and DH SAH, which helped immensely.

5 weeks.

12 weeks. Four weeks were paid through salary or PTO, the other nine were unpaid. I would have loved to take longer, but I already don't qualify for FMLA and my company was generous in letting me take 12 weeks.

@derevival: @littlebug: It is sad. A big part of why we have to wait 2 years to TTC #2 is because I have to either hoard 8 weeks of PTO, or save up 2-3 months of my salary to cover the unpaid time. Stinks.

4 months

15 weeks - paid

5 short weeks. I used my STD and PTO.

12 weeks in total. 6 weeks paid using my saved up sick time. Then 2 weeks paid using the rest of my vacation (forced to do this otherwise would have saved it and been unpaid) 4 weeks unpaid.