How many weeks were you when you started maternity leave?

[MillyStar]

I'm 26 weeks today with my first baby, starting to get a bit tired and achey and stuff already, i haven't got a clue how far to work until!

38+5, DD arrived bang on 39 weeks.

I worked up until the day before my due date on each of 3 occasions. DC1 and DC3 were each 2 weeks late, and DC2 arrived on her due date. Maternity leave wasn't so good for DC1 and DC2 so I wanted to maximise the time after the birth as had to return to work after 14 weeks leave. Once I'd done it twice, I didn't see any reason not to do it the same way for the third. I was lucky to have a desk based job that I could do a lot of from home for the second 2, as I do recall finding the commuting into London at 39 weeks pregnant quite hard with DC1.

37 weeks with dd1 but felt well and workload manageable. Now on ml with dd2 and went at
34 weeks (but using holiday so not actually on mat leave til due date) . Much more tired and less easy pregnancy , also was busier/ have bad PGp so I couldn't have gone on much longer.

She think I will be bored if I finish early and doesn't see the need to finish early-she gave up work as soon as she found out she was pregnant with me so she has no idea what it is like working in the late stages of pregnancy. I would like a bit of time to get the house really tidy before it is turned into chaos and to just sleep and relax and enjoy time to myself!

You definitely need some time at home before baby arrives to chill out, get organised etc although difficulty is that you cannot predict when baby arrives. The reason I left it until 37 weeks to finish work with my first was that I reasoned she might not arrive for another 2 weeks after due date. It was in fact 2 days after due date! So definitely glad I didn't finish any later than 37 weeks.

And you won't get that bored as there is always something to do or people to see.

It really depends on your job. I finished at 34 weeks but only because I had loads of travelling to do which was exhausting. I was pretty bored by then time DD arrived though.

38 weeks with DD.

26 weeks this time round - started on the earliest possible date, but that is because I am a childminder, my full-timer left in December and despite advertising couldn't fill the space as no-one was interested in a CM who was going to be off for a few weeks come April.

On the plus side, 39 weeks MA means I'm not back at work until this September

I am on plannng to work right until the end (Due April 29th and finish April 27th). Only 16weeks and 3 days until our DS1 Harry is born.xx

38 weeks, just managed to get the Xmas stuff sorted! I'd have finished at 36/37 weeks but i'm only having six weeks off in total, I want more time "the other side" Hoping it won't be too much longer (due tomorrow!)

Including annual leave, I finished at 36w and Dd was born at 38w. It was summer 06, boiling hot and my ankles were the size of an elephants.

I worked til nearly 39w with ds as it was more restful to go to work! He was born at 41w.

I am 27wks today and planing on starting 2 wks A/L at 37+2 then starting M/L. My boss understands that I may change my mind and finish earlier, I have quite a physically demanding job so it will depend on how I cope as the weeks go on.

I'm hoping to be able to work until 4 days before my due date (valentine's!!) The commute is starting to get harder, especially as people on the train are still not cooperating with the bump, also my all time enemy: the stairs!!
But, if I stay home I'll go crazy. I'm not very good at waiting.

I'm 22+3 now and not starting maternity leave until 39+6, but will be on annual leave from 34+3 and then OML starts. I continue to accrue holiday throughout my OML and it's all put on at the start of the year so I get 25 days' hols this year which can all be used to delay the start of OML. Woohoo! :D