Paternity Leave - when to use

[LMBK33]

Just advice really. My husband gets good paternity and we will also be doing SPL and he has holiday. It will be a total of 18 weeks off once the child is born.

His 13 weeks paternity can only be taken in 3 chunks and we're struggling to decide when is best to take them. Are there any particular stages/ages with a baby where you thought... damn I could do with the extra help?

Personally I’d do 3-4 weeks initially. I’d probably get him to take a block when you go back to work (assuming you will), so you can save on childcare costs for a month or two, and nice for him to have some 1:1 time with the baby

We did 3 weeks initially and then he took 9 weeks when I went back to work and the baby was doing some settling in periods with the childminder.

But this time round weeks will take 6 weeks at first purely because it's a summer baby and we have older kids who will be off school so it's more to have family time than me needing help. He will ten take 4 weeks when I go back to work. During this 4 weeks the baby will go to childminder for settling in periods and our middle child will move from childminder to preschool.

Unfortunately because I'm having a year off he can't take any once I go back to work so initially he is going to take 6 weeks off but then he'll have more to use with me and the baby. Just wondering if anyone with kids already found a certain period particularly testing within the 1st year.

It's hard to predict, but maybe around the 4-5 month mark? There's often a sleep regression around 4 months as baby's sleep pattern changes. Our wasn't too bad but if my partner could have taken more time off then I think he would have been glad of it!

This ^ everyone has different experiences but most mum friends and myself found this stage brutal. 3.5-5 months tested me.