Maternity leave from own business - how long did you take off?

[vanimal]

I am a freelance writer and am pg with DC3, due in August. DCs are aged 4 and 2.

I am looking into a few projects with new clients at the moment, which would require me to work close to my due date, and then resume the project as soon as possible after I have had the baby.

It's a great role, and would give me work well into the next year maybe even longer if I did pursue it, so I am really hoping it's not too unrealistic for me to go back to working when baby is maybe 2-ish months old.

Just wondering how long most people took off after having a baby? How did you cope with a newborn and sleepless nights etc whilst having to work too? Am I being crazy to even consider this?

DS 6 months
DD 6 weeks - she slept in sling while I worked for anything up to six hours a day. She was a very good sleeper though I did do plenty of phone interviews rocking gently to keep her asleep! At about 8 months she started nursery.

Oh, and I coslept, which made my nights easier, I think.

I had my first baby end of January and am back to work on July 9th although kept in touch with clients meanwhile and used some Keeping In Touch days to do the occasional short bit of work. I've been getting Maternity Allowance - you don't need to earn too much to get it, alternatively make sure you paid 13 weeks Class 2 NI (check when it needs to be paid by to count). I found the NI people v helpful in ensuring I got MA.

But...I won't be working fulltime and only going back cos my partner is taking 6 months additional paternity leave to look after our son- and getting my remaining 3 months MA as SPP. Our aim is to live off as a little as possible so we can look after our baby ourselves. Hence staying in a one bed, cheap rent, flat!

I went back at two weeks using a mothers help, ds3 is now three months and it is working great. I work in the home office from 9.30 ( after school drop off) until 12.30 (in time for nursery pickup) and the mothers help looks after ds3 and does some housework for us. My quality of life is much better than with the other two where I struggled round naps and then put in nursery at three months. We pay 7 p.h which I is much less than the value I add to the business and the house is tidy:). We were lucky though as she is a level three nursery nurse who was looking for more flexibility in a role

Hi OP,

I am also a self-employed writer and have a baby due (number 3 - and final!) in September.

I am trying to conclude all the outstanding projects by the end of Aug/beginning of Sept and then have asked my business partner (who gets all the work in for me) to try and only sign up clients who want to start projects from Dec/Jan. Time will tell whether this approach works but we can't afford to turn work away outright so if new work comes in in Oct then it'll have to be done through my haze of sleep deprivation!