First time poster so please be gentle...
Now, I know this question has been asked many times and the answer always is 'it depends on your personal circumstances', but perhaps getting other's opinions will help me see things clearly.
I am currently on maternity leave. My daughter was born less than 4 months ago, and yet I'm losing sleep worrying about going back to work in 8 months, whilst the baby is sound asleep 
!
Yesterday I visited local nursery, trying to make sure there are enough places should I decide to go back to work.It was FANTASTIC. Friendly staff, small number of children, home cooked meals- everything you could wish for. Yet I am finding myself disappointed, almost as if I wanted a reason not to go back to work.There is still plenty of time for me to decide, however, I think I need to make up my mind just for my own peace. I won't be telling my boss I'm not coming back until I really need to, in case I can't take it anymore at home.
Now ,the situation.
I worked in the same job for 7 years. I don't hate it (anymore), but a long time ago I completely lost any sort of motivation. It's a small company, so there's no way for me to progress any higher, my boss is also somewhat immature and any sort of conversations about job roles, responsibilites, expanding or God forbid pay reviews end in nothing if not him getting impatient/pissy with me.
He also still hasn't sorted out our pensions and HMRC is having to chase him up.
So, prospects in this particular workplace are not great.
The reasons I worked there for so long are the close vicinity to home, scarcity of creative jobs and relaxed atmosphere. I tried talking to him briefly about the fact I'll want to work few hours upon me coming back (atm I work 30), all he said we still have time to think about it. I guess he's right, but it'd be nice to know if my ideal setup is even on the table!
After calculating with my husband my future earnings (if my boss agrees to my new hours) and deducting costs of nursery, it's leaving me with about £300 a month. My husband is earning enough to cover all our basic spendings, we might just have to shop more in Lidl.
I know some people are in much worse situation and I'm very lucky to even consider it, but I feel like leaving my daughter in the nursery for 15 hours a week, to do a job with no potential, that I no longer enjoy just does not add up!
To add to the conundrum, I'm setup as a freelancer, but it's not been bringing in a lot of £££, then again I never really spend a lot of effort on it. Work sort of came to me by word of mouth. I think I could eventually manage to get £300 a month freelancing, or am I being delusional that working with a small child running around is possible? Is my daughter going to miss out on nursery activities and sit bored at home with me? I could ask my boss if I can freelance for my old company, but he's unlikely to pay invoices anywhere near the time 
... I'm worried that if I leave and my freelancing gig doesn't take off, i will not be able to find a job in my field. BUT my current company is not doing great!
Please help!! My head is going to explode 