I went back to work when DD was 6 months old, out of necessity. DH's contract had finished and couldnt find anything, and my previous employer called to see if I wanted to go back part-time. DH looked after DD for 2 weeks then finally found a job.
When DH started his new job, I continued to work.
MIL looked after DD, and I did this until DD was almsot 2 years old.
I loved my job, but found it highly stressful.
I also found that I was missing out on things like the first time DD crawled and DH forgot to tell me!

Nic.