What's realistic for time off when you have own business

I am due with with my first baby early December. I have recently started my own business (working as a sole operator in consulting field) so issues around maternity take on a whole new meaning. I am currently trying to plan my work around the baby arriving and deciding what sort of time I will be able to take off.

Most of my clients I can probably limit, however, I have one project that will come to fruition in March next year (this is a long term project that I've already started work on). It's not a big project in terms of workload, but is an important client project for me.

I'm thinking of telling my client that I will be unavailable (perhaps for the odd phone call / email if absolutely required but not guaranteeing my availability) in December and January but able to come back on board in February (I would aim to get the bulk of the work finished as much before December as possible - although of course I still need to plan for the baby coming early too).

With the exception of a few meetings which I'm sure I can work around, most of my work is from my home office - so no issues about child-care etc. The workload would not be full-time - perhaps a few days a week or a few hours a day and it wouldn't matter what time of the day or night I completed the work and whether I did bits and pieces around baby's priorities.

My question is - is going back to work 2 months after the baby is born something I should even be considering, or will I be too tired, or too caught up with being a mum to even think about work? If it's completely unrealistic then I'll have to work out an alterantive - but if it's realistic that I could do a few hours work a day then in all honesty I'd rather be doing a few hours work here and there rather than watching day-time idea. (as you can see I have NO idea of what to expect when bub arrives!!). What about doing any work in the month or 2 after the baby is born - is that being completely crazy?

Although I do want to take time to be a Mum, this is a very important client and I've worked hard to build my business so I don't just want to let that fizzle out either.

What are others' experiences coming back to partime work early after the pregnancy - especially if you work from home? Am I being completely unrealistic and should I just plan to stop for 6 months ?

Also , ideally I'd like to stop work from the beginning of November (about 5-6 weeks prior to baby due). Again - should I plan to stop work completely, I will it be likely I can still potter around a do a few hours work here and there?

Thanks in advance.

Hi duedec,

Congratulations on your pg.

There are a lot of variables to factor in for your question. How quickly you recover from the birth; the temperent of the baby (especially if you won't have someone to babysit); if you can get someone to help out with bubs whilst you work....
One of the girls from my buddy group is a hairdresser with her own business and went back about 6 weeks post birth if I'm remembering correctly. She had a c-sect.
My DD is 10 weeks and I was ready to go back part time after about a month.....

HTH

MG

Morning Duedec,

I went back to work 5weeks after C/S with twins. And will be the same after I have DD in Sept. I was lucky to be able to take them to work with me for a little while.

You know I think alot boils down to what the baby's like - that's the great unknown. Because you're not just talking about going back to work, you're talking about trying to work from home while taking care of the baby at the same time which is a whole different thing ;)

I could've run a multinational corporation from home when my first was a newborn - she was totally undemanding, self settled from birth, slept 95% of the time...she was a breeze. I was going to go back to work when she was 6wks old because i was bored LOL. So a baby like that you could definitely work around.
DS was very different - while not superdemanding he did like to be held alot and needed help to settle to sleep, and fed alot more often than DD etc - that takes up ALOT of your time in the early weeks/months.

I guess I'd say plan for it, but try to keep things as flexible as you can in case you get a high needs baby and find you can't put them down or do anything for a couple of months....I think what you've outlined above is a realistic plan though!