When to finish work??

My DP and I are in a debate about when to finish work.....

I will be quitting my job for good (for the second time - 9 months after leaving the first time I was bgged to come back) and as it is such a small company I really want to give as much notice as possible for my boss to get his butt into gear and get a replacement. I want to give in my letter of resignation this week.

I wont be getting paid maternity leave and although it is possible to set me up at home quite easily while everyone else thinks it is a great idea (as DP and I work together he can bring home and take in anything needed) my boss seems to have security issues, not with me but with everyone else (hackers etc)

So to the point. My EDD is 16 June. I am happy to finish on 22 May (office job - the most physical I get is lifting boxes - which i just get DP to do most of the time now - and one weekly walk to the bank). DP would prefer me to finish on or closer to 1 May.

So I really need some help - I think Ill do nothing but sleep if i finish that early but my friend agrees with him and thinks I should finish that early. I am not very big and can't imagine getting hugely bigger either so I just don't know..........

How nice it is to even think about finishing work in 6ish weeks though. I hate it here :cry:

22 May or 1 May????

I'm finishing work on the 30th April. Gives me about 4 weeks before bub is due and I'm planning on sleeping as much as possible and getting final bits and pieces for the baby organised.

My job is really boring atm and have no work to do so I've convinced the boss to let me work from home 1 day week up until I finish. I have an office job too but I would go nuts out of boredom if I worked closer to my due date.

If you are hating your job then maybe finish on the earlier date. At least you won't have the stressful feelings of "hating it here" and then when you're at home you can relax and sleep whenever you want etc.

There is no right answer to this, everyone is different.

My experience with DS1 was that I finished 4 weeks before he was due, hoping he would be early, and he was instead 2 days late. At work I was bored (my work had run out already), so I couldn't wait to finish up, but then when I was at home, I had even less to do, no company during the day and it was too hot to go out, so actually I was more bored. I wished I had worked for longer and at least been paid for being bored.

DS2 arrived 4 weeks early, on what would have been my first day of maternity leave. I felt really unprepared as I had been sick for a week before that and had so much left to do to get ready for baby.

So one time I wished for less leave, and the other time for more! I think just make the best of whatever you do, and if you do finish earlier, plan for lots of people to come and visit to keep you company in case you are too tired to go out much. At least it won't be summer, so you'll probably be fine to go out though. GL.

I agree with MantaRay.

With DS I left 5 weeks before and enjoyed the 3 weeks before he arrived 2 weeks early.
With DD I worked up to 37 weeks, went into work half day on the Tuesday and had her on the following Friday and felt so unprepared, had been unwell too.

I would say nothing less than 4 weeks before, but longer could be good if you don't need the $$ as it is the last time you get any time to yourself as life changes so much when bub comes along. Even if you spend the time reading, watching DVD's, going for a coffee at the coffee shop etc, you will be well rested and prepared for the baby and the tiredness that comes with it.

All the best.
MG

I finished work three weeks before DD was born because there was no point me finishing earlier. I had grand plans of freezing lots of food, doing stuff around the house but I had an unstable pelvis from Week 28 making it hard to walk, stand or bend. So no point being at home on the couch I figured. Might as well work (they let me get a taxi to and from) and bring in the dollars.

But I did get really tired in the mornings and could have done with the sleep-ins. Infact I was way more tired when I was pregnant than I was when DD came along.

Maybe compromise with your DP and pick a date between 1 and 22 May.

I finished at 38 weeks with Zander & he was a week late, I'm also finishing at 38 weeks with this one - four weeks to go YAY!!

I took the 6 weeks before dd was born and only got 5!!

If you can, i really do think that you should let yourself have a bit of a rest.... you will never got it again ;)

and your boss shouldnt have securty issues about working from home - so long as your network is set up correctly a hacker will have as much chance getting "in" as you were at work. You can dual boot your computer so you can work off a completely different operating system which would be linked to your work network only......

Last pregnancy I finished up at 37 1/2 weeks. Really should have stopped before that, I was exhausted, but I was also studying part time as well. I did not find work that hard, it was the physical getting to and from work via public transport that really knocked me about. I spent the next 4 weeks sleeping on the couch every afternoon for about 3 hours, so I got nothing done at home that I planned to. With hindsight I should have stopped work earlier, or maybe dropped to part-time, but we really did need the money. My replacement had already started, so I was just socialising for the last couple of weeks, so part time was a viable option.

Don't push yourself unless you really need to.

Hi,

I had really bad ms, started vomiting at 3wpreg atleast 20 times a day so I quit at about 4w cause DH told me too. It was a good thing because ms stayed tht way until 26wks pg and I even ended up in hospital at one stage. so I had a lot of time before bubs came.

I think if you can afford it then take as much time as you can before due date. Yeah you could get bored but hey I suppose that wouldn't be as bad an outcome has having bubs come early and no time off. I think it's a great time to organis things andgo over and over and over them and feel really organised and just to have that rest before bubs comes!

goodluck with your decision!

I worked until 38 weeks with DS. And even though i only had an office job, it was a BIG mistake. Have no idea how i did it, but do not recommend it at all. My feet were so swollen, i was soooo tired and just worn out.. being my pregnancy was mostly during winter i had a cold that prolonged for way too long. So yeh.. definately finish well before that!

I left work 8 weeks before my due date with DD and she only had 4 weeks at home as i developed pre eclampsia and was hospitalised at 36 weeks. With DS I left 6 weeks before and had 8 weeks at home as he was 2 weeks over. I had planned to work up until the 30th of May with this one I am due 29th June , but i am finding it all to hard. I had cut back to working 2 days a week before i fell pregnant as i have a very physical job and stressful job and it was starting to take its toll, when i notified work of my pregnancy they found me alternate duties in the office, they asked if i could come back more days a week as they had a huge backload of stuff they wanted me to complete. Well that appears to have been a total crock, I have nothing to do 2 days a week , infact today i sat and looked up things for my DD school project and read a magazine. I am due to start holidays on the 14th of April and am now looking at not going back after the holidays. I am also finding that i am so much more tired with this bub. I think also looking after a very active 4 yr old isnt helping.

Im stopping work at 34 weeks as i am on feet all day every day and to be hinest it cant come soon enought!!

I keep thinking about life with not working!!!!!!!!!!!

Its a persoanl thing and nothing is right or wrong but alot of employers will want a letter from GP if you want to work after 36 weeks.

Thanks for all your replies...... I have had a think and now I am starting to think I should finish earlier, I am not at all used to (what I call) Mooching and I think that is my problem with finishing work so early.

However, I have done my letter and decided that from the start of May I will be cutting down to 3 and a half days a week before finishing totally on 22 May. I am just hoping I don't regret it now..... DP still thinks I should take the time for myself but I can't help but think this is the last chance I am getting to make some money for a long time.

Astrid - I am the same as you, taking PT and that is officially the worst part of my day as I get quite sick on the trains.

For anyone else who is in the same position and can't decide when to finish work I tried something else that I think helped..... A wish list. This was a list of things that I wanted to get done before the bubs is born and realistically if I can take a day off work each week then by the time I actually leave work I should, in theory, be able to put my feet up and catch up with everyone before the baby is born without having to steamclean carpets, move the spare room around etc etc of course my wishlist wasn't full of cleaning duties it also had things I wanted to do with DP before I lose the chance.

I am still thinking about leaving work earlier though - I have about an hour till I hand it in so I better make my mind up and fast!!!

So what decision did you make??

Jas - I handed in my letter yesterday stating that I would go down to part time hours from 1 May and finish on 22 May. I also noted in the letter that I wouldn't be coming back.... in a nice round about way however I think I mentioned this before. I worked here for 3 years left for 10 months and was asked to come back and have been here another year and a half sooooooo (and this is for Kitten too now)

He asked me if I would like to be set up at home. Really who could say no to working from home but it has put me in a position where in the short term it is great but in the long term I still have to come back to a job I really do not like and am being drastically underpaid for. I am not the most assertive person in the world and would find it very hard to say NO.

Hun, '

just say no if its not what you want to do it its about you and your family now goodluck!

Or just tell them that at the rate they are paying you its just not worth the sacrifice to your family

well i worked up till 39 weeks with my first (also small company and after traning 3 girls for my replacement and none of them lasting they needed me to stay on.... My son was 3 weeks overdue.... was bored stiff at home and all i did was clean clean clean

This time i have also decided to work up til the last minute (but i'm only doing 2 days at this job....) wishing now that i had of given myself more relax time but the money will come in handy...

good luck

I am due on June 9th and I plan to finish work on May 14th. As everyone else says it is a personnal thing.

I have been told by my ob that I may have to finish earlier as I am on fortnightly monitoring however I have just informed my boss that I plan to finish on the 14th and up until then give him a weekly update as to how I am going so that if I need to leave earlier it is no big deal, at this stage I feel great and hope to work up as far as I can, but in saying that I have not yet set up the nursery, washed her clothes or anything so maybe I may be cutting it a little fine.

Good Luck!