I am hoping for 6 months after I have a baby. Depending on how broke we will be I would love 12 months, but I don't think that will be possible. DH says I can have all the time off i will need, but i don't want to make him bust his butt to pay for our expenses because I don't want to go back to work.

One thing I can't get my head around is going back to work way too soon because you have built an 'expensive' lifestyle that you need to maintain. A friend of mine had to go back to FULL TIME work (property manager, so long hours and Saturdays) when her baby was 5 months old because they simply couldn't afford to keep repayments on things (mortgage, nice new car etc) I felt sad for her, but at the same time I wondered if they had considered how they were going to pay for things once she had the baby. It was a planned pregnancy also.