For those of you who had a baby while doing daycare, how long did you take off for maternity leave, and when did you start your leave in comparison to when you had the baby?

My hubby and I would like to start a family this year, so I have been thinking about all of this. I'm thinking I would take off 2-3 weeks, but I feel like I wouldn't be able to give parents a definite start date (since I wouldn't know exactly what day I will go into labor)... So how do you do that?... Do you work up until you go into labor, or do you start the leave earlier?

Thank you!

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I was doing daycare when I had my second. I decided to get induced, I was afraid I would go into labor when the kids were here and I wouldn't get to the hospital in time. Plus 1 of my parents weren't to happy with the lets wait and see what happens. Also the same family that pressured me to only take 1 week leave and gave me notice of termination my first day back.

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I have had two children whom are now 10 and 12...both times I closed for a week and got paid because i charge 52 weeks a yr regardless....My mom is my assistant so it wasn't too bad...Licensing allowed me to bring my child that young but I kept him isolated till he was 6 wks old. I did have a c-section with the first one and had to be more careful....my clients were told ahead of time that when I went in labor, I would be closed a week after that...it worked for me!

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I was scheduled for a c-section, but had our daughter naturally over three months early - so my best advice is to plan as well as you can (and keep parents as in the loop as you can), but be prepared for things not to turn out exactly as you expect (and have the parents know this as well)
I did not take any leave because my daughter was born on Christmas day and I was off that week anyways.

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