Spoiler Alert: You Need to Get Pregnant NOW!!!!
Go ahead, I’ll still be here when you get back!

我只是开玩笑......大多是。（你还有几周！）

我知道你teacher-types虽然(我也是一个工程r all), and you like a good plan. SO, if pregnancy is on your master To Do list for the 2018 – 2019 school year (you know you have one), you’re inclined – because of anxiety, compulsiveness, or out of actual necessity- to plan your due date for maximum maternity leave convenience,and你是幸运的少数人的身体实际上是你要求它的时候，当你想要它到*时，我对你有一些建议：

Plan to get pregnant between June and August for a spring due date.

To help this advice feel a little more tangible, I did some highly sophisticated research using a “due date calculator” (foundhere) and made an equally sophisticated chart to show you some sample due dates and maternity leave options —-

Before I get to the whys of my “ideal” timeline, here’s a little about my own experience (warning: this gets a bit “technical,” but it really is important stuff I desperately wish someone had told me prior to my own family planning)…

我的first baby, Sam, was born in July. Because I was silly and knew nothing, I was super excited when I found out I had a summer due date: I’d be able to finish out the school year with my students, get to spend my last month of pregnancy sleeping until noon and blobbing around in the pool (whichwas非常好的），*最重要的是*不必担心我的水在课堂上突破（认真，这是我最糟糕的噩梦）。As it turns out, however, the summer – especially late summer – is actually a terrible time for a teacher to have a baby from a logistical standpoint….

我的学校系统的政策 - 以及似乎是常态的 - 是教师获得六周（八个C-部分）的官方产假。在此期间，教师可能会用病天来支付他们的休假。所以，如果你有30天的时间acquired sick leave, you will be paid for six weeks. If you have fifteen days of acquired sick leave, you will be paid for three weeks, and the remaining time will be unpaid. Make sense?

After the initial six weeks (or eight) of maternity leave, the家庭医疗假行为kicks in for an additional six weeks to get you to the standard American twelve-week maternity leave.但是，这是它变得棘手的地方：让我们说你是一个摇滚乐超级计划者，你的休假你已经节省了六十个病假 - 太糟糕了！您可以只要对指定的医疗部分使用病假（记住，六到八周，根据您的诞生类型）休假。之后，虽然FMLA返回时保证您的工作（以及一些学校/地区甚至可能允许更长的休息），但它必须无偿。你在跟着这个吗？

So, back to my story… Sam was born on July 13th and for reasons I still don’tunderstand, my doctor only approved six weeks of medical “supervision” even though I had had a C-section. If you’re doing the math (if you’re not, I don’t judge), that meant that my “paid leave” time ended about mid August… Right when I wassupposed to be going back to school. I couldn’t use any sick days for that time because I wasn’t technically paid then anyway (summer break), but I couldn’t use any sick days for the next six weeks either (even though I had them) because my official medical leave was over and I was now only under FMLA.我失去了你吗？The bottom line: I ended up having to take twelve weeks of UNPAID leave because of the way the dates fell.

我们制作了它的工作，我很幸运能够在山姆和山姆带上那个时间。然而，这不是我们期待的，这将足以让许多女性在课堂上比他们想象的那么多。On the bright side, I had lots of sick days left when I did return to work which came in handy for sick baby days and doctor’s appointments – a problem many women run into if they’ve used all their time off for paid maternity leave – but still; it was not ideal.

四年后，当诺拉出生于3月下旬时，事情会变得更好。I was able to use my saved sick days for the first several weeks, come back for just a short-stint to finish out the school year, and then take the full two-months of summer at home for which I was already accustomed to being unpaid. Basically, I’m now making it my life’s mission to tell everyone I know that SPRING BABIES are the way to go for teachers!

Typically, I’d recommend taking the maximum amount of maternity leave you can swing; but, with Nora – because she was my second baby and the end of the school year was so close – I actually only took 7 weeks. (The first four of those were paid with sick leave.) Then, I came back just in time to see my students off to their AP exam, distribute the next year’s summer reading, pack up my classroom, and record final grades (about two weeks total). I actually LOVED those two weeks. They were a great “trial run” for the fall, and the transition was easy because I had a “I can do anything for two weeks” attitude. Plus, I had genuinely missed my students and wanted to see them – especially the seniors – before summer. This probably wouldn’t matter for everyone, but I also really liked having a clear distinction between “maternity leave” and “summer break.” The distinction really helped me use my maternity leave time to rest, heal, and bond with Nora and then to use my summer time to have fun with both kids and adjust to “normal life” as a family of four.

Have I convinced you yet?!?!

Obviously, there are TONS of factors to consider when you are deciding when to have a baby. How much sick leave do you have? How much time can you afford to take unpaid? How do you feel about someone else ending your school year? How do you feel about someone else starting your school year?所有这些都是非常重要的和个人，而且对我来说良好，可能对你有好处。If you really can’t afford to take much unpaid time or don’t have any sick leave, it makes more sense to try to have a baby at the very beginning of the summer – i.e. getting pregnant at the beginning of September – for example. Or, if you want to have an exceptionally long maternity leave that bleeds into your summer, it would be ideal to shoot for an early to mid-March due date and planning to take the full 12-weeks. (If you play your cards just right – and a have a good amount of luck on your side – you may even be able to swing 6 full months at home this way!)

最后，只有你可以决定最适合你，你的家人和你的职业生涯。但希望，在考虑您的选择时，我的经验和建议会对您有所帮助！如果您有疑问，请随时给我发电子邮件 - samandscoutblog@gmail.com - 或者将它们留在评论中！此外，我很乐意听取一些你自己的经历！Do you agree with me about the “best” time to have a baby?Please share!!!

Finally, if you’ve liked this post and want to read more like it, check out my Maternity Leave for Teachers eBook!! Much of the above comes from Ch. 2: Logistics to Consider and Questions to Ask HR where I outline ALL the important work-related things I didn’t know to think about before having a baby but wish I had. And, that’s only the beginning. My eBook covers everything from first announcing your pregnancy at school, to planning for a long term sub, prepping your students and classroom for your leave, and returning smoothly. If you’re having a baby soon, this will be well worth your $10. (Learn more about the bookHEREor go directly to buyHERE。）

Not ready to buy the book yet? Come back next week for some of my top tips for returning from maternity leave!
与此同时，快乐的规划！

E

*I’m absolutely sensitive to the fact that not everyone – in fact, MANY people – are not able to get pregnant at all, much less “on demand.” This post is meant to be taken lightly with the full acknowledgement that ANY time you have a baby is wonderful and a blessing. Please don’t stress yourself out trying to get the timing just right. If it works, great. If not, you’ll forget all about the “perfect time” when you hold that screaming little squish one day. Promise.