Preparing to have a baby also including significant planning at work in order to be out of the office for 6-10 weeks. {A paid six weeks is standard for my organization, but I was hoping for 10 weeks to maximize my time settling into my new role after properly healing from the ordeal of child birth.}
I kept telling everyone my little one was going to arrive early. I had in mind he’d arrive a month early (since I was about that early for my mom). Otherwise, I had no real reason for anticipating an early birth outside of IVF statistics (more on that another time).
Regardless, after a particularly long day of preparing a few Thanksgiving turkeys for two shifts of workers at my husband’s job, I apparently pushed myself into an even earlier labor than I expected at 33 weeks and 3 days. (I had a fantastic holiday with his team, but three days later we welcomed a preemie!)
So the preparation? I spent the months prior to my delivery divvying up certain subjects and accounts among my staff, but asked them to each take ownership beginning in December (the month prior to my due date). This was to allow us time to overlap before my personally anticipated early delivery… Haha… We didn’t get the overlap, but at least they were fairly prepared to take over the tasks. 🙂
They were all surprised to arrive at work with a message the baby had arrived, and then a few hours later see me in the office. I had to update my email message to those contacting me and file the personnel paperwork to be out for six weeks. Don’t worry, I didn’t stay long… after all, my preemie was in the NICU, and I desperately needed more time with him.
Homemaking For Working Moms 