I took my 8 weeks after dd was born but my doc pulled me before she was born also. They would not let me get up and walk around for 5 min ever hour. They expected me to workl my 10 hour sirft and sit at my desk for almost all 10 of it we even ate dinner/lunch at the desk. I had a csection of I went Vaginal it would have been 6 weeks. I then went back to work since Dh lost his job but they called him back and he had to go out of town for 4 weeks so I then took FLMA for 12 weeks. I think it was 12 weeks you just have to fill out paper work. READ it My work tried and tried to screw me over with it. they said that I had to get it approved before taking it and the paper work started that it had to be filled out and submitted to HR within 3 days from returniing from FMLA. I didn't was to get fired so I just filled it out before. You will have to get a letter from the hospital for verifcation of birth and something else. HTH

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i can't beleive you guys only get 12 weeks off work. we get a year of paid leave. its not at the full amount of what we made when we were working, but we get about 80% of our income. it blows me away that you only get 12 weeks if applied for.i think that is ridiculous, you guys should get so much more.

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Kimberley

"there is nothing to worry about, just plenty to think about" from an episode of Extreme Makeover House edition

check out my blog:
http://mommysavers.com/boards/journa...owjournal&j=21

I know I can take 12 weeks, I just didn't realize I had to get authorization to take the second half of the 12 weeks. It just caught me off guard.

DH and I are trying to figure out if we can afford it too and for how long. Esp. with Christmas coming up during the unpaid period! (I have looked at all the frugal xmas ideas and am def. going to do those!) I think at minimum I will take 8 weeks, but I have a feeling I will want all 12!

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Mom to two beautiful girls.

with my first son i took the 12 weeks as long as you have worked the 1250 hours from the same month last year you qualify. it is not calculated in calendar year. so say you are delivering in october then the 1250 hours needed to be fullfilled from october 2005 to october 2006 hope that makes sense. you just need to get the form from your hr person and have them give you the hours you have worked if you worked full time you definately will have the hours in. my secound son i worked part time so i only got the 6 weeks since i did not work that many hours. good luck in your decision.

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SILENCE IS GOLDEN BUT DUCK TAPE IS SILVER.

Well, with dd #1 I took 4 weeks, ds #2 I also too 4 weeks, dd #3 I took 1 week (we were really broke!), ds #4 I think I took 5 weeks, ds #5 I took 6 weeks, ds #6 I stayed home after he was born for 4 months, ds #7 I stayed home for 3 months after he was born. I never had a problem with going back , but one place I worked actually made me get a dr note stating that I could come back sooner than 6 weeks!

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~Happiness is a large family~

Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger. James 1:19

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 1 Corinthians 9:24

I had DS this past March and I remember thinking that at 6 weeks there was no way I'd want to go back to work. At 8 weeks I tried picking up some part time work at home but that was tough, too. Mostly, though, because DS was only taking 45 min naps You only get that time with your baby once. I would take as much time as your financial & mental states allow you to. Best wishes!

I work for the state but can't afford to take off that much time so i'm going to take 6 weeks and i'll be paid for it because i have a little over 6 weeks in personal and sick days to cover it. But i know i'm not going to want to come back and work these hours. I would love to be able to take off longer we just can't afford that.

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Ashley

I took 12 wks off when I had my first ds. I was allowed 6wks paid. I had to save up my vacation and personal time though which didn't amount to much, considering you need to go to the Dr once a week at the end and the hours always were during my work time. I ended up probably not getting paid for like 5wks or something. I didn't have to get special permission or anything. I basically told them, if you want me to come back at all, it will be 3mo after. kimberley, I think we should be allowed to have off a year of partial pay leave too!