Preparing for "Maternity Leave" When You Work for Yourself [+ What You Can Expect from Starr Struck While I'm Out]

Well, here we are: our baby's birth month. With my due date in the middle of the month, I think it's *fairly safe* to say that I'll be giving birth sometime this month (unless our babe is crazy late, in which case there is a possibility that we could move into early September!?). 

Either way, as my due date gets closer, I'm starting to get serious about my "maternity leave" plans. But lets get real here for a second: when you work for yourself, you don't get maternity leave. You don't ever get any kind of paid leave, but the trade-off is that I can come and go from work as I want to, without any time limits--as long as I'm ready to stop making money if I stop working. 

Has this been stressful for us as we've prepared for having a baby? Absolutely. We rely on the income that I bring in and aren't looking forward to going without it. But at the same time, I am really thankful for a schedule that allows me to take time off if I need it, and for the ability to slowly ease back into work when I'm ready (and work from home!), as opposed to having to jump back into work full-time (and abruptly) at the end of some predetermined chunk of time.

Obviously, there are pluses + minuses to my situation, and as much as it scares me to take more than a week or so off {for the first time since I started teaching yoga back in May of 2010!}, I'm also super excited to have the time and space to be fully focused on our little baby for a while. 

So, since I've been getting tons of questions about how much time I'm taking off and what that will look like, I thought it would be helpful to lay it out for you here, so my clients and students are clear (although my clients will be getting an email today that outlines what they need to know) and so that my fellow solopreneurs out there can see how Ben and I have decided to handle this new challenge/change: 

• Yoga Teaching: As of right now, I'm still teaching yoga (I'm 2.5 weeks out from my due date). I still feel good and teaching is still fun, so I'm continuing to go for it. I do, however, have "on-call" subs lined up for all of my classes starting this week, so all I have to do when I feel done with teaching is let them know and they'll takeover. But I think for now, I have another good week or two in me ;) 
  
  Once my subs takeover/I have the baby, I'm planning on taking anywhere from 6-12 weeks off from teaching. All of my subs are open-ended and the plan is to just give them a heads-up when I'm ready to come back. I may transition back to some classes earlier than others, depending on the class time (does it work for the babe and Ben being home with the babe?), location (is is super close to home and thus won't take me away from the babe for long?), and how I'm feeling, but I wanted to give myself plenty of space in case I need it (physically, mentally, or emotionally). 
  
  Obviously, I'm not teaching any workshops again until later in the fall/winter, and retreats are on hold for around a year (stay tuned for another Namaste Nantucket Retreat in August or September 2017). 
  
  
• Design Projects + Existing Client's Needs: Up until now, I've been continuing to take on design work on a project-by-project basis, simply because I can do this from home right up until the baby comes and I can often turn things around really quickly (if needed). But, I'm also very lucky because I have Sara, who can continue working on most client design projects while I'm out. In fact, I've been able to continue taking on work because I do have her and know she will be available to clients while I'm out, and I feel SO much better knowing that my existing clients who need a website tweak or quick flier created will have her as a resource when I'm unavailable.
  
  Plus, the great news is that her continued work on client projects and client needs will help me continue to have a little trickle of income while I'm off. All of my clients will get an email outlining how to handle needs while I'm out and I will be checking email twice per week to respond to any immediate needs that Sara can't handle; but otherwise, I'm going to try and be very "off" when it comes to this side of my work.  
  
  
• Consulting: I will not be doing any consulting while I'm out on maternity leave. If a current consulting client needs advice on something super quickly via email, I'll be responding [quickly] during my designated email times each week, but otherwise, these services will be on hiatus for about 8-12 weeks. 
  
  
• Custom Art: Again, this part of my biz will be on hold until I ease back into a regular schedule with childcare (more on that below). 
  
  
• Etsy Shop: My Etsy shop will stay open! I'll be removing all of my custom order options, but prints, greeting cards, and apparel will still be available, since I can easily pop something in the mail while Ben holds the baby ;) 
  
  
• Blogging: And last but not least, this little blog! For the first time since starting it, I'm planning on taking more than a week off from blogging, too [so weird!]. I'll keep blogging 4 days per week up until I go into labor, and then I'll be taking around 6-10 weeks off from writing regularly.
  
  I'll *definitely* pop-in here + there to share my birth story, baby pics, and give you baby and new mom updates, but my regularly-scheduled programming won't return for a while, and when it does return, it might return slowly. I'll probably ease back in to posting on a regular schedule, and it might not be back up to more than 2-3 days per week for quite a while. But don't worry--I'll def be back and I'm sure I'll be eager to share stories + experiences from my new life with you ;) 

So that's what my "maternity leave" will look like.

The next question that everyone asks is about childcare, so here's what we're planning in that arena [when I do go back to work]:

Obviously, Ben and I will both be home with the baby for the first few weeks. We're lucky that Ben gets 5 weeks of paternity leave (yay!), so it will be both-hands-on-deck for the first 5 weeks. When Ben goes back to work, each of my parents will come up for a week or so, so that I'll have around 7 weeks of help. Once they go home it will be just me during the day, until I'm ready to start transitioning back into work. 

When that happens, we're planning on having a childcare provider come to our home to watch the baby while I work. I will either work from home (so I can breastfeed as needed) or pop out to a local coffee shop if I need to get out for a bit, and the plan is to pay for this kind of childcare for around 15-20 hours per week to start. Ben will be home with the baby while I teach in the evenings and will obviously be around on the weekends when I'm teaching/if I need to work some then.  

We've started interviewing childcare providers and have already talked to some very promising candidates, so are feeling pretty good about having someone lined up for when we're ready in early-to-mid October... 

{Phew!}

So, that's how things are looking right now. It's all so unknown, which is super scary for me/us, but that seems to be something I need to get used to when it comes to being a parent, so I'm going with it. 

As for the finances of everything, we've been saving as aggressively as possible over the past 9 months and I've been working my butt off to make more $ this year (in preparation for this time off) so we're going to be okay, but we sure would rather not have to take this financial hit! {Obvs.} 

And that's about it! I hope that you've learned something from this little inside look at the logistics of having a baby when you work for yourself, and I appreciate all of the advice I've gotten from so many of you readers out there who are in the same boat/have been in similar boats.