Advice on taking short maternity leave

Hi, I'm pregnant for the first time and trying to decide what to do with my maternity and shared parental leave. My work will pay me full salary for 6 weeks then half salary+ SMP for 12 weeks, then down to just SMP. We've found out that my husband's company will pay him full salary for up to 6 months through shared parental leave. I'm thinking of taking 20 weeks maternity leave then going back to work, then my husband taking 19 weeks shared parental leave, that way we won't have a reduced income. I work from home at least 3 days a week and my job is sometimes very relaxed. Just wondering how crazy this sounds for me to only take 4/5 months maternity leave with my partner going on leave after that, and me working mostly from home. Am I crazy or will this be okay?

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I went back to work when baby was 4 months, it's doable. I wfh tho so I'm around for anything that may be needed. I'm assuming you're not in the US since 4/5 months is considered a very long mat leave here. If I could have taken more time I definitely would have. Idk if you can decided to extend later and just see how you feel at the 4m mark?

I think with you having a WFH job that's quite relaxed, it sounds ideal as you can have money too!. Im 6 months in and going down to SMP now and it feels like we are skint all the time (we aren't really but it stresses me out). Although I wouldn't want to go back to work yet (3 mo ths left), if I had your option, I probably would do that as you kind of have the best of both worlds. It's not a 9 to 5 out of the house in a stressful environment still get to see your baby 5 days a week and have money to do fun things together those days! That's just me, though!

@Tanya I'm in the UK so I could have a year off, but after 18 weeks it would be very reduced pay and at 9 months it would be no pay. Financially I couldn't take that long off. How have you found being back at work and how did you cope with childcare while WFH?

So my job let me come back part time for 4 weeks, then 30hrs for 4 weeks and just no started back to full time. Easing into it was honestly very worth it despite the reduced pay for me. My fiance also works from home so we can split the duties up a bit. I work 930a-8pm 4 days a week, and have to manage my breaks/workload. So I'm usually ahead on work around 1pm, so I take her until 2pm then take my lunch to give him an additional 30min and then put her down for a nap before lunch is over so he gets about 2.5-3 hrs of uninterrupted work done. After that he has her for the rest of the day except for feeds as needed or if I'm really ahead and able to grab her for 30 min or so. Before I had her I really thought I could work and care for her full time but I quickly realized that was near impossible. If I didn't have him here too she would need to be in daycare. He had an appointment and was gone for 4 hours and I was going crazy, I ended up putting the TV on for the last 45 min so I could get work done.

It would've been easier going back at 6 weeks bc they still just sleep lol, now they need stimulation, entertaining, connection etc

Also my job is very chill, flexible, and not stressful but if I had to have her for a whole day alone I'd have to take pto

I’m in the US so this sounds insanely amazing 😂 I went back to work at 6 weeks. It was hard because sleep was still erratic and unpredictable. I felt settled at around 4-5 months. Sleep was still messy but much better. I also wfh. Working from home is really tough with a baby. It’s nearly impossible to get anything done so hopefully you have some help/childcare. Good luck!