1st time Pregnancy....ahhh!!! ;)

[teddybear]

Congratulations!!!

I took 3 weeks off when I had my third (first two were prior to daycare, so 6 mths). My dc kids were older though (3,4 and 5) and my own were 4 and 8. I'd definitely take as much time as you can afford. Mat. leave with your own kids is awesome!!!

[AmandaKDT]

Yay for you, long time coming!

My advice would be to plan for the worse case scenario, since you don't know how your pregnancy is going to go and you don't have employee sick leave to fall back on. It could be a breeze and you'll easily have your daycare open until your planned closing date...or you could be like me and have very painful pregnancies and awful nausea the whole time. I had horrible pelvic pain and could barely walk by the end of both of my pregnancies, it would have been impossible to run a daycare.

So pinch your pennies and have a contingency plan if you end up having to close your daycare earlier than expected.

If you can afford it, I would take the full year off or close to it.

FYI, your doctor can prescribe Diclectin to help with the nausea. Eating protein and staying away from greasy food helps too - even though it tastes so good!