Who will take care of baby?

Jumping from schools back down to newborns, what are you going to do with Baby after birth? Hopefully you have the means or the employer that allows you to have a nice maternity leave if you work (if you already stay home, just go ahead and skip this post). But then what? Daycare in some parts of the country can be ridiculously pricey and hard to get into (as in, women get a note from their ob as soon as they are pregnant to get on a waiting list which they then might not get off of until said unborn child is a year old). There are so many choices: in-home, centers, nannies, relatives, etc. All of them have pros and cons, and some of those might not even be apparent until your child starts (like my baby would not sleep at daycare!). There is a lot to think about, and then there can be even more to think about afterward.

Why am I bringing this up? Because once you have that sweet baby in your arms, you're not going to know how you feel about then having to drop him or her off at daycare six, eight, twelve weeks later. I know a lot of women who LOVE their jobs. They've worked hard to get to where they are and don't want to give that up. They also realize that it's an essential part of themselves and to have to not work would be to deny part of themselves. And then they have a baby. This certainly doesn't happen to everyone. But it does happen. Experience starts to change your mind. This doesn't make you a bad person, or a weak woman for deciding that you'd rather stay home, only human because you couldn't imagine something until you were there. I'm only writing this to keep at the very back of your mind, just in case. And, of course, because even though I didn't love-love my job, I certainly expected to go back to it and be able to contribute financially to the family. But I couldn't. It hurt too much to drop my baby off each morning. We also didn't think there was any way, financially, for me to stay home. But we're making it work. It's not easy, particularly in this post-real estate bust, but a lot more people can do it if they really try. I just want to make sure that you soon-to-be mommies know that there are a lot of options out there. And that there are others who feel the same way.*

*There are plenty who also can't wait to go back to work, and that's fine, too! Newborns are not easy in any way shape or form, so I want to make sure that nobody thinks I'm dissing them!