New Mom... New Job Opportunity... Advice Needed

[Statko]

I am a soon-to-be first time mom (37.5 weeks... ready for this baby to be out!!!) with conflicted feelings about returning to clinical practice and what is realistic. I am looking for advice from moms and dads about what worked/didn't work for them with new a new baby.

 

Here's the background:

I found myself jobless (long story - not for cause) when I was around 25 weeks pregnant. The same day I lost my job, I was able to pick up a per diem gig that has been going well. I have been interviewing through my entire third trimester (I have another interview tomorrow) - definitely not ideal but everyone from recruiters to docs seems understanding and it hasn't been a big issue.  I am planning to take 3 months of (unpaid) maternity leave and then want to return to work on a part/full-ish time basis. Benefits are very important to our family as my husband is self-employed.

 

I have 2 potential job opportunities that I can't decide between. Help!

 

1) Work per diem or work part time with an occ health clinic. The work is easy and stress-free, the staff is nice. Unfortunately, the pay and benefits are terrible. The work is .... occ health, so... that might get to be a grind after a while (?) Clearly, what this job offers is flexibility and low stress at the expense of benefits. Allows me more time to be home with the baby.

 

2) A .9 FTE (four days one week, five days the next) in an ENT practice. The position is opening up in December of this year. One of the offices I'd need to cover is over an hour away from my home. Call is 1:4, basically just screening calls for the docs as there is no ER coverage, hospital, or surgical rounding required by the PAs. I live in a rural area where it is difficult to recruit / retain both docs and PAs. I don't have specific ENT experience, however, they are willing to cross-train me with the provider that's retiring for up to 2 months. I don't know the pay yet, but the benefits are affiliated with the hospital and are good.

I would like to negotiate the position to be .8 FTE - four days every week. I feel like this is the maximum I can/want to handle.

 

--How realistic is it to be working/commuting 7-5, 7-6 with a 4 month old?
--Has anyone tried a "ramp up" period where they return to work on a part time basis and then slowly add more hours to their schedule so everyone can adjust?   
--Anyone go through the experience of starting a new job fresh off of maternity leave? Tips?

[DizzyJ]

For me, the answer to this question was about child care.  What are your plans for child care once you return to work?  My mother-in-law was our sitter and this made the transition back to work very easy.  When my children were born I worked 14 12's per month.  So, I even though I worked FT, I was still the primary care giver for them.  This I enjoyed very much.  I don't think I would have gone back to work as early as I did if I worked a M-F job.  

 

I think commuting an hour each way, on top of working 0.9 FTE, would certainly take away a good chunk of time with your child.  My youngest (18mo) goes to bed at 7:30p.  I work til 6p and have a 30 minute commute.  So, not much quality time together on my work days. I have a three day weekend, every weekend, to make up for this.  Being this is your first child, I would certainly put more consideration into the part-time and per diem work if this is possible.....until your cute, precious baby gets an attitude and starts hitting, throwing, and not wanting to eat anything but fruit snacks....then you go to work full time haha

[Febrifuge]

Breastfeeding is something to think about, as well. You can certainly pump and freeze, but especially in those few weeks post-partum it's normal and expected that you might be closed in some little room at work, pumping, and thinking of yourself as the WORST MOM EVER OMG -- don't let that throw you if it happens, but also its worth thinking, just a little, about these kinds of little daily realities.

 

I had the good fortune to land a giant severance check when my daughter was 2 months old, and my wife was about to go back to work. It worked out brilliantly, because she was feeling very very ready to get back to the structure of working in the office and being around grown-ups, and we were able to forget about finding child care and let me stay home and be SuperDad.

 

And then when I got back to work, I chose an evenings and weekends schedule so we could keep her home until half-day preschool at age 3.5, and then kindergarten.

 

So I agree, it's kind of all about the child care. We just couldn't wrap our heads around the idea of putting her in some 'baby farm' type daycare with (very nice, and well trained I'm sure) strangers for 9 hours a day. And we had the luxury of not having to do that. Even when my now 6-yr-old is being a butt, she and I both know that we have that bond that goes back longer than she can remember, and there's something awesome about getting to have that.

 

I work a lot more hours now, and bring home a lot more money, but I feel it was worth it to take the break I did.

[Statko]

Thank you for the feedback. We are fortunate to have MIL and a full time daycare lined up (in case MIL decides she isn't into watching baby full time and/or she can't). Daycare is managed by a family friend, but even with that I'm a little hesitant. I have decided just to wait until after baby is born to make any decisions. If these jobs don't work out, it just wasn't meant to be and something else will come along. I realized - in between bites of chocolate cake while crying about how sick of being pregnant I am - that I have no business making any serious decisions right now ;)