Now that my baby is a toddler, I am finally able to take a deep breath when I am at home. Sure there is still the crazy work week routine that we have to follow to a T. But independent play is saving my sanity. As horrible as it is to clutter my house with toys, I’m willing to splurge on another as long as it promises to give me at least 15 to 30 minutes each time my daughter reaches for it.

With winter and the holidays around the corner, this means it’s time to review our family’s finances and our goals for the upcoming year. With the biological clock ticking against me, I would like to be pregnant again by this time next year at the latest. I cringle inwardly at all the extra tests I would have to take for being an “older mom.” So the next pregnancy and maternity leave would be my last. I know that I do not want to be changing diapers when I am forty.

You’re probably wondering why I am planning my maternity leave now. 2 years from the next delivery. It’s because I can. And being an analytical engineer, I actually have long term plans for my personal life (I know. I feel sorry for my husband too.).

Combining a sabbatical and maternity leave

I’ve projected out my sick leave and vacation for the next two years. I would accumulate enough to cover the 5 months I am legally entitled to for maternity leave after birth. So financially we should be ok for the first 5 months after the 2^nd baby’s birth.

However, I would like to take another 4 – 5 months off. If you are civil servant (which includes most public jobs with the government and universities), you can take a non-paid sabbatical for up to one year. They usually hold your job for you during the sabbatical. Whether or not you can take it depends on your supervisor and department.

During the sabbatical, if I stop contributing to retirement, I would need about $2,000/month to cover my portion of shared expenses. This would roughly mean I have to save $350/month starting today until 5 months after delivery.

In addition, I am refinancing my house (rates are a historical low 3% with some banks), so this frees up $350/month for our household. I know that I am resetting the clock for my mortgage. But I did the math. If I dump the two daycare bills into the mortgage after the kiddos go to public school, I would still be able to pay off my mortgage by the time I retire.

So by planning now, I know that I would be financially able to take a 10 month off for maternity leave/sabbatical two years from now. Whether or not I would actually do it is a different story. But I always feel that if I build my nest twig by twig, I have more options later down the road. And having options as a working mom means the difference between enjoying your family or wanting to run away from them.

So as you emerge from the haze of diapering and snack time, think about your next maternity leave. What would your dream maternity leave be like? How would you financially plan for it? What would you give up now to afford it?

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I breast-fed my child, Hazelnut, for 14 months. When I was on maternity leave, the time hog of breast-feeding was inconvenient, but manageable since my entire schedule was open. But once I returned to work, I needed to pump breast milk several times a day at work.

My Medela Pump in Style Advance and Simple Wishes Hands Free Breast Pumping Bra made a difference in my pumping success at work.

This post is a review of the Simple Wishes Hands Free Breast Pumping Bra.

Why do you need a hands-free breast pumping bra?

The whole purpose of buying a double electric breast pump is to express breast milk as quickly as possible. However, breast pumps do not come with an attachment to hook onto your nursing bra.

You typically have to try to juggle two breast shields, turn dials, and press buttons on your pump with only two hands. And the entire time your pump is working, you are holding up two breast shields for 10 – 15 minutes. Then you juggling again at the end, hoping that you do not spill any of the precious breast milk.

Having a hands free pumping bra makes the entire pumping process easier by giving you full use of your hands. In addition, you can do something else while you are pumping. I read from my Kindle while I pumped.

What I like about the Simple Wishes Hands Free Breast Pump Bra

A hands free pumping bra must be adjustable to account for your changing chest size.

The size of your ribcage and breast will change dramatically during your entire nursing duration. Your ribcage starts out larger (because of the expansion from your pregnancy to accommodate the baby) and eventually returned to your normal size several months later. Your breasts will grow in size once your breast milk comes in and the volume of milk production increases as baby grows.

The Simple Wishes pump bra has a Velcro back panel that you can easily increase or decrease by as much as 10 inches to adapt to your changing needs. There is also 2 zippers up front that gives you another 2 inch adjustment to get a tight seal between your breast shields and your breast.

Why is a tight seal between your breast shields and your breast important? A tight seal is as important as having your baby latched on properly. A tight seal allows the suction from your breast pump to express your breast milk more effectively, thereby getting the job done faster. The Simple Wishes pump bra gives you that tight seal with 2 inches to adjust up front depending on the nursing bra you are wearing underneath.

Would I recommend the Simple Wishes Hands Free Pump Bra?

Yes, this hands free pump bra really would help improve your pumping experiencing. I would recommend it to anyone of my three sisters.

Ready to buy a Hands Free Pump Bra? Amazon has them at great prices!

To find out about how to make the most of your maternity leave and enjoy the time with your baby, you need to watch this. I watched this video in my birthing class and it made a huge difference on how to get our baby adjusted to being outside the womb and to stop crying. His method really works!

Thanks for reading New Mommy Diary. If you enjoy what you are reading, please share this with your friends.

A reader wrote in asking:

I am expecting twins and my doctor is planning to take me off work at 28 … I checked with my company and I do qualify for FMLA, and I do pay in for SDI. I work 72 hours each pay period … and this is considered full time hours at my company … My company combines sick and vacation time together, and I will have about 144 hours by then …

I know im having a csection but i have no idea when, but before 39 weeks definetly. I am really confused as to how to calculate my maternity leave, using all these programs. What happens if I have to go on bed rest sooner? Do I lose my SDI time after babies are born?

There are two parts to calculating your maternity leave benefits: job protection and income replacement. Calculating your maternity leave when you have an extended bed rest all depends on when you are off work and when you are going to schedule your C-section.

Your pregnancy is considered full term at 37 weeks by the medical community. However, since you are having twins your babies might decide to come earlier at 35 weeks, which is typical.

For this exercise on calculating your maternity leave, I am going assume that you will have your C-section at 35 weeks (but I am keeping my fingers cross that your little buns stay in the oven longer). I am also going to assume you will be on bed rest the entire duration from 28 weeks to 35 weeks.

Job protection during bed rest

Your job will be fully protected while you are on bed rest since you qualify for FMLA. Your job is protected by these 3 federal and state laws: FMLA, PDL, and CFRA.

Based on the assumption that you are having your C-section at 35 weeks, your job protection for your entire maternity leave should look like this:

Before birth (bed rest)

3 weeks FMLA

4 weeks PDL (can be used in conjunction with FMLA)

After birth

8 weeks FMLA (to recover from C-section)

12 weeks CFRA (to bond with baby)

Total: 27 weeks job protection (6.75 months)

FMLA gives you 12 weeks of job protection. You still have 1 extra week of FMLA to use in the above scenario (in case, you need to go on bed rest earlier at 27 weeks).

If you need to go on bed rest even earlier than 27 weeks, then you just shorten your maternity leave duration after you give birth.

In most cases, if you live in California and qualify for FMLA, you don’t need to worry too much about job protection. However, whether or not you have the money to take an extended maternity leave is a whole different ballgame.

Calculating maternity leave income with bed rest

SDI replaces 55% of your income while you are disabled. This includes bed rest, the last month before your due date, and 6 or 8 weeks after giving birth. Paid Family Leave usually kicks in for up to 6 weeks at 55% of your pay after SDI ends for pregnancy.

The first thing you need to check is whether your personal leave is integrated with SDI. For large companies, it usually is. Integration means your HR department coordinates with EDD to use your personal leave to make up 100% of your paycheck. You would need to fill out a form with your HR department for this.

Your entire bed rest would be covered by SDI since you are disabled. And SDI would pay for 8 weeks of recovery since you are getting a C-section. So your income replacement should look like this:

Before birth (bed rest) – 100% income replacement

1 week (36 hours personal leave for waiting period)

6 weeks SDI and personal leave (16.2 hours personal leave per week)

While you are on bed rest, your income will be replaced 100% with a combination of SDI and personal leave. You would use up a little over 133 hours of personal leave before you give birth (I am rounding the decimals in the calculations). You will only have 11 hours of personal leave by the time you have your C-section at 35 weeks.

Depending on your company’s policy, you might be considered “working” during the 7 weeks of bed rest because you are using some of your personal leave. So you might be accruing personal leave during bed rest (full accrual or prorated). It is something to ask your HR department.

After birth – partial income replacement

1 week SDI and personal leave (11 hours personal leave)

7 weeks SDI (recovery from C-section)

6 weeks PFL

During the first week of your maternity leave, you would get almost a full paycheck with a combination of SDI and personal leave (32 hours of total pay: 20 hours from SDI and 11 hours from personal leave).

Then for the rest of your maternity leave, you would only get 55% of your paycheck from SDI and Paid Family Leave. This would be getting approximately 20 hours for the next 13 weeks.

Not enough money while on maternity leave?

What happens when 55% of your pay is not enough money during maternity leave after the birth of the babies? You can return to work part time while you are on PFL (working 16 hours per week).

One of my friends did this. She worked half a morning for 6 weeks while she was on PFL. And since my company allows us to accrue leave part-time at a prorated basis, she was able to stretch the part-time schedule for 7 weeks.

However, do not work more than 16 hours. Another of my friends had to repay the state of California because she worked a couple of hours more each week. You cannot get more than 100% of your income from a combination of PFL and working part-time. The two hours extra my friend worked meant she had a total of 105% of her income so California wanted some of their PFL money back. In her case, this reduced her PFL to 50%.

To finance my maternity leave, I saved money my entire pregnancy, including the “extra paychecks” that occurs twice a year when you budget for only 2 paychecks a month in a 26 pay period schedule. Believe it or not, the inconvenience of lugging baby and baby gear to a store or restaurant means you spend less money while on maternity leave than when you are working.

Here is a schedule to planning your maternity leave if you need help of when to submit paperwork. And don’t forget to dig through my archives for more maternity leave advice.

Good luck and hopefully your bed rest is a restful one!

To find out about how to make the most of your maternity leave and enjoy the time with your baby, you need to watch this. I watched this video in my birthing class and it made a huge difference on how to get our baby adjusted to being outside the womb and to stop crying. His method really works!

Thanks for reading New Mommy Diary. If you enjoy what you are reading, please share this with your friends.

While this is a day late, it is a nice infograph on the tribute to all the mothers in live, especially you, the new mommy. Happy Mother’s Day!

Source: http://FrugalDad.com

]]> http://newmommydiary.com/2012/tribute-new-mom/feed/ 0 http://newmommydiary.com/2012/tribute-new-mom/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewMommyDiary/~3/fRWhie18HW8/ http://newmommydiary.com/2012/i-love-being-a-working-mom/#comments Wed, 09 May 2012 06:48:20 +0000 Annie http://newmommydiary.com/?p=304

While other moms complain about missing their baby, I thought something is wrong because I do not have the urge to cry when I first returned to work from maternity leave. Instead, I feel a sense of relief to be at work every Monday morning. I love being a working mom.

Work is my mini vacation from home

Though I love my toddler, work is my mini vacation every week. As a working mom, I can actually take my full lunch hour talking to other adults and taking time to actually eat my food at a normal pace. I don’t have to wolf down lunch while trying to spoon baby food in between bites of table food. At the end of my lunch, I do not have to be on my hands and knees cleaning the floor like I do at home.

My day can start leisurely while I sip coffee and check email in the morning instead staring at the empty refrigerator with a toddler Velcro to my leg before my first cup of coffee. All mothers should have a pause button that tells their children to freeze until they have their first cup of coffee. It is just not right that children have all the energy in the morning when mom is the one who needs it the most. Staying at home to care for babies and toddlers is hard work.

Is there something unnatural about wanting to work?

Some working moms wishing they can afford to work part-time or to stop working altogether so they can spend more time with their children. While I agree that the infant years pass by really fast, but you lose your sanity even faster. Not every mom wants to be a stay at home mom full time. I certainly would not want to.

However, I love the fact that I reduced my work hours (yes, I work “part time”) so that I have 3 entire days a week with my toddler. My husband and I adjusted our work schedule so the toddler only has to spend 8 hours or less in daycare each day.

My child is thriving even though I am not spending every one of her waking hours with her. And I am thriving as a new mom because I do not have to spend every one of my waking hours being a mom. Being a working mom gives me the much needed distance to enjoy this special and unique relationship I have with my daughter when I am home. It also helps that her face still lights up when she sees me at pickup.

Thanks for reading New Mommy Diary. If you enjoy what you are reading, please share this with your friends.

PS. While technically I am paid to work 4 days a week, but my workload is not part time.

Photo by: Jerry Bunkers.

Angie from Baby Cheapskate is going to host a discussion on her book on how to find bargains for baby gear. If you are shopping for baby stuff, you are not going to want to miss this. Here is the link to the original post.

Thanks for reading New Mommy Diary. If you enjoy what you are reading, please share this with your friends.

I started working for this company in early September 2011. I’m due in mid July and wasn’t sure if I qualified for any leave. I will have been at this company for 10 months if I wait until my baby is born. I checked and I definitely pay SDI tax. Do I still qualify for leave? This is my first baby. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

There are two components to maternity leave in California: job protection and income replacement. These two components of maternity leave are completely separate. Luckily in California, we have additional state maternity leave laws to give us additional time off and, most important of all, some income replacement with SDI and PFL.

Job protection during maternity leave

Under FMLA/CFRA your employer have to give you an equivalent job with the same pay when you come back from up to 6 months of maternity leave.

Unfortunately, FMLA (federal law) and CFRA (state law) only protect your job if you worked for a large company for the last 12 months. In your situation, when you go out on maternity leave after 10 months of employment, your job will not be automatically protected for an extended maternity leave.

However, under the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, if you worked for a company with at least 15 employees, your pregnancy require your employer to treat you like any employee with a disability. Your job protection depends on your company’s disability policy.

For example, if someone has a heart attack or need surgery, how does your company handle their absence? You need to talk to HR about their disability policy. How your company handle disability is what you can expect in terms of job protection during your maternity leave since you are not covered under FMLA/CFRA.

I have a co-worker out on disability for the last two months. He will most likely be reinstate into his job when he recovers.

What this means for your maternity leave is that you will probably need to be back at work 6 weeks after giving birth for a normal delivery (8 weeks if you have a C-section). Typically, you are no longer considered disable by the medical community beyond 6 or 8 weeks unless you have complications like an infection. If you chose to extend your maternity leave beyond your recovery period, you have no job protection.

So in terms of job protection, you can only take the typical 2 weeks before birth off and 6 or 8 weeks after birth off for maternity leave and still be protected under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.

Income replacement during maternity leave

It’s a good thing you pay into the California State Disability Insurance (SDI) because this means you could expect a small check from the state since I doubt you would have accumulated much personal leave with only 10 months of employment with your current job.

However, your maternity leave payment from SDI would not be as “generous” as someone who has worked for the last 12 months. Your SDI payments are typically 55% of your paycheck for the last 4 quarters.

In your situation, you got pay for 3 quarters (9 months) and only 1 month of pay on the 4th quarter (total 10 months of working). If you do the math, this means your SDI payments while you are on maternity leave would be around 40% – 50% of your pay.

SDI is designed to help you out while you are recovering, but not so generous that you would not want to return to work. If you are planning to only take 2 weeks off before birth, then I would budget for 40% of your paycheck for 7 weeks:

Before birth

1st week off (100% from personal leave because of 7 day waiting period for SDI)

2nd week off (40% from SDI and personal leave if you have any)

After birth

6 weeks off (40% from SDI and personal leave if you have any)

or it could be 8 weeks if you have C-Section.

Please note that if you do not have the 2 weeks off before birth, you cannot add it to the after birth portion to extend your maternity leave. It is use or lose.

But what about Paid Family Leave?

Since you are not cover by FMLA/CFRA, it is not a good idea to extend your maternity leave beyond your recovery period. At only 10 months of employment, you actually do not qualify for Paid Family Leave immediately.

You are still eligible to receive Paid Family Leave to bond with your new baby anytime after working 12 months within the first 12 months of your baby’s life. Don’t forget, your husband could also take PFL if he pays into SDI (I will be posting about paternity leave sometimes next week). You should be eligible for Paid Family Leave by Christmas. Can you imagine how nice it would be to only work part time for 5 weeks starting Thanksgiving until well after the New Year?

Remember Paid Family Leave is also use or lose. You can get more details about Paid Family Leave in these two posts I’ve written previous:

Paid Family Leave payments after returning to work

Taking PFL with less than 12 months employment

You might also find my timeline on applying for maternity leave helpful.

Good luck and congrats about being a new mom! Your world is going to change forever!

To find out about how to make the most of your maternity leave and enjoy the time with your baby, you need to watch this. I watched this video in my birthing class and it made a huge difference on how to get our baby adjusted to being outside the womb and to stop crying. His method really works!

Thanks for reading New Mommy Diary. If you enjoy what you are reading, please share this with your friends.

While the maternity leave laws are pretty straight forward for large companies, there is huge spectrum on how a company practices its maternity leave policy. The federal and state maternity leave laws only protect your job and your health insurance benefits (all other benefits could be frozen while you are on maternity leave). Your company can decide everything else about your maternity leave.

Here is a list of maternity leave questions you must ask while you are planning your maternity leave.

In this post when I am referring to maternity leave, I am talking about the time away from work. Income replacement while you are on leave is not required by law. These maternity leave questions are design to help you figure out the income replacement while you are on leave.

Is there a limit on the number of sick days you can use for maternity leave?

I was under the mistaken impression that I only need to save my sick leave for maternity leave prior to having a baby. So for 5 years, I hoarded my sick leave and sometimes even using vacation when I am sick. For my situation, it turned out that I only use about 180 hours of sick leave for my entire maternity leave because I had SDI and PFL.

For my company, I could only use sick leave when I am “disable” as defined by the medical community. This means the 4 weeks leading up to the due date and the 6 weeks recovering from birth for a vaginal birth. And the only way you can extend this recovery time is if there are complications like a blood clotting issues or an infection.

However, a friend was able to use her entire two months of sick leave AFTER the initial 6 weeks for recovery from the birth.

The use of sick leave after recovery from birth depends on your company’s maternity leave policy.

Do you have to use up your vacation before you can get Paid Family Leave?

A company can request you use up to two weeks of vacation (which is all your vacation for some of you) before you can take Paid Family Leave.

I used all my vacation prior to taking Paid Family Leave because I want to extend my maternity leave as long as possible. I only had 55% of my income during the last 6 weeks of my paid maternity leave from just PFL alone.

Another co-worker wanted to use her vacation at the same time as PFL to get 100% income replacement during the last 6 weeks of her maternity leave.

When and how much vacation you can use also depends on your company’s maternity leave policy.

What is the waiting period for the short term disability insurance?

Some companies might private short term disability insurance instead of the California state disability insurance (SDI). The waiting period for SDI is 7 calendar days (or 5 working days). For private short term disability insurance the typical waiting period is 30 days.

If your company has private short term disability insurance in addition to SDI, can you use SDI during the waiting period? Which disability insurance takes precedence?

Typically the only requirement during the waiting period is that you are not at work physically. It usually does not care if you are getting paid or how you are getting paid.

For the first 4 weeks, you are getting income from 22 hours a week from SDI and 18 hours a week from sick leave (or vacation).

If your recovery period is 6 weeks for a normal birth, with a 30 day waiting period, you are only getting income from the private disability insurance on the 5^th and 6^th week after getting birth. Between the private short term disability insurance and SDI, you should get 100% of your paycheck. But which one takes precedence?

Does a doctor determine when your disability check stop?

Normally, you would have a post partum follow-up with your ob/gyn 6 to 8 weeks after giving birth. This checkup is to ensure that you are healing properly, but also to indirectly verify that you are no longer disabled.

SDI automatically stops your payment after 6 weeks for a normal birth unless your doctor fills out more paperwork to extend your recovery period.

However, for private short term disability insurance, your doctor might have to certify that you are recovered to stop payment. This means if you make your post partum follow-up 5 weeks after giving birth, then your disability payments might stop at the 5^th week.

A friend of a friend made her post partum follow-up for Tuesday on her 5^th week because her ob/gyn scheduled vacation over a long holiday weekend. Once her short term disability insurance got the paperwork from her doctor saying that she was recovered by her 5^th week, they stop her payment one week earlier than planned.

Tap into the mommy network for your maternity leave questions!

Don’t forget to tap into the mommy network at work for some answers to these maternity leave questions. I found that once you are pregnant, other new moms open up and are more than willing to share their maternity leave experience with you. I know I am always willing to help, especially when there is a free lunch involve.

To find out about how to make the most of your maternity leave and enjoy the time with your baby, you need to watch this. I watched this video in my birthing class and it made a huge difference on how to get our baby adjusted to being outside the womb and to stop crying. His method really works!

Thanks for reading New Mommy Diary. If you enjoy what you are reading, please share this with your friends.

Photo by: Stefan Baudy.

As a new mom, I did not plan my maternity leave as well as I would have liked. First, I felt guilty for taking so much time off. Then, I assumed that I would have plenty of free time at home to check up on my projects at work. Last, I assumed I would have no problems adjusting to working full time after 5 months of maternity leave. I was wrong about all these things.

Here is my advice on planning your maternity leave and what I would do differently the next time around.

Figure out if you can financially afford an extended maternity leave

There are two components to maternity leave: job protection and income replacement.

By now, you should have a good idea the maximum amount of time your employer legally is required to hold a job for you while you are on maternity leave. Please remember that FMLA/CFRA requires your employer to hold a job for you with the same pay; it does not mean they are require to give you your current job back. You can review the maternity leave laws for California residents here.

As a California resident that pay into the State Disability Insurance, you are probably better off financially during maternity leave than other moms that do not have SDI. Basically you will get a partial income replacement of 55% of your pay while you are on maternity leave.

However, there is a one week waiting period to account for. SDI does not pay for the waiting period. So you need to use your sick leave, vacation, or savings to pay your bills during the waiting period.

Even after taking my full SDI and PFL, I still could not figure what is their payment schedule. You will get your entitled payments, but it is a good idea to have savings to float you until the payments are disbursed into your account. I think I got my first SDI payment a month after I stopped working, a second SDI payment a few days later (to catch up), and a final payment two weeks after the second payment.

How much of savings do you need? If you have enough sick leave and vacation to cover the 45% of your pay for your entire maternity leave, then $2000 – $3000 is sufficient. If you have no sick leave or vacation, you need to calculate how much of your income is essential and save accordingly.

Stop feeling guilty about maternity leave

Since I was planning to take more than the usual 3 months off for maternity leave, I felt guilty for starting my maternity leave 2 weeks before my due date.

My last month of pregnancy was pretty miserable for me. I’ve gained 42 pounds and I can barely walk for more than 15 minutes at a time. I exercised daily up until my 7th month and was total unprepare for my lack of mobility.

For my next pregnancy, I am going to request 4 weeks off before my due date. Truthfully, I was not effective at work the last month. Even my boss was not assigning me work because he knows that I could give birth at any given moment.

Starting maternity leave early might be a postive thing for my employer. If I started my maternity leave 4 weeks before my due date, my boss would have a temp for 4 additional weeks to do work for him. Instead, I was occupying the position that my boss cannot fill until I am gone. Of course, your employment situation might be different than mine.

Ask for more time than you think you might need

You might be one of those few women who is ready to return to work a month after giving birth. However, life is unpredictable. Your child care plans might fall through. Your baby might be colicky. Your husband might get sick (yes, this happened to me). Can you imagine calling your boss to ask to extend your maternity leave?

After all, you can always return to work earlier than planned if you truly want to end your maternity leave early. But it is much harder to call for an extension when employers are always nervous about whether a pregnant woman is actually going to return to work after maternity leave.

Returning to work full time, part-time, or not return at all?

My boss asked whether I want to return to work full time when I come back from maternity leave. Since the grandmothers were providing child care until my baby’s first birthday, what is the point of reducing my income when I was entirely comfortable with the arrangment?

The first two weeks of returning to work full time was great. I enjoyed the mental challenge of working again and I was still sufficienly well rested even though my baby started having sleeping problems again. Then, she continued to have sleeping problems. After two months of surviving on 4 – 5 hours a night, if I am lucky, my husband and I realized that the baby needs to spend more time with me. So I ended up requesting to working part-time after 2 months of working full time.

For my next pregnancy, I am definitely going to request to return to work part-time, at least until after the baby’s first birthday. It really depends on your baby. My Hazelnut finally sleeps for an 8 hour stretch after 13 months. And then a quick sip of milk or water and she is out for another 2 – 3 hours. You might be lucky to have one of those babies that sleep for 10 hour stretch from day one.

Your boss has every reason to fear that you might not return to work after maternity leave. While you are on maternity leave, your employer is required to continue to pay for your benefits. What is to stop you from calling your boss the last day of your maternity leave to let him know that you are not returning to work?

Putting your maternity leave plan into action

Everything always seem to come down to money during maternity leave, or life in general. The more money you set aside for this baby, the more options you are going to have on planning your maternity leave.

While it might seem like I am lucky to have so many options for my maternity leave, I am 34 years old. It sounds extreme, but my husband and I waited 10 years to finally have our first baby. For 10 years, I waited patiently to stock our coffers to start a family. But if given the option to do it all over again, I think I would like to start sooner. It is hard trying to function with less than a handful hours of sleep in your 30s.

To find out about how to make the most of your maternity leave and enjoy the time with your baby, you need to watch this. I watched this video in my birthing class and it made a huge difference on how to get our baby adjusted to being outside the womb and to stop crying. His method really works!

Thanks for reading New Mommy Diary. If you enjoy what you are reading, please share this with your friends.

Photo by: Marcelo Cantarela.

I finally finished my taxes over the weekend. Are you curious whether I had to pay taxes on my maternity leave benefits from 2011?

No Tax on State Disability Insurance (SDI)

Like unemployment, neither the federal government nor the state government taxes your SDI payments when you are on maternity leave. Your taxes are withheld on your pay stub for the any sick leave or vacation you used during this time to integrate with SDI to get your full paycheck.

Please read this post if you do not understand the breakdown of how sick leave, vacation, SDI, and PFL all add up to your paid maternity leave.

Since you are “working” less than 40 hours while on SDI, you do not have to pay the Social Security tax. So you might notice a slight pay increase in your take home pay while on maternity leave if you have full income replacement from integrating your earned sick leave and your maternity leave benefits from the state.

Tax on Paid Family Leave (PFL)

However, if you chose to take Paid Family Leave (ok, raise your hands if you decide not to take PFL), you will pay taxes to the federal government. Your taxes are not automatically withheld like your pay check. For the state, you only need to report it on the tax forms, but you will not be tax on PFL.

You will receive a Form 1099G for the payments from PFL. I recorded the payments from PFL on Line 19 of Form 1040 for my federal income taxes.

Paid Family Leave is taken into account in the form where I made the California Adjustments for my state income taxes. The adjusted amount is transferred into Line 14 of Form 540.

So don’t live it up on your maternity leave payments and remember to save some money to pay your taxes for PFL the following year!

To find out about how to make the most of your maternity leave and enjoy the time with your baby, you need to watch this. I watched this video in my birthing class and it made a huge difference on how to get our baby adjusted to being outside the womb and to stop crying. His method really works!

Thanks for reading New Mommy Diary. If you enjoy what you are reading, please share this with your friends.