Before we conceived this baby, I knew I would have 3 months of PTO to cover a maternity leave. So the plan was always to take 3 months off. I was looking in the contract book for my job and saw that I could take 6 consecutive months from the birth of my child in which I'd get my same job back in  the same department and also be able to keep my health insurance 4 months after I'm off the payroll (I'll be off the pay roll after I use up my pto in 3 months). The only issue with taking the extra 3 months off is the loss of 3 months of income. We can afford it and we won't be in debt by losing 3 months of my income. The issue is deciding to lose those 3 months of income with us being ambitious and having 3 and 5 year plans. I'm leaning towards taking 6 months off, while my husband is in the middle. I do understand why he has hesitations. I been telling him forever I'm only taking 3 months paid off and all of a sudden I hit him with this new idea 😓 we luckily have 4 months to decide. I'm curious as to what you ladies think about this.