How I Prepared for Maternity Leave as a Small Business Owner
When I saw the words “Pregnant” on a ClearBlue digital pregnancy test, I couldn’t believe my eyes. It felt surreal and emotional and exciting. I’ve always wanted to be a mom, and when I realized I was one, my heart melted into a total puddle.
When we found out I was pregnant, I wasn’t actually a full-time business owner yet. I was about to start a new job two days after finding out. However, the job didn’t have maternity leave because it was a smaller company. I ended up leaving that job shortly after I started because my dream has always been to stay home with my babies, which opened the door to start my graphic design business full-time. It felt like God was pulling me in that direction, and He opened doors widely for me to make the jump—but something that I was nervous about was maternity leave. The finances, taking time off, client relationships, projects, jumping back in, managing my time with a baby—it all felt overwhelming. Every family has to do what works best for them, but I thought it might be insightful or even encouraging to future mamas to share how I prepped for maternity leave.
FINANCIAL PREP
I worked at Ramsey Solutions for two years, so thankfully we knew what we would do to prep financially because I listened to Dave give this specific advice for years.
When we found out I was pregnant in July, we immediately paused on paying off our student loan debt because we wanted to have money saved for our baby/medical expenses in case anything happened and we needed the cash. We budgeted our monthly bills, essentials, and business expenses; then we set aside the money in our savings account from July to February (with baby Abel being due in March).
We were able to save a comfortable amount of money, which allowed me to not worry about work for three months after having Abel, as well as pay for our hospital and pediatrician bills in cash. This ended up helping us a bit throughout the summer because I slowly eased back into work and my husband was searching for a job at the time.
God certainly provided for our family in miraculous ways, always giving us exactly what we needed when we needed it. It was so encouraging to see how He sustained, and continues to sustain, our family as we navigated the unknown territories of having a baby and running a business.
Taking Time Off
The amount of time you want to take off is totally up to you! I decided I would take three months off with the plan to evaluate how I was feeling around the two-month mark. Once Abel hit six weeks, I felt I wanted to slowly ease back into work with one of my retainer clients at the 2-month mark. We were still getting into the groove of things, but at the time Abel was sleeping a lot so I thought I could handle a little bit of design work. It sounded fun to me, if I’m being honest. There’s only so much TV and YouTube you can watch in those early newborn days, so I reached out to my client, who is SO great to work with.
Remember when I said Abel was sleeping great? Yeah, that ended about as soon as I decided to start working. I’m not sure what happened, but when he became aware of his existence outside of the womb, he was awake ALL the time. Getting him to nap and go to bed became a constant battle because, well, he just likes to be a part of the party. At the time I was a shell of a human, but thankfully my client had constant grace with me and even threw super fun and light projects my way to help out. They were such a gift to work with and I’m grateful for how they worked with me in that season.
Looking back, I wish I had just taken one more month to give myself some grace during Abel’s sleep resistance. Instead it added a layer of stress on top of lack-of-sleep exhaustion. We can’t really plan how our babies will be in the newborn stage; they’re humans, and they often don’t go by the textbook.
Again, how long you choose to take off work is entirely up to you! What I’ve gathered for my future babies and maternity leaves is that I want to take even more time off, maybe even four months.
Wrapping Up Projects Before My Due Date
About a month prior to my due date, I sent all of my clients an email to let them know about my maternity leave, which I’m happy to share below in case you need an idea of what to send to your clients / coworkers / etc. To provide some context, I unexpectedly was told I would have to be induced early. I fully believed I would go to 42-weeks because of my genetics, however, that was not the case—I had Abel at 39-weeks! That certainly shook up my business plans because most of my clients thought I’d be available until early March; however, I was excited to meet my baby early.
“Hello!
This email is to inform you that I will be going on maternity leave sooner than anticipated. That being said, my last day in office before maternity leave will be Tuesday, February 27. I understand that’s a short amount of time to wrap up February projects, so I want to assure you that I will do the best I can to see your project to the finish line!
As a reminder, I do plan on being back after maternity leave and look forward to working with you for future projects.
In the meantime, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Thanks so much!”
All of my clients were supportive and encouraging as we embraced a very new season of life. I will note, they all knew I was pregnant when they began working with me, so that certainly helped as we planned out project timelines. My maternity leave began two days before my induction date so I had some time to do final prep before bringing Abel home. Here’s the email I sent to clients when my maternity leave officially began:
Hello!
This email is a friendly reminder that my maternity leave has officially begun, as we are welcoming our first baby this week. I have gone through my check list and tried to get any outstanding projects done for you and your team so you should be good to go while I am out!
Thanks so much for being an amazing and supportive client in this time for Uriah and I; we are so excited to meet our son. I will be in touch over the next couple of months to let you know about availability for upcoming projects, as I am hoping to ease back into design slowly but surely.
Have a blessed week and thanks again for your support!
Creating these crystal clear boundaries gave me peace of mind that I did my part the best I possibly could do before disappearing for a few months. I did have some emails come in after I sent that email, but because I drew that clear boundary, I didn’t respond until I was ready to go back to work. I needed to have a lot of space to focus on my baby, parenthood, healing, intentional community and so on, so I silenced notifications on my work-related apps to focus on our new family of three.
Adjusting to Work as a Stay-At-Home Mom
So many people told me, “your baby will sleep so much in those first few months, you can definitely get work done!” While they certainly had good intentions and I appreciated the encouragement, that was not at all our reality as a family. Abel is such a sweet, cuddly baby and he just struggled with sleep—in fact he still does at almost 8 months. We tried everything—contact naps, sleep training, nursing to sleep, co-sleeping and everything in between. But sleep was just hard, and that’s okay!
The first couple of months I did whatever it took to get work done despite Abel’s lack of napping. A few things I did those first few months to get some work done with my sweet baby in tow:
I would wear Abel in my Solly wrap on more clingy days. He would nap or just cuddle for a long time, and I loved having him close to me.
We have a Baby Delight bouncer and my grandma thrifted a cute baby swing, so I would set him right next to my desk after he nursed and this would make him happy for a while.
One day Uriah and I went to a coffee shop and Abel was happy in his stroller next to our table while we had our coffee and pastries and I worked a little bit. It’s actually a sweet memory—it was raining and the coffee shop was playing jazz music and Abel was being so cute!
When he was smaller and not rolling, I would work in bed while he napped right next to me. I’d set up a cozy space for us to hang out and he’d usually nap for a long time when we did this, probably because I was right next to him.
On desperate days, when I was close to a deadline or spread thin or Abel was resisting sleep, Uriah would hold Abel during his nap. This wasn’t possible or ideal every day, but I am so grateful Uriah was home during the summertime so we could spend time as a family / he helped me with Abel and running the business. He even worked on some website design for me, which was great!
Once Abel began to have a little more consistent nap schedule, which was around 5 months, I would just work during his nap. His naps ranged from 40 mins to 2 hours, and I would just take what I could get! Once he started going to bed at 7:30 pm around 6 months, I started working a little after putting him down for bedtime.
Lastly, part of why we moved from Nashville back to Virginia was to be near family. About once a month when I need to do deep focus work, I’ll drop Abel off at my parent’s house for the morning and work at a coffee shop 3 minutes from their house. It’s worked out great the past few times, plus Abel loves to get some time with Grandma and Grandpa!
Now we’ve come to a super fun place with Abel. He is getting to an age where he’s playing more independently, taking 2-3 consistent naps in his crib every day, and is overall more content. The adjustments have been hard, but it’s been such a gift knowing that I can be home with my baby while also working since we don’t have a choice for me to not work.
If there’s one thing I can encourage you with in all of this, it’s to extend grace to yourself and to your baby. Remember: you don’t have to be strong because God is. He is going to carry you and be faithful to you every single day, whether you’re sleep deprived and at your worst, or got 9 hours of sleep and feel amazing. You don’t have to do and be and know it all. I’m obviously still so new to running a business and being a mom—both are still fresh! As a final thought, I wanted to share some Scriptures that helped me through those early days and continue to help me today.
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
(Lamentations 3:22-26)
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
(John 15:5)
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
(2 Corinthians 12:9-10)
