I went back to work after all three of my boys, but when my husband was promoted and we relocated to another office out of state (away from both sets of grandparents), I stayed home – my youngest was four at the time. Despite having times when I feel that I am undervalued by society because I am not in my high-powered suits, I would not change a thing.
However, I always say to reserve judgement until after the baby is born and to not close any doors in the meantime. I have a friend who outright quit her job thinking she was going to be the best stay home mommy. It was the worst year in her life. Her job was gone and she was miserable. She is much happier working (and, believe me, a happy mom is a happy baby). Back when I was working, a manager in my department was one of those work-80-hours-a-week women who openly was very disdainful of women who had to skip out right at 5pm because they had to get kids. You should have heard how nasty she was whenever her secretary asked for days off because of those funny school holidays (like Columbus Day). She had a late-life suprise preganancy and swore that she was coming back to work after two weeks regardless of what the doctor said! Guess what she is doing now??? That’s right – she ended up taking the full FMLA and then quitting because she just couldn’t part with her baby. I talked to her last 4 years ago and she was still home and doing fertility treatments for another child!