I lucked out with my first pregancy with my son Jack who was born on June 22, 2009.  I had just gotten promoted to Compliance Manager right before I found out I was pregnant, so it was a pretty stressful time for me.  On top of a promotion and being pregnant, my father-in-law was diagnosed with cancer and moved in with us so we could take care of him while he was undergoing  treatments. 

Since I was with the company about 6 years by that time, I had 31 PTO days (paid time off) so I tried to save up whatever I could. But what was great, was that on July 1, 2009 the NJ Family Leave Insurance became available. To cover the cost of the NJFLI, it literally was only a few cents taken from each employee's paychecks starting in January of '09.  Being that I was one of the first women at my company to be pregnant and partake in the NJFLI, I actually had to help educate our HR team because they believed that the NJFLI was only good if you had to care for a sick child. Not so! It specifically states that an employee will also be covered for bonding time with a child (including adopted children). 

Other than that, the whole process was pretty painless and I was able to extend my maternity leave by 4  weeks past my 8 weeks disability (since I delivered my son via c-section). It was 66 and 2/3% my pay (same as NJ state disability), but the additional $$ definitely came in handy and I really wanted to be able to take the additional time to spend with my newborn son, especially, in light of what was going on at work and at home with my sick father-in-law. 

Now, I work for a much smaller company (<50 employees) and my 2nd baby is due in December. 

I went to this smaller company in May of last year, taking a demotion with less pay and less time off thinking it would be less stressful. I didn't think I was going to get pregnant again so the NJFLI wasn't even on my mind.  Knowing that it's not available to me this time around is a bummer, especially, since most of my PTO (20 days for the year) are practically gone due to days off used when my son was sick, doctor appts for both him and me, as well as times when I was sick in the first few weeks of my pregnancy. Also, most recently, for Hurricane Irene that hit NJ and left us without power for a few days.  I have very few days left, so I pray that my son or myself do not get sick.  I also have to work out a financial plan with my husband to see how many weeks off I can swing without getting paid without doing too much damage to our house's finances. I would love to extend my leave by 4 weeks like I did with my son.  There is no way I can see turning my 8 week-old daughter over to a sitter (even though our sitter is like family).  I'm trying not to get too stressed over it. I'm lucky my current bosses are willing to grant me additional unpaid leave, but it would be nicer if it were paid–one less thing to worry about.

Maureen Bell, New Jersey

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