Start maternity leave tomorrow?

I just read my friend Kristin's blog and it gave me a lot to think about.

I really REALLY wanted to have this baby by today. I thought that if I wanted it bad enough somehow I could make it happen. Well, it's only 9:00am so I guess there's still a chance, but let's be realistic, it's a slim chance.

Even though I couldn't magically make baby come by today like I thought, I really don't want to go back to school tomorrow.

All day Friday I kept telling my kids, "I'm pretty sure today's my last day."

In my huge crate of weekly plans for my sub, the first week I planned for is this week. I told my sub awhile back to just plan to start this week which was fabulous for her since she's got another long-term sub job lined up starting exactly 8 weeks from tomorrow (8 weeks is how long I'm taking off, so she'd jump from my job directly into the next one). If I kept teaching into this week then she wouldn't start my job until later so she wouldn't be able to take the next job... does that make sense?

All last week I was MISERABLE at school, partially because I was physically miserable and in pain, but mostly because OTHER PEOPLE were making me feel miserable. I really don't understand the need for people to go out of their way to seek me out just to say things like, "You're STILL here?!?!" "What are you still doing here??" "Aren't you EVER going to have that baby?!?" or even worse is when they make their own diagnosis: "You need to have sex, that'll get him out" or "Go walk up and down the hallways"... on Friday one woman put her hand on my belly and said, "He hasn't dropped at all, he's still way up high, he's not coming for awhile."

I'm not at all exaggerating... I'd honestly say it's like 20 or 30 people making these comments EVERY SINGLE DAY last week. Every person I passed in the hall... Every person I saw in the copy room or faculty room... People were even coming upstairs to my classroom, totally out of their way, just to tell me things like that...

I left school on Friday and went to the hospital to be checked because I thought my amniotic fluid might have ruptured (a.k.a. I was "leaking") and a few people at school knew I was going which means they all have probably spread it around that "Ashley went to the hospital to have the baby!!" So when I show up to school tomorrow the OTHER PEOPLE are sure to make me feel more miserable than before. Being the already-emotional wreck that I am, I really can't deal with that anymore.

Another argument for staying home: I would like to have some time to finish things. I worked so hard to get everything done for my sub at school that there's still a bunch of things we haven't taken care of at home. I haven't had the time to sufficiently "nest" like I wanted. I finished my "school to-do" list, but I've only scratched a few things off my "home to-do" list.

You might think: What if you start your maternity leave tomorrow but then baby doesn't come for like another week or two?? Two thoughts to answer that: #1) My dr is awesome and he said we could set the date to induce me by Friday this week, and #2) I'm taking 8 weeks off instead of 6 weeks which is the "teacher norm", meaning that even if baby doesn't come until Friday I would still get 7 full weeks with baby afterward instead of the usual 6 other teachers get.

I gotta stop and chuckle a bit... am I convincing anyone? Cuz I'm REALLY convincing myself!!!
This is what I want. I think I deserve to make this decision for myself. Don't you??
I'm calling my principal today to tell her all of this. We'll see what happens from there.