Dear Alliumali,
Don't worry about being a limited company. Our company accountant wishes I had spoken with her before getting pregnant about being a limited company because of the slight financial benefit to me (without impacting negatively upon the company).
I am not sure what to advise you about doing some admin work but I can share with you what I have done and felt over the last 12 weeks having my own business to run. I work as a nurse in my own business and have 2 fantastic nurses covering my clinic 3 days a week and and administrator that is also fantastic working 5 days a week (she worked full time with me before I was pregnant). The 3 of them have been real troupers and definately enabled me to have as much time away from my business as possible. I got as organised as possible in the months before my due date. Did things like stocked the clinic well, ran payroll in advance of people getting paid, had detailed lists and dates of anything that needed done. I imagined worst case scenario in that for a full month I might well be out of action and needed to have things like payroll sorted. Just as well I did as I ended up practically housebound due to severe SPD and induced because of it. I ended up being sectioned (I had wanted a vaginal birth with early discharge after 6 hours!) I had a baby that could not breast feed due to a stiff neck and spent 3 weeks expressing milk, giving it to her by bottle whilst also trying to get her to latch on. After 3 weeks she eventually managed to breast feed.
I don't mean to waffle on but the point I am trying to make is to be prepared for the unexpected and be prepared to have to be involved in your company (unless yours is one that you can abolutely stand back from). The girls in clinic and my husband have all been fantastic but it was immensly difficult at times and could have been even harder had the staff at the clinic been more demanding on my time. Before the birth I was quite prepared to be called and contacted for problems as at the end of the day it is my business to keep going. After the birth, what I was not prepared for was the resentment I felt when I had to deal with anything related to the business as it took time away from my daughter - even if it was only for a few minutes. Two weeks after having her I had to physically go into my business to sort out complete nonsense (staff parking permits and our email just to mention 2 problems) which reduced me to tears just because of the whole effort it took to sort out me and the baby. I also had, for the first time in 4 years, a member of staff go genuinely sick 4 hours before her evening shift when the baby was not even 6 weeks old. I had no option other than to go to the clinic and work her shift (husband and baby in tow).
There have been times when I really wished I was an employee in a random company and did not have to answer the phone, sort out problems or devote any time at all to the company. Your business may be very different and you may not need to devote time to it.
Back to your original question! Can I now sit down for an hour and do the admin? Yes - if she is asleep in the pram or hubbie takes her out for an hour or two. Do I want to do it? No. We have all survived it but at the time it was very stressful. All I wanted to do was spend time with my daughter and hated being distracted, even if it was only for a few minutes. Thats a few more minutes I could have sat and gazed at her in wonder. I am 'properly' back at work, on the rota, in February when she will be 6 months old and am glad I have decided to wait until then and not go back after 3 months which would be now. The last 12 weeks really have gone fast and it is so true that you don't get this time with them again.
If you want to ask anything else please do. I wish I had known a business woman that had gone through having a first baby whilst running their own business. Running your own business can be very stressful without the wonderful, but life changing event of having a baby.
