Sometimes things happen that you have no way of predicting and making a contingency plan for. I had the world's least annoying pregnancy (no morning sickness, g

Sometimes things happen that you have no way of predicting and making a contingency plan for. I had the world's least annoying pregnancy (no morning sickness, gestational diabetes, or pre-eclampsia worries). I stayed within the recommended range for weight gain and exercised throughout my pregnancy. I turned 24 shortly before my due date, so complications from advanced maternal age weren't a worry. I was told I'd probably have a boring (in the medical sense) delivery. Turns out that it was anything but boring. I went into labor on Christmas Eve and almost didn't see Christmas morning. It got to the point where they rushed my husband out of the room and me into the OR. A half an hour later they told him they were doing everything they could, but he might not be bringing anyone home from the hospital. Thankfully, that turned out not to be the case. However, those complications ended up changing our childcare plans. Without getting into private details, the daycare we had selected during my first trimester wasn't qualified to handle my son's health issues. Most daycares weren't, and the few we found that were ran in the $2k+ a month range. But they also had huge wait lists. Since I had a decent network and could work from home, we decided that was our best option. Fortunately, my birth experience is atypical. However, a lot can happen in a year (conception to the end of a 12 week maternity leave). Most of the people who are scrambling to find daycare a month before maternity leave is over usually had something come up during the last month or so of pregnancy. Daycare wait lists are ridiculously long where I live, so if something changes your daycare plans, you may have to get a nanny or stay home for a year until a place opens up.