Originally Posted by
LeineLodge
Johnso,
For our first one I took the NWA SLIP leave as we weren't making squat first year anyways. The second kiddo was under DAL rules, and I had no problems whatsoever with the CPSC and Crew Planning. The key is to get it setup way in advance, as it sounds like you are. They allowed me to move my vacation to begin a few days prior to the due date, and said I could call and shift it sooner if my wife went into labor early. Very flexible I thought. This was all during summer and I can't come anywhere close to holding summer vacation, as you know

.
Vacation, plus 2 weeks of FMLA, plus creative bidding and a few PCS moves and I ended up with almost 6 weeks off for the 2nd kid, with only 2 weeks unpaid.
Good luck, and congrats. It sounds like you're on the right track.
Thanks for the tips. I started working with them about 4 months out. It's been going good. Last step from here is to wait and see how the Dec schedule turns out. Then some fine tuning can be done. It'll be a little tougher, as I think I'll be on reserve in Dec.