Kathy Weymiller was totally unprepared for the wave of longing that swept over her on her first day back at work after maternity leave. "Part of me wanted to stay home with my new baby and never do anything else again," she says. Then a middle-school choir teacher in Silverdale, WA, Weymiller never imagined that she'd want to stop working. But after saying goodbye to 3-month-old Alex that morning, nothing felt right. "Getting through the first days back was probably the hardest thing I've ever done in my life," she says. "It felt like a disaster to let go of my time with him."

Weymiller did continue to work, and both she and Alex have thrived. In the seven years since his birth, she's become the principal at Artondale Elementary School, in Gig Harbor, WA, and the mother of a second son. Most important, she now finds home and work life satisfying. "It's not always easy, but it feels normal and happy most of the time now," she says.

Nearly 2,000 miles away, in Shawnee, KS, Robyn Cunningham returned to her job as a social worker three months after her first child was born, only to decide, in a split second, that she had to quit. "I remember the moment really well. I was on the phone with my caregiver and I could hear Chase crying in the background," she says. "I thought to myself, 'That's it. I need to be the one holding him when he's crying.'" The next day, Cunningham gave her employer a month's notice. She stayed home full-time until Chase was 15 months old, then went back to school to become a nurse.

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