I stayed home w/ my first after taking my 12 week paid maternity leave. (I highly suggest taking your paid leave regardless of your intentions. My sister planned on staying home with her twins for a year, but turns out she really missed her job and went back after they were a few months old. IMO, maternity leave is a time to figure out if you are going back or not, because the reality might be different than the intent. At least that's how I justified taking nearly 3 months and not going back...)
After a little over a year, I was back to work. In late 2009, no less, which was not a good time to be looking for work, if you recall. But I'm highly employable in an in-demand field, accounting. Being out for a year was not an issue. I took consulting work after a year before finding a permanent position. It was very easy to explain to potential employers that I'd been home with my baby as a personal choice, but I have been doing consulting work as my schedule allowed, and was ready to go back to a permanent position. I took the months off of my resume, so nobody knew unless they asked for specifics that I'd really been not working for a year and consulting for just the last couple months.
With my second, I went back to work, but I really milked that FMLA for all it was worth. I used my 6 weeks of short-term disability pay, then 2 weeks of saved vacation time, which accounted for 8 of my 12 weeks of FMLA. Then I went back to work 3 days a week for a month or so, then 4, and then eventually back to 5, using my remaining 4 weeks of FMLA intermittently to make the unpaid days off each week "allowable" by HR. I would actually just submit my hours to HR so they knew how much to pay me, and how much FMLA I had left. It was pretty much perfect, and a great taste of what FI and part time working might be like.
I wouldn't take my SAHP time back for anything. I really loved being home with my first. It was a sacrifice for sure to not work in a bad economy, not to contribute to retirement plans when things were on a super sale, and to go from my family making about $100K to making about $20K. (My salary at the time was $80K, DH continued working and made between $20K-$25K.) Luckily, we planned for this and lived on his income alone for about a year before baby's arrival. So during my year off, we did not spend a penny of our savings or investments.
What do you do? Might there be some flexibility with your employer after baby arrives for an alternative schedule or part time work?