How long should my husband take FMLA to take over my stay at home mom duties?

I am a stay at home mom to a 4 year old. We are currently homeschooling, so she doesn't attend a preschool.

My surgery is scheduled for May 2. I will be having a laparascopy for endometriosis and hysterectomy will either be vaginal or laparascopic. If fibroids are too big, then a larger incision will be needed. I will be keeping only my ovaries.
My husband will be applying for FMLA to take care of both me and my daughter. How much time should he expect to take off?

We are also expecting to close on a new house later that month, and he'll be taking vacation time for that. (Don't worry - I've never been tempted to move heavy things, so I know I won't be post-surgery.) We just don't want him to take too much time off of work all at once.

Sorry if I post this to wrong board.

Hi RPopG to HysterSisters!

I am so glad you found this site.

You will definitely need your DH's assistance with home items and your little one. This is MAJOR SURGERY. No matter the type, you will have lots of internal healing to do. Recovery is different for everyone, but you do need to think in terms of weeks and not days. It also depends on if you have complications, and how fast you personally heal. With your little one in the mix, you may want to plan on several weeks, with maybe other family helping if DH needs to return to work. You should also ask your doctor. Remember that you will be under lifting restrictions, typically 10 lbs for 6 weeks and 20 lbs for 8 weeks.

Here are articles and pages that may provide information:
Hysterectomy Recovery Time
Recovering from Hysterectomy with Small Children
Mister HysterSisters
Post-op page and checkpoint videos

Hope this gives you some guidance.

Hey there! So I had a TLH and I have a 5 year old, 4 year old, and 18 month old. I homeschool my 5 and 4 year old. I'm 30 years old. I kept my ovaries.

My husband is taking 2 weeks off work. I'm currently 8 days out from surgery (almost 9) and I feel like 2 weeks is perfect. After the 2 weeks, I will have people still helping me because I can't lift my 18 month old.

If I only had a 4 year old, I would say 1 week minimum would have been ok but 2 weeks still preferable. I'm just now getting off Percocet and I get tired very easily.

My kids are taking a break from school and go to friends houses a lot. Hubby runs them around and does errands and takes care of me. We did everything we could to make this an enjoyable experience and more like a vacation. So we are spending a lot of quality time together when the kids go out.

I hope that helps!

Clarification: I say 1 week or 2 weeks minimum because I'm assuming a 4 year old understands when you say "mommy can't hold you right now" and is capable of independent play. So keep that in mind. My kids are happy to go play in their rooms alone for a few hours. My biggest hurdle is my toddler. Anyone that comes over to help will be changing diapers and putting him in his crib since I'm not able to really do those things.

I'm three weeks out of abdominal hysterectomy and could not have used my brain to do anything until the start of this week - it just didn't seem to work for more than 5 minutes at a time. If you do have any complications I would suggest 2 full weeks total rest as a minimum, after that, if you have neighbours you can call on if something unexpected happens, as it is likely to do when you are in charge of a 4 year old, you will probably be ok - best wishes for your surgery!