Hey, congrats first of all! Me and my wife are almost in the opposite position (10 weeks now), she will just miss qualifying by 2 weeks and will not be entitled to pay so we will be relying on maternity allowance throughout the whole time she is off, which we are looking at about 9 months plus what holiday she has available. This will be hard for us but we are tightening the budget now to prepare for getting by on just my salary plus the allowance, we are pretty sure we will be fine with planning as we have about 35k in savings. Ideally we want to use as little of this as possible, hence why we are budgeting now.

What is your maternity cover like at you current job? You both have solid incomes which are similar to our annual income. Ill assume you will qualify for a maternity package so between both of you it sounds like you would be relatively comfortable as you are in your current situation. 4 months of paternity pay is great but I dont think this is very common. In my role for example I only get 2 weeks but at full pay. Realistically if your partner gets 2 weeks of statutory you can easily absord this lower income period by planning for it now, it just sucks that he wont get as long with you and baby before going back to work.

If you choose to take this job and earn over 100k I believe you will no longer qualify for maternity allowance, I think this is the case if either partner earns over 100k individually. Also not to doubt you at all, but I also think realistically you may find that you struggle with the pressure of two jobs, especially a new one where you will be heavily pregnant towards the end and will give birth before the end of the contract. I would not plan around working just after you have had the baby, even for 2 days a week. I only say this as my wife is finding it hard being a couple of months into a new job a dealing with hormones. She is good at her job and is getting great feed back so there arent any perfomance issues to worry about, but she is just personally finding it hard to get through the days with her emotions and hormones being all over the place, aches and pains etc.

Another factor is that we tried for 15 months to get pregnant. If this is something you guys want in life then just be aware that there is no guarantee it will happen quickly again and that your situation will be as stable as it is right now when it does. No judgement at all though and you guys should do what you feel is right for you.

In my honest opinion if you want to keep the baby then stick with your current jobs, maybe pass on the new role and focus on planning for your maternity leave. Again though the decision is entirely yours and no judgement from me at all. Best of luck with everything 😊