Do you have an option to return part time?

I feel really sad for you. I'm English, and here we can take a year off for maternity leave. Our maternity pay isn't great, but we get something for 9 months. Childcare here is stupidly expensive, so it's cheaper sometimes to stay off for as long as you can.

I went back part time after my first child.

Ugh, I find it abominable that in 2014 mothers or fathers (whatever the case may be) are forced to go back to work after 6 weeks. In Canada, we get one year paid maternity leave. It's not the best pay, but it's something.

Hopefully your boss will be willing to accommodate your request or come up with some sort of alternative that is agreeable.

Take care. xoxo

I do not blame you for not wanting to use childcare.
With my first baby, I took off work as long as I could afford to. I didn't take leave though as I had a crap job to begin with. I simply quit, planning to find a new job whenever I was ready.
When I went back, I got a job at a local daycare and was able to work in the same place my daughter was. They wouldn't allow me to be in the same age group as she was in, as they were afraid of me devoting my attention to her and not the other children. But, I was allowed frequent breaks for nursing and I was able to get to know the staff that was watching her and they took extra special care of her cause they liked me I kept that job until I moved city and I started working part time nights in the new city. My daughter stayed home with my roommate (my cousin) while I worked. Then, when I married my husband I moved city again and started working a weekends only job Friday, Saturday and Sunday and my husband worked Monday- Thursday. We kept doing this until she got to school age, when I started working a lot more. If I was unable to be home before the bus, I would call my next door neighbor and she would meet my daughter at the bus stop and keep her til I got home. Through several different jobs, and several different ways of doing so, I always had someone watching her I was comfortable with. We always found a way to make it work.
Now, with this second baby on the way, we took a good look at the money I make and costs of going to work. Even though I have an available full time home baby sitter that I love and trust, we just decided it isn't worth it. Sadly, I will not be returning to work this time and will be stay-at-home mom now.

I hope you are able to find something that works for you.

My job puts me in a lot of different child care situations (I'm a social worker working with children with developmental delays) and I've seen good and bad home care, good and bad centers, and everything in between. The two biggest benefits to day care centers are 1) that they tend to offer more educationally as far as circle time, learning activities, art, music, etc. and 2) most centers require the teachers to have achieved certain educational levels, such as early childhood education degrees. My children have both been in a day care center since age 4 months and we are very happy with the school. They're wonderful and we love the teachers. It might not hurt to visit a center or two to see what your options are. Also, look into how day cares get their lisences in your state. I would send my kid to a lisenced center a million times over before I'd put them in an unlisenced home care situation. Also, it's something no one wants to think about but you'll want to find out about CPR and first aid training.

I agree with the other responses to not automatically rule out daycares. With my first daughter I had to go back to work at 8 weeks and I was fortunate to find a sitter who was recommended by a friend and had previous experience in a daycare. She was great and we used her until our daughter was 2. With our second that sitter was working so we had to find a daycare. We did a lot of research and found one that turned out to be fantastic. They had a curriculum teaching babies sign language and introduced Spanish as well. The daycare center also had a video camera system with a website called watchmegrow where you can log on at any time and view your child. If you can find a highly recommended home provided that's great but remember they don't have the same type of rules governing them and you aren't likely to be able to check up on them during the day. At daycare there are set rules including nutrition and health standards and they receive regular training. Also being with other children can be good for them (except for more colds/runny noses). Sending your child to daycare is very hard but not always bad. Good luck.