Hey, I've seen a lot of advice in here but not what I personally think you should do.

I think this is a conversation to have with your husband/SO.

I would talk with him about your concerns and inform him that you may take almost a 50% pay cut and it's time to really look into the sacrifices you need to make financially. This decision will take hardship on the relationship weather you stay and return to work before ready (possible mental and physical pain) or if you take a job that required you guys to function on 30k less a year.

You also need to realize that unless you have family who are available when and where you need them, you will be paying for daycare. Daycare usually only runs to a certain time and is expensive as hell. Mine is 7-530pm and 240/week. Most day cares you pay this weather your kid goes or not so it's a fixed expense. There's steep fines for being outside those hours.

To put that inspect you are thinking about taking a 30k a year loss before tax when you can expect at least a 10k a year after tax increase in expenses. This does not actually include anything you need at home to care for your child either.

So I would talk with your husband/SO and really try to understand your options.

Maybe he could try to make up the gap while you look for other employment that pays you a fair wage and recover and bond.

The other advise I would tell you is that your employeer clearly needs you. I am assuming if the pay for your job starts around 34k, that that's what you were making before they begged you to come back. They payed you because they clearly could not find anyone to fill the roll that did not cost them more than it did to give you the raises you received.

I personally, would tell my boss, I am taking 6-12 weeks. If you want to provide me a way to work from home after 4 weeks I will consider it depending on how demanding child care is and how well I recovered.

Si even if they can't accommodate you there, I would say it's not that important to have your next job lined up. I wouldn't worry about the second option because it is easy to find and entry level job paying more. You could start at Starbucks when you feel ready to go back to work and make what option B is.

I have a lot more advice for you too but advice only works if you apply it and i dont want to over saturdate you.

The last thing I want to address is you said first (and only) child. I just want to be clear, if you do not want this child because you feel like it is interfering with your life there are plenty of people who would love to have a child. Not just strangers but im sure you could find someone in your family who would make sure your child is cared for while you figure your life out. Do not feel obligated to keep him/her and provide him/her less than your love. If in turn you want to raise a kid and it's the money and career that you are worried about I would like to remind you that a family can stay a family without money, even in a shelter, or on the street.