This year has been a big one for royal family fans—we got a royal baby (opens in new tab) and a royal wedding (opens in new tab) within weeks of each other and there's another royal wedding (opens in new tab) coming up in October. Keep it coming, Windsors.
Let's zoom in and focus on just one of those momentous royal occasions: the birth of Prince Louis (opens in new tab), Prince William and Kate Middleton's third child. Kate might be a veteran mom at this point, but she's changing up how she's handling her maternity leave in a big way with Louis as compared to her older kids, Prince George and Prince Charlotte.
Difference No. 1: Her first post-baby appearance.
The first and most obvious difference in how Kate has handled maternity leave with Louis is in her first public appearance after giving birth (not counting the adorable photo call as Kate and William left the hospital (opens in new tab)).
Prince Louis was born on April 23 (opens in new tab), less than a month before his uncle Prince Harry married Meghan Markle (opens in new tab). In spite of the short time between Louis' birth and the royal wedding (opens in new tab), Kate made an appearance and even wrangled Charlotte on the big day.
After Prince George and Princess Charlotte's births, Kate waited six weeks and two months, respectively, before making another public appearance, InStyle (opens in new tab) reports.
Difference No. 2: The overall length of her maternity leave.
Even though Kate has made a few appearances (opens in new tab) since Louis' birth, she's still officially on maternity leave, which means she's not expected to step out at nearly as many royal engagements as she would be otherwise. According to Town & Country (opens in new tab), Kate's maternity leave with Louis will officially last until October—significantly longer than the time she took off with George and Charlotte. Sources close to the royal have suggested this is because she wants to be able to spend more time with all three of her kids and that she may have regretted (opens in new tab) returning to work so quickly in the past.
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