......I am so freaking BORED!!! I took 4 weeks annual leave before my mat leave kicks in, meaning I left work at 33 weeks. Work/friends/family tried to discourage me...."you'll be so bored" "you'll regret it" etc. which I duly ignored, feeling all smuggy smugerson about having potentially 7-9 weeks to do as I pleased before Dc1 arrives.
3 weeks later, the bastards were right. I've cleaned everywhere several times, organised and re-organised cupboards/drawers/rooms, tackled our jungle of a garden, have arranged lunches/met up with friends, washed and organised baby's clothes and sorted te hospital bags.
So what am I meant to do for the next 3-4 weeks?! Argh!! Please tell me I'm being really silly; I know I will not have this time to myself again for a long, long time but my god I just want my baby to arrive now!
What did you do on your mat leave, or why do you wish you'd done?? Come on people; keep me occupied 
Get updates on how your baby develops, your body changes, and what you can expect during each week of your pregnancy by signing up to the Mumsnet Pregnancy Newsletters.
Pregnancy
They were right....I hate to admit it, but.....
mildred37 · 16/04/2013 12:09
Definitely fit in a trip to the hairdressers. Every time I look at the photographs of me and DD1 at the hospital there is a hormone filled yeti holding MY baby
I don't know I had dd at 36 weeks and ds at 35 weeks oh to be bored!
If I didn't have them now I would definitely lay in, take long hot baths, get your nails done (mani and pedi), shopping, coffee shops, batch cook, baking, swimming....
Complete every video game you own, so when dc is a little older and gets stuck, mummy can come to the rescue!
Get your hair cut and coloured as once the baby is here you won't get long enough between feeds (unless you express or ff and have a childcare of course). My roots aren't pretty!
Batch cook and freeze. New babies have a timetable of their own, and the evening witching hour means dinner time often turns into baby head butting and crying time. You have to learn to love your microwave, and having something home cooked to put in it really helps.
Go shopping and buy things you will need post birth - feeding bras and tops for example, and potentially some jeans or trousers that will accommodate the little baby belly you'll be left with for a month or so. I had to resort to elasticated waisted tracksuits as it didn't occur to me that neither my maternity nor pre-pregnancy clothes would fit. Duh!!!
Get lots of fresh air and exercise - you're going to need a fair bit of stamina soon.
Read! You won't have time again for a long time. I really miss reading. I naively thought I'd be able to read and feed. No chance... babies latch on and off, wriggle about, have to be juggled from one boob to the other, and winded. It can be a bit of a palaver.
Luxuriate in the pre-baby superiority that we all have about never having the baby in the bed/never putting them to sleep in any position other than on their back/believing that you will always manage to eat a meal with both hands etc for the last time. Once they are here all that will fly out of the window!
Oh and finally, enjoy couple time. I've almost forgotten what that means. In the nano-second we get together we are usually scared to breathe in case we wake she who must be obeyed 
I am very 
of your free time as I am self employed so will have no choice but to work until the last minute - in fact I will probably be sending emails on my way to the hospital!!!
Give yourself a manicure, go the cinema, go to the swimming baths (and if you can't be bothered swimming take a magazine and sit in the warm baby pool). Bake some cakes that you can put in the freezer so you can have tea and cake with no hassle once baby arrives.
Don’t want to miss threads like this?
Weekly
Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!
Log in to update your newsletter preferences.
You've subscribed!
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.