Ideas for making winter maternity leave more enjoyable with a new baby

[Boxiboxi21]

I'm taking six months from September and then my partner is on shared parental leave with me for six months.

Any ideas how to make the winter period of maternity leave more fun? I live in a part of the country which gets battered by storms most of that period and a lot of rain, so quite sad I won't have lots of nice spring/summer walks with baby and picnics etc except at weekends 😕

both of my maternity leaves fell over winter, lots of baby groups/swimming/baby friendly cinema trips/ visiting friends and family/holiday to somewhere hot. Enjoy

Both of mine were winter babies. Firstly, September to November are still fairly mild, so get out and enjoy. Secondly, honestly, at that age, there is not a lot of being outdoors. Yes, the occasional walk, but you can absolutely still walk in the rain (waterproofs for you, baby will be asleep under the rain cover anyway, opt for a woodland so you have a bit of extra shelter). You don’t really do picnics and parks with a 3 month old anyway.

The weather matters a lot more from, say, 9 months to a year when they are mobile and into everything in the house. For the first few months, I’d make the most of relaxing days at home watching series and reading while baby feeds or sleeps on you. I loved just being able to sit down! After maybe 6-8 months, you pretty much don’t sit down again until they’re school age, so maximise the sitting down and doing nothing.

From a few months, babies love twinkly things and colour. So go for walks around shopping malls and streets all decorated for Diwali, Hanukah, Christmas. You can put a baby in a papoose and wander around an art gallery or museum. Go to covered fruit or food markets if you have any near you. I remember DS1 being in a papoose while I went around Borough Market and I suddenly saw he had a cube of feta in one hand and a (stoned - thankfully) olive in the other and was sampling them both very happily. He must have grabbed them from the sample on counters that were just his height. He was about 6 months by then.

Sign up for baby massage or baby music or waterbabies at the local pool. These are more for you than the baby - a chance to give a bit of structure to the week, meet other mums and get out of the house for a bit.
Some malls do fitness groups for new mums - walking or jogging with a buggy.

At that age, there were quite a few coffee mornings, just among mums in the neighbouring streets. You have a group of about 12 parents of newborns and take turns to host one each week. Not everyone comes - usually about half. We also used to meet in the quiet back room of a local pub for lunch once a week, where we could breast feed and drink pints of cranberry juice and soda.

But also, winter is not a bad time to have a baby. Both mine were summer born. I remember being stuck indoors during heatwaves, watching the Olympics and Commonwealth games for hours and hours while breastfeeding. But if it's freezing outside, you might feel more inclined to cosy up on the sofa to binge watch some favourite shows while breast feeding.

Line up some good podcasts and audio books too.

I was on mat leave in the winter. I made sure we either went out or had friends round every day. Pubs and coffee shops have meet-ups for parents and babies. Our local church runs several different groups, including baby gym/yoga, toys and coffee mornings, singalongs. The library also runs plenty of activities. We joined the local leisure centre for baby swimming and baby gym classes.