To ask what you did on maternity leave ...

[catsonlaps]

Bit worried about this. Well, not worried but wondering.

How do you fill time on leave? I'm so used to charging around that I worry I'll get a bit bored ... :)

Walked loads, I know every inch of three big parks near us now. Went to rhymetime, baby music, swimming, baby friendly cinema. Met up with nct group once a week.

Did my best to leave the house every single day, even if it was just a trip to the post office, or the swings when she was a bit bigger.

I did get bored sometimes and chose to go back to work at 10 months instead of taking 13 off as planned. Wish I hadn't now, it goes very fast, even if at times it's like swimming through mud.

The whole of maternity leave feels like a weird dream now. I enjoy being an adult again and not just someone's mum.

Ds is 7 weeks old. I had no mat leave before he came as he was 4 weeks early and I still had one day left before I finished. We spent 12 days in hospital. Now we are getting into the swing of things, I am a bit bored tbh. He's amazing but the day to day stuff is monotonous.

With my first dc I finished work on the Friday, was admitted into hospital on the Monday after a routine midwife appt showed my blood pressure had shot up. Induction started that evening (2 weeks early) and he was born on the Wednesday so I didn't have chance to be bored unfortunately - I was really bloody looking forward to sitting doing nothing for a few weeks.

With my 3 other dc I had older children to look after so no lounging about then either.

I went to every baby group I could find until I had made enough local 'mum' friends that I was busy every day. I don't really enjoy being in the house all day, so I made sure I was either out or had friends over to play every day. I did enjoy it, but I was ready to go back to work by the end. I think getting out and about and meeting other new mums is really important - feeling isolated and being at home alone with a baby would be very hard I think.

Very similar to life as a SAHM.

Gaze at my baby ( children)
I ride my horse once baby is here
Swim and exercise every day
Meet friends for lunch/ coffee
Art galleries, theatre, shopping, days out
Reading
Sewing and knitting
Gardening
Housework
Playgroups with older child
Activities for children
Voluntary work and recently started own business.

It is utter bliss

I don't really know anybody who would visit and i guess this is why I'm worried!

I started maternity leave a month before DS was due and ended up being hauled in to hospital early due to pre-eclampsia. Once he was born I was stuck in commuter land with not a lot going on by way of mother and baby groups locally, got bored and took on a very part time job which I could do at home. We then moved somewhere that was much better in terms of local company and facilities for children so I did go out more; however, I still felt my brain atrophying and took on more part time jobs teaching an evening class once a week and marking exams at home.

Eventually finances forced me back to work, and when I was expecting DC2 I stopped around 3 weeks before she was due and came back when she was around 4 months old; with DC3 I stopped 2 weeks before the due date and went back within 2 months. The incentive with nos 2 and 3 was that I already had a childminder who I was paying to keep her on, so there was no hassle about organising care and every incentive to get back to earning.

Im on mat leave now, baby is 7 weeks.
All ive done so far is drink coffee and eat cake. Its great.

Sharon that is my kind of maternity leave, being busy is very overrated.

meh tried that, didnt like it

My twins are nine weeks old, and we're falling into a routine now. We have classes two days a week and then usually go for lunch or coffee with my NCT group afterwards. I usually make plans with other friends who have babies for one other day, and then we have two days in which we potter around the house or run errands. We roughly follow the EASY routine (eat, activity, sleep, you), and the babies enjoy their playmat and bouncy chair. It's fun watching their reactions develop and change as they get older. Time passes really quickly, particularly because I'm always keeping an eye on when they'll need to be fed next. I'm loving it and don't find it boring at all.

I plan a task everyday. Then DH is home by 4 so it goes quick.

So last week I saw my mum on Monday.
Tuesday I went for coffee (4 hours in Starbucks).
Wednesday I went shopping by myself and walked the pram round Currys (free baby sensory)
Thursday baby sensory and relax afternoon
Friday lunch with a friend with a voucher (5 hours in one restaurant)

Other things I've done
6 weeks check
Vaccinations
Midwife appt (walked an hour to get there)
Gone to pick up passport form
Got passport photos
Registered birth
Hospital appt
Sat in travel agents plotting holidays while on maternity
Endless walks round Mothercare.
Take stuff back that you don't want
Sorting out all my loyalty cards so I can do days out with the points
Read up about what will be coming up next (weaning in my case)
Booked up classes (I did them from 1 week old)
Make trips to see friends.
Plan stuff for when he's older ie make note in calendar when I can book swimming lessons.
Sort your finances out, again.

I'm trying out baby cinema next week.

I tend to think I have nothing planned next week but soon people start texting me to arrange stuff.

If you don't know people who would visit, you fill your time with groups and activities. There will be plenty of days where you don't want to or can't get out, but you'll want to have at least some company and interaction sometimes. You will also find that just getting out of the house becomes much more of a time consuming exercise than it used to be. As in, where you used to be able to put your coat on and leave, it's going to get a lot more complicated. If you have an activity or outing each day, the rest of the day sort of gets organised around it.

Cleaned baby. Fed baby. Played with baby. Kept house. Cried. Took baby to mother-and-baby groups. Watched TV.

Initially I went to quite a few baby groups or I'd have gone stir crazy. Started to make some new mummy friends through them (as all other people I knew were at work). By month six we started doing meet ups in the park, going for coffees etc. I really enjoyed the year off although had to put in some leg work at the beginning to form new networks or I'd have been pretty bored.

(A very kindly) Ha!
I was you OP two years ago. I was a very busy person pre-baby and thought I'd have all this spare time, so I had a list of all the fairly major building works I was going to complete whilst on Mat leave (I'm a carpenter). I figured I would do it when the baby slept, which is all the time right?
My baby would never be put down. Ever. For about 3 months. She would scream herself purple within seconds no matter how asleep she was beforehand or which trick I tried. She was born in a heat wave and carrying her in a sling all day was too hot for both of us, but even when she would tolerate it, I could hardly operate a circular saw with a baby strapped to me. In the end I spent those days at the odd baby group, and lying on the sofa exhausted watching box sets and eating chocolate biscuits. After the first few months you'll have often made some new mum friends to meet for coffee and found groups you like to attend regularly. You are always busy, but as others have said it can be monotonous. My daughter continued to be an awful sleeper until she was 16mo btw, so I never did manage to make much of a dent in that list.
I'm dreading leave this time as we have major building works starting next month the same ones I had planned to do before and are now essential, and there is no way they'll be finished by the end of June when this baby arrives. I'm getting as much as possible done now as even the thought of organising and paying others to do the work for me is exhausting, let alone finding the time to do the work myself with the baby and a toddler

Eventually you will be glad that people dont visit and those that do will have you hinting they leave after 45mins.

Honestly the first few weeks post birth are usually spent wishing you could have a shower, eating stuff one handed and getting to the end of the day thinking "what the fuck have actually done today?"

Make some mum friends, OP, and you will have plenty of new people to visit and be visited by.
The baby groups you join in the first 6 months are more for you than the baby!

If you can, save a little bit of money up to cover coffee and cake in cafes, for the early days. It is much easier to ask new friends to meet in a cafe before you get to know them well enough for them to come to your house and see what a state it is

I'm on mat leave now. Baby is 4 months & I can tell you I'm enjoying this so much. I'm so lucky I don't need to go back to work until October but I'm dreading it already. Enjoy!!
Go to loads of baby groups. I've tried baby massage, baby sensory, baby swimming, baby yoga. Just go to loads - cheap ones & if you have some money but some too. You won't regret it!

Fed the baby. For up to 14 hours a day.
Didn't start maternity leave till after ds1 was born (born at the weekend).
With the othe babies, had a toddler to look after, and school runs etc as well as new born.

Before baby - caught up on films, read books, did lots of housework. Worried a lot about childbirth!

After baby - at first it was a whirlwind of panic, tears (her & me), relied heavily on support from family. I then got into a routine which included a daily walk with the buggy and a weekly bus trip to a cafe where I met up with other mums. It wasn't as fun as it sounds and I was so happy when I returned to work! It's different for everyone but I find working FT and being genuinely pleased to see the DC in the mornings/evenings/weekends is the best of both worlds. Full time stay at home parenting is not my forte!

(Sorry, just realised I rambled a bit and accidentally strayed into SAHP vs WP territory by mistake. Didn't mean to, was just trying to say it's not the end of the world if you're rubbish at it like me!)

are you going to do any antenatal classes? (NCT or NHS ones?) I strongly recommend you do, both to make sure you're prepared for the birth and have thought through the issues with your DP, but also so you can meet a group of woman also due at around the same time who live close to you.

While you have the time now, find out when different "mother and baby" groups are going on, most churches around here have them, worth having a plan on somewhere you can go each day to get you out of the house. (Ones round here tend to charge either 50p or £1 and give you a brew). Also worth finding out if there's a childrens centre near you and again, finding a schedule of what's on - the baby massage classes at my local one were brilliant for the first few weeks. Add in a trip to the HV weighing clinic every other week or so (or weekly if it gives you something to do on a day you have nothing on), and you soon have a thing to do.

A very good piece of advice I was given was related to someone who's not popular on here, Gina Ford - look at her daily schedule for a 4 week old, while you might not stick to her routine or do things at those time and in that order, that's everything that does need doing in the day, that's how long it takes to do each thing and there really isn't a lot of 'free time' between for getting bored in! I had only been around babies older than 3 months who were glugging down bottled milk fast, so the idea that she would schedule 45 minutes for a breast feed seemed a shockingly long time. Then I spoke to some woman who'd breast fed who explained 45 minutes per feed at 4 weeks might be a bit on the quick side... (oh and I do believe I discussed it with a fellow pregnant first time Mum and we both thought she was being rediculous suggesting that many nappy changes in a day, babies can't produce piss and shit that frequently can they?! Ah, how we laughed when the reality hit...)

I did the house jobs early morning, watched some box sets, read, did puzzles and took baby out every afternoon. It was an expensive time so I ensured there were always savings for maternity leaves.

Honestly I can not remember much, it's a bit of a blur except it was boring in the sense of repetitive but not boring with time to fill. It will depend on what plans the baby has (because they will have their own little personality/ideas and it may not fit with yours )

Are you busy AND target orientated cats ? I only ask because I was a busy bee and very task/list determined but I learned to lower my expectations somewhat after birth as to what was possible to achieve with another dependent human being in tow. If I didn't I became frustrated I was not completing stuff and was not enjoying time with Ds as a result and the 'stuff' wasn't important. Without trying to sound cheesy, you don't get that precious time back.

Be kind to yourself