10 weeks to go, what to do with the time?

[Freeasabird58]

Hey i'm 30+3, due 22nd October.

I start my maternity leave today (roughly 10 weeks to go)

I am already struggling on things to do! so far I have:

1. the few baby bits left to buy (which i will do with DP at the weekend)

1. sleep (well try to!)

1. clean, washing, tidy up.

What the hell can I do?? monday-friday day times are the problem as DP at work!! most friends are at work too!

help! ideas please!! xx

Join Love Film and catch up on box sets/films

If you have a big freezer make double meals for the next few weeks and freeze loads.

Set up an enormous Tesco shop for delivery after the birth (do this one closer to the time, obviously :) )

Cinema (DS is 2.7 and we still haven't been [hmmm])

and yes... SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEP

Also how about swimming/pregnancy yoga etc

Yeah I want to do swimming, would ease my back too! and stretching.. getting cramps lately! ergh!

enjoy the peace and quiet, read a book/magazine and enjoy the peace and quiet it will never be this quiet again!

Have a little pampering, facial, maicure what ever you fancy.

Stock up your frezer lots, this will be very handy in early week's.

Find any bumps and baby groups near you to meet new mums' before baby arrives. Same goes for BF group if you intend to BF and much easier to go to if you already know them.

Relax and enjoy yoursels. I've got 9week's to go but have a toddler most of the time to run around after to feel totaly drained at the moment.

I need to do my nails actually, find it quite hard to do my toes so might get DP to help haha. need to soak them though, relieve them!!

I've just started driving too so need to get out & about more before baby arrives plus to up confidence. but i dont like just "driving for the sake of it" waste of money and i'll end up spending money! might pop up to Costa in a minute though.. or just make my home-made hot choc!! mmm think i might just do that!!

Enjoy the little things like a hot cup of tea or going to the toilet when you need to not when your really really desperate. :o

Potter round the shops, have a nice quiet meal all by yourself, soak in the bath for as long as you want, read ....

So very very of your free time. Have fun and good luck :)

sleep, cook and freeze, wander aimlessly round town window-shopping just for the hell of it, go to the cinema, sleep, swim, sleep...

(does it show that I had a non-sleeping baby last time?? :) I am busy telling the one currently in my belly that when he comes into the world in a few weeks, he will be one of those 'angel babies' who sleeps through from day 1, and just lies in his cot gurgling happily at all other times)

(only joking! wouldn't swap DS for anything)

but do enjoy the remaining few weeks, and don't feel guilty about taking lots of me-time just for the sake of it :)

Blindfold yourself and practice collapsing and uncollapsing the pushchair with one hand whilst playing a tape of a crying baby......

............or just treat yourself to a massage.

You can come and help me finish renovating my flat! i'm due October 24th, panicking now.

Just enjoy it! My due date is one day after yours (23 Oct) but I still have 8 weeks left at work. Not that I am or anything.

My vote goes with pampering, reading, cooking, sleeping and generally relaxing. Any and all of the above as much or as little as you can be bothered.

If you get bored, think of me stuck at work!

I am due on exactly the same day Freeasabird. DH and I are moving house so I reckon that might give me one or two things to do. I have to say, I admire your organisation. I have bought nothing other than a pram for baby yet. I agree with all the other posters - enjoy the feeling of having nothing to do, it won't last that long! I have taken knitting up again for the first time in years - it's very soothing and helps me take my mind off my over-active bladder.

Enjoy it! First day of mine today as well and am totally disorganised and not really accepting I am having a baby (was due yesterday, ahem). You are doing the right thing by resting and getting on top of things!

I could have worked on for a bit longer, but wanted to use some holiday entitlement up. and at the time of me putting in my maternity leave it was a bit of a stressful time at work so i thought - why not.

I'm sure i'll find more stuff to do. had a bad weekend (DP grandad passed away, so just want to comfort him really. his grandads birthday is 2 days before my EDD. so i hope it comes on his bdy)

I sometimes get to the point where i make lists of what i need, to-do list that end up getting duplicated then i get annoyed thinking i've not done things haha.

I love my own company sometimes, its just the next few weeks. being alone alll day is a bit boring. but i know i know the baby will change all of that!

I still have my nervy days, but i am really looking forward to it. (the only thing i worry about is that we are still living at my dads right now in the livingroom!, and i just hope it goes smootly with night feeds waking the house up! )

BTW: good luck to everyone and your pregnancies

Day 2 of maternity.......... so bored. ben since 7am, had breakfast, washing, read my magazine, just having a hot choc now. so bored............help!

Also getting miffed as some of my "friends" dont seem to be bothering with me! i am fed up of texting and trying to arrange things. they just seem un-interesed. or when it suits them!

How about baking yourself some biscuits (so that you'll feel like you've been productive) then settling down on the sofa with a large cup of decaf tea and watching some dodgy daytime TV (Murder She Wrote, Midsomer Murders, Columbo etc) and scoffing all the biscuits... this is what I'm dreaming of doing when my mat leave starts in 6 weeks time [sigh].

It can't come soon enough!

Have a manicure

Get a haircut

Go to the cinema

Order your Christmas shopping online

Make a photobook

OK, bearing in mind your free time is soon to be zero

1. Enjoy it!

Read / watch TV / potter

I am loving being a mum, but I had no idea how little time I would have! I have not read a book since DS was born 20 months ago. I have seen 3 DVDs in the time, and one film in the cinema (and that was a big deal!) I no longer watch TV.

1. Organise

Do anything which you think you might need to do over the next 6 months or so, so:

• cook some meals and stick them in the freezer, for eating in the next few weeks when you are too tired to care about cooking

• do you plan to have a baby-naming? Start organising it now (although I wouldn't advise actually setting a date until after your DC is born and you know how you feel)

• are you going to send out cards announcing the arrival of your DC? As much as possible, get these ready before the birth (buy the cards, list who you're going to send them to, address the envelopes). It took us a couple of months to get round to sending these out! I wish I'd done it before.

• do your Christmas card list (I'm not joking!) and if you're feeling really good you could even write and address them. So much easier now than with a 3 month old to look after, you will really appreciate it later!

• do anything else which will require either your brain or your time, now!

HTH

Great ideas - in your place and with hindsight I would rest/sleep/snooze/nap as much as possible.

Failing that, do what I did and sort out your photos... on my ML before DD was born I sorted about 7 years worth of pics into albums, then I did the same before DS was born. It felt so satisfying (yes I know I am a v sad and probably needed to get out more)

Be grateful that you haven't got much to do!
We are still renovating and I am ony due a month after you. Panic is not the word.

I think just enjoy your time on your own and try and appreciate it. Something as simple as reading a magazine with a coffee and listening to music is a simple pleasure but something you might not manage for quite a while.

I got up at 10.00am this morning - just because I can and I know that soon I will be a baby slave!

Just seen you're not due till October.

Christmas shopping, definitely! So, so much better now than with a 1 or 2 month old.

I finished yesterday and am30+ 6. have been ill most of pg & have 2 older ddsto run round after. It's quite nice atm to be at home with them before school starts then there will be lots of sleep!

Change of name from Freeasabird58!

day 3 of maternity not been so bad, been relaxed!

I even make cakes! woo!

hmm what to do tomorrow....... food shopping maybe ergh lol

how is everyone?

You have no idea how jealous I am of your free time!

Good to hear you're enjoying it.

Jenko77 - love your solution. It's now my number one dream for materntiy leave!