Non-baby things to do before you have a baby - ideas for the list?

[Charingcrossbun]

Hi ladies,

I am 13weeks pg and find I have lost all my tolerance for little people: the whiney, whinging, walking slowly and general loudness of children is grating on me. I'm fully aware this is completely unreasonable. i'm sure these children are as endearing and charming as their doting parents think they are but i'm struggling to see it at the moment. I'm blaming hormones and my deep seated terror that this pregnancy (whilst being something I really really want) is something I cannot control, nothing will be the same again.....

Anyway I figured I would channel this unnerving horribleness into something more positive and am creating a list of things to do before we have a baby:

1. Put headphones on and ignore children on public transport - I am childless and uncaring.
2. Carry a small handbag which only contains things to amuse me
3. Take on some night shifts for volunteering I do (see I am a nice person honest!) on the basis that I can wake DP at 0230 and he will not cry for hours
4. Lay in at the weekends

5...... Any ideas - a list for the last months?

Cinema
Travelling (anywhere that's further than an hour in the car)
Going out for meals. Having 3 courses.
Concerts, museums, art galleries...anywhere that would be a pain with a small, loud person.
Sleep, sleep, sleep.

Congrats btw, any remember that the stuff you're losing will be massively made up for by what you'll gain.

Leave the house with no notice or planning - just walk out the door with your keys & mobile.

Read a book from cover to cover.

Stay out until 3am rather than waking up at 3am to feed a baby .
Long lunch at the pub.
Shopping for clothes for you.
Go out in the evening and talk about things that are happening in the world rather than your dc.
Travel .

Enjoy popping out to have a facial or your nails done, once dc arrives spontaneity is somewhat reduced, even if like me you are up early get up make breakfast and take it back to bed or get dp/ dh to make it!
I was never a big fan of other peoples children, still not really but absolutely adore my ds, I know quite a few people who are the same (about their own dcs)

Charging its funny you mention the lack of patience and enjoyment of other people's children. I too am EXACTLY the same but am only 8+5 weeks. I work with kids too and parents who have no common sense so that doesn't help sometimes I wish I could lock myself away or smash there heads against a brick wall for all the crap they give me

Ah K8eee we sound v similar! I too work with small people and so on the one hand feel I should be more tolerate and indulgent and then on the other have scary inside knowledge of what these devils are capable of!!

Am developing the list - need 27 to have one a week until due date.....
Can noisy there-is-no-baby-to-wake sex count?

Yep, that's exactly what I feel and have been looking at!!! At least I know how not to bring my child up as and when he/she arrives.

Anyway, things to add to the list; having a long bath and soaking yourself until you're all prune like and not having to worry about whether baby needs feeding/changing/entertaining!

Eat food that can only be eaten with 2 hands (steak etc) or food that is only nice while its hot (Chinese take away).

Second the cinema suggestion, and lie-ins.

Lazy morning sex without being interrupted.

Most of the other things you will still be able to manage after the first couple of months as long as you have a supportive partner who is willing to do their fair share of baby-time!

Oh, and I have a DS age 2.5, another baby on the way, I'm a SAHM because I love spending the days with DS, yet I still dislike most other children

Catch up with old friends as you may be anti-social for a bit when DC is born.
Go for after-work drinks on a whim.

Don't worry about finding children irritating by the way! They are, especially even your own. But you still love them more than anything in the world. It's normal to feel like that in pregnancy.

Talk loudly to your DP after 7pm - once the baby has arrived and starts sleeping through you'll be tiptoeing around so as not to disturb him/her after bedtime!

Agreed that you should leave the house spontaneously and appreciate how easy it is because it won't be once DC arrives!

Oh, my... where to start

LIE INS LIE INS LIE INS (I cannot emphasise this enough)

Enjoy popping out of the house. Really enjoy the moment you slip on a coat and some shoes and hop into your car, all within 60 seconds.

Don't do boring stuff before the baby. Get you hair done, go shopping, have your nails done, sit around reading books, make something (if crafty), have LONG LEISURELY LUNCHES with anyone and everyone you know.

Buy a magazine, sit in a coffee shop and relax.. have two coffees... have three.. and a cake, all to yourself.

Set your alarm for 5.40am. When it goes off, turn it off and thoroughly savour the feeling of going back to sleep for as long as you want. When you eventually wake up, sit and enjoy the quiet for a full minute. Then, make a cup of tea and sit in bed for as long as you like with the newspapers, magazines etc. Repeat this for a week so you can really get a good memory of enjoying this action.

Clean up the house to the nth degree. Then wander around all the rooms, enjoying the sparkling freshness, the dainty ornaments, the low-level coffee tables, the free spaces that aren't taken up with ugly big orange plastic baby walkers, bouncers, toys and buggies. Enjoy resting your glass/cup/food at easy reach level instead of on top of a shelf.

Go to your kitchen. Organise the cupboards and clear at least two out. These will soon be taken up with baby bottles, baby bibs, baby plates, baby cups, baby bowls, baby cutlery, baby milk, baby food, baby teethers, baby sterilisers and baby weaning boxes with lids.

I will finish by saying that you won't really be able to imagine now how much you will accept and love all of this... but you will :) Your lack of tolerance to other people's children has no relation to the deep reserves of patience and tolerance for your own child that you will develop as time goes on, so don't worry about not feeling all Mother Earth yet!

cloudkitten - love your list! I second the long, leisurely lunches, in a beer garden if possible, with one or two actual beers or ciders with ice cubes (erm... Non-alcoholic, obviously! Kopparberg do a good pear one which I had last night!) and savour the feeling of being able to do whatever you want, whenever you want, without considering a single other person!

I've got two little ones and another on the way so those days are way off for me now... Scary thing is time passes so very quickly and it won't be too long before the house is too quiet and I'm mourning the chaos (keep telling myself that, anyway! )

Congratulations!

let the washing really build up because it is not urgent to gave clean nappies and baby grow ready. don't be a slave to laundry til you need to be!

Sleep

Go on a mini break

Go out for dinner

Watch a film uninterrupted

Have sex (you might not be up for it but god, I miss a regular shag)

Window shop

Go into a chi-chi cafe which is too small for a buggy and drink endless coffee/tea/hot chocolate and read a trashy magazine

Get your hair done

Potter -I miss pottering about, baking a cake, cleaning some random thing that has been festering, tidying out a cupboard that's a bit messy, watching a bit of Telly, eating something random straught from the fridge etc

Prioritise lie ins now - come 30-odd weeks, they will be an impossibility

Cinema with your partner would definitely be on my list as it isn't important enough to 'waste' a babysitter on so we don't really go together now. No big shakes but do it while you can!

Go out without worrying about what is / isn't in your bag

If you plan to breastfeed then take some time to savour the feeling of choosing whatever you want from your wardrobe without considering accessibility issues.

With hindsight I would have got all the swearing and unrepeatables out of my system before said child is old enough to embarrass you by showing off his parrot skills in public :-)

Fabulous thank you ladies! I am still in bed as I Type so counting this as a lie in!
Cloud kitten I love your list especially the alarm and then savouring the going back to sleep - unfortunately my DP has informed me that should this take place I may be at risk of being murdered during my snooze! He doesn't get it I'm afraid!

I have nearly finished the list and as I always keep a list diary (super sad but I love a good list: things I've done, friends I've seen, pubs I'ce been to, books I've read) I have now created a preggo week by week list:

So far week 13 has

Lie in past 0900 X 3 (I was on holiday)
Dinner at pub
Bodyboarding in the sea
Vomiting on the beach
Lunch at cafe
Read 3 books
(DP may take offence to me listing sex - he feels it rather takes the romance out of it! Spoil sport!) Maybe I will just add some smiley faces to the list as a cunning code.....

And I have 4 days still to go!

Go to the cinema. I have only seen one film in 8 years. It was "the croods". .

Right I have 4 dds and I still love other people's children ...but on my list would be:
go to the cinema
go to the theatre
leave out your make up where no one is going to "try some"
wonder round shops
Go to the hairdresser
Sit in a cafe and watch the world go by
eat a really nice resturant
go for a swim

Everything everyone else has suggested plus -
Buy some really nice undies. I hated my nursing bras, I wanted to burn them when I had finished bfing ds.

Wear lots of nice dresses!

If you're bf-ing finding nice bf-ing dresses that don't cost the earth is difficult!!

Get a massage/spa treatment.

Definitely cinema/theatre/gigs as much as possible.

Lots of leisurely meals out.

Have a mini break.

Sleep. Sleep. Sleep.