What did you do on maternity leave before your baby came?

[Mandraki]

I finish work on Friday! I'm so ready for a little rest before baby arrives but I am acutely aware that this being our first baby, I will never get a time like this again where I have no responsibilities and some free time. If we have another baby I will be looking after this one while I'm on mat leave.

I'm planning on batch cooking a bit, hopefully find energy to clean a bit more, going to try and get out every day (I know I will get depressed if I am stuck in) and try and keep to some kind of routine (I.e not lying in bed all day, I don't think that would be good for my mental health either).

What did you do in the short time before your baby came? What do you wish you'd done?

I'm off on maternity leave very soon. I plan to enjoy doing the school run for my dd , clean my house before baby chaos happens and finish knitting some bits for my baby.

Ah, and I will take some afternoon naps while I still can.

I've been getting up with my dh every day and having breakfast before he goes to work, usually having a long soak in the bath and having a read of a book to keep nice and relaxed. I'm walking out every day to try and keep active, other than that it's cleaning/watching TV and waiting for the imminent arrival. It's nice being able to take a nap if I've had a bad nights sleep!

I only had 6 works day off in the end before baby arrived! I went swimming every day, a few Pilates classes, and met friends for lunch most days. The weekend before we went to my favourite restaurant.

I went off at 34 weeks as I had a load of annual leave to take. I LOVED it. I took my dog on lots of walks and enjoyed lots of reading and sleeping!

Go to the cinema on your own.

I only had a week between finishing my employed job and the day of my C section and was still madly finishing off my freelance work two days before!

I still made sure I put my feet up as much as possible, had a little walk every day and saw a few friends. I had one brilliant last late night at a dinner party with good friends which I think I'll always remember

Napped, organised baby bits and met friends for lunch. Enjoy it!

I tried to do one baby related task, one piece of (gentle) exercise and one social activity every day. It was great

OP how many weeks will you be? I will be 38 weeks when I finish and wish I could finish earlier!

I didn't even get to start mine as baby came early. Still pissed off about it 16 months later

I did some knitting and watched a lot of TV. Did find the energy to do some housework, washed all of the baby clothes and organised the nursery etc. My advice is not to get hung up on how to spend your time, you won't care once your baby (or babies in my case!) is here.

Star wars marathon

I broke up at 36+5 and planned to have plenty of baths, watch some box sets, just chill out in the 5 weeks I would have off (I was convinced I would be induced at 40+10. The first week I had something on every day (hair, eyebrows, antenatal class and decorator in) so my relaxing was going you've from week 38 onwards. When my waters went at 37+6 (only 8 days after finishing work) it went completely out the window.

My first DS came early so I had no mat leave beforehand. I finished at 33 weeks this time using annual leave to enjoy the summer hols with DS before he starts school and baby arrives. We have had lots of fun but I'm looking forward to him starting school on Tues as struggling now at 36 weeks. I have brow/lash, hair and massage apts this week. I plan to try and sort the house out and batch cook, then rest up and read and watch tv.

I had 1 week before baby came and I spent those walking like a crazy person. My midwife was adamant that walking lots was the best way to have a short labour, so I left the house in the morning and would just plod around for hours.

Did some knitting and reorganised baby things and my hospital bag many many times and met up with my friends for lunch a couple of times.

I had six weeks off (very late baby!) and it was awesome!! Like you say, it's your last opportunity to properly mooch and do sweet f.a. I did end up doing lots of practical type things, like taking the car for a service/mot, got my hair cut.
However, we did move in to a house that needed a slight touch of updating (all that could be said for it was that the walls were standing and the roof wasn't leaking) so we had men in doing the kitchen and bathroom and we were doing some work ourselves, so for about three weeks every day I was either taking car loads of rubbish to the dump or roaming b and q. Mat leave was quite handy really.
Also did the obligatory batch cooking, which I really appreciated having done, met with my nct group, ironed my husbands shirts (for the first and last time in our marriage).

Mostly, my favourite bit was the morning and afternoon naps I started taking. They were lovely.

I started getting mildly bored towards the end of week five. I squashed that boredom by watching another box set.

Sigh. With DD1 I finished at 37.5 weeks and then waited until almost 42 weeks to have her. For almost 5 weeks I napped, did some shopping, went out for coffee and cake, cleaned and tidied a bit (hospital bag was all packed), had a haircut, went out for dinner a few times. Was lovely (although a bit frustrating when my due date came and went).

Fast forward to DD2 and I finish work this coming Thursday with a planned section for a week and a half later. That time will be spent packing a hospital bag, running around after a toddler, trying to get organised, digging out newborn clothes, pressuring DH to finish DD1's bedroom so she can move into it, trying to project manage a large kitchen extension, supervising a timber frame extension, trying to find a bricklayer. Urgg!

I hope you have a lovely relaxing time with lots of sleep!

I start my mat leave tomorrow but only have a week until my planned c section for DS2.

DS1 is in pre school 9-3 so I plan on napping every day, having lunch with my mum, binge watching trashy TV and reading lots. Basically nothing productive.

I hated my mat leave with DS1 before he arrived - I left work at 38 weeks but he didn't arrive until 42 weeks. I was bored and the time dragged on. This time I know how precious the child free time is and I am determined to savour it!

Ooo a few of you have mentioned getting your eyebrows done! Haha! I reckon I could squeeze in a few bits like that before she arrives. I'll be 36 weeks exactly when I finish on Friday.

I think in the end I had about 10 days as I finished late and ds was a couple of days early. I put the Christmas tree up and wrapped presents. I also ate pineapple, went for curries, bounced on a ball, drank raspberry tea etc to try and speed things along. I started a big Christmas cross stitch which I still haven't got around to finishing almost 4 years later!

I wish I'd discovered mn, read more (much more)about bf, batch cooked more suitable food, better prepared the house for the bomb she'll that was ds.

I enjoyed many lazy mornings in bed don't take for granted those mornings you can do that before baby.

I also watched lots of films and tv box sets again was bliss to be able to relax and curl up on sofa.

I use to walk daily to town don't live that far, I'd occasionally go out with friends for lunch but I was massive so I mainly enjoyed quiet days to myself I broke up from work a few weeks before I was due

I did do a lot of cleaning during those weeks the house was spotless

Went for plenty of walks

Just enjoy your time it flies by so quickly I can't believe how fast my maternity leave has gone I'll soon be back in work 😢

If you are into this kind of thing then get all your beauty things done now. Hair, nails, eyebrows.

Go for a swim, go to the cinema, go out for dinner. Go to a bar or go dancing if you've got the energy for it.

Take a weekend away with DP? Have LOTS of sex (oh man, I miss the sex! I do know others manage to do it but we just don't seem to!)

I planned to relax but I haven't friggin stopped! Think I'm working harder than when I was at work.

So far I've been
Getting the nursery finished
Deep cleaning the house (one room a day max as it's very tiring. Only got about half the house done so far)
Stayed with a friend up north for a week, but spent a lot of it feeling too ill and tired to do much
Catching up with some friends for coffee/lunch
Washing and sorting many, many baby clothes - between the baby shower and hand me downs, it's taken a full week to wash, dry and sort everything!!!
Shopping for and packing hospital bags

Once I've finished cleaning the house, I hope to do what I actually had planned but haven't done yet
Read books
Watch films
Nap
Swim
Make some cute crafty things for the nursery

Was supposed to be batch cooking but don't think I can be arsed!

I found I can't do more than one 'thing' a day as I get so exhausted now. I'm glad I finished with extra annual leave. If I'd only had two weeks before birth, I'd have had no chance to relax at all. I don't know how anyone complains they got bored before baby arrived!!!

Enjoy it! My daughter came at 31 weeks and I had been so looking forward to my mat leave before baby came!