Studying whilst on maternity?

[Avasmummy24]

Hello all!
I am currently pregnant with my first child - a little girl + I've been having thoughts of studying short courses - distance learning online again, due to my 'typical virgo wanting to continuously learn' nature :') joking of course...haha
These may be day courses or monthly courses, i'm looking at all the options available to me atm, whilst i'll be on maternity. (this will be beginning later on next month as i am currently 29 weeks and likely to be induced at 37 weeks).

I'm just curious if any of you lot studied whilst being on your maternity leave or any tips/advice that helped yourselves? I feel like this could return some sort of sanity to myself/grounding../give me something to do whilst the babba is sleeping!
luckily my partner is still about and looking forward to being a dad and is available to look after her when we figure out a routine.
TIA :)

I'm probably being unrealistic/ a bit of a doughnut wishful thinking it all, but if it has somehow worked for anyone i'd like to know!

Yes, do! I did a Psychology degree with the OU as a single parent with three under 3s. It was interesting and helped get back to work after.

I did half my masters

BUT

I had a massive village. My husband had pretty flexible schedule and my mum and dad would be over the weekends actually being helpful. I had a cleaner weekly and outsourced a lot of the other shitework. And I still found it hard.

Even with lots of help- I would push the pram to get baby to sleep, then have an hour tops to listen to my lecture and take notes. Then she was up. Then I would need my husband to take the baby solo for set times so I could do my reading. Coursework was scheduled in blocks and my parents would help out so I had designated time write. It was a military operation, not pick up put down stuff.

i then had to defer for a year when my daughter turned toddler until she had a part time nursery place so I could finish my dissertation as once she was walking and only napping for 2 hours a day, I found I was frazzled from being up at 5am every day and struggled to get into study mode. The context switching between parenting and studying especially when you are doing it at home is very hard to get your head around.

You are very optimistic to see it as ‘something to do when the baby is sleeping’. You will be sleeping yourself. Or recharging your batteries in other ways. Or the shite stuff, if it isn’t outsourced. Babies are also pretty unreliable- you might get a cat napper for 7 months who sleeps in short sprints frequently so very little gets done. Sometimes naps get refused too which torpedoes your plans.

I’m pleased I did it because it’s done but I have to say it wasn’t ‘grounding’…it was another source of stress.

i get WHY you want to do something- and if you have to choose something I would choose a live class at a set time (either online or in person) and then have 2-3 hours of your own time utterly protected a week to do your homework and session. Open ended, very self directed learning can become a monster on your back.

This is the kind of thing I'd have loved the idea of beforehand in theory, but was blessed with a colic/CMPA baby and couldn't rub two brain cells together for sleep deprivation the whole time. So personally I'd be cautious of paying/committing to any courses up front. You don't know how you'll feel once baby's here. Priorities can change so much and they're only little once.

I did half a masters. A lot are online distance learning courses now so perfect. What are you interested in?

For short stuff I recommend future learn. But obviously it depends what you want to study and previous education level.

I had every intention....but just didn't have the energy. And my baby contact napped so when baby was asleep they were always asleep on me, never got anything done.

Good luck