Advice for future SAHM?

[lemureyes]

I will be leaving work at the end of April and baby is due in July. Works out better for me to stay at home while my husband works.

I live next-door to my parents farm so help out during the day (nothing too taxing at the moment).

I was wondering if anybody had any advice/tips to avoid being cooped up at home all the time? Will be walking the dogs a lot but not sure what activities to do to keep me active.

I live out in the sticks so I have to drive to get anywhere.

How far away is your nearest town/village? I've found our children's centre to be invaluable for classes and groups to go to, especially to meet other mothers.

My nearest village is 2 miles away but I'm not sure if there are any baby groups there, otherwise the nearest town is 6-8 miles.

Investigate what is on offer in your nearest town or village. I live in a village which has 3 different baby groups and a music group and am 3 miles away from a town with lots of different classes (e.g. Baby swimming, baby sensory, sing and sign). A lot of them do free taster sessions so you can figure out if you and your baby like them. I found the groups in church halls more relaxing and less judgey than the formal classes where a whole NCT group tended to turn up together!

before I got back to work I spent a lot of time cleaning and organising, take time during the day to have some naps when baby is born, I used to enjoy reading a good book or watching a bit of tv during the day, I miss it a bit now though lol. taking strolls into the village with the baby sounds nie even if you only go for a coffee or lunch. this will sound terrible but I never went to any baby groups or childrens centres, tried the odd one but just didn't feel comfortable with them, so went to the park on nice days and visited family etc

also I really enjoyed doing a lot of home cooking and baking as I had the time, gardening on good days ( if you enjoy it that is )

Apply for child benefit in your name even if you don't qualify for any payments. It keeps up your NI something or other which I believe helps towards your pension while you're not working.

Ps. I am obviously not an accountant so perhaps someone else could explain it better.