On productivity and maternity leave
Saturday, June 5, 2010
39 weeks, 6 days pregnant
TWO DAYS TO GO!
Still here, still pregnant.
Moving right along …
Since being off on maternity leave, I’ve been adjusting to the lack of PURPOSE in my life. It’s not like I love my job beyond belief — because, as you know, it has its bad parts. But I am good at my job, and I work hard at it, and it does fill me with a sense of pride and accomplishment.
I know that I will put the same time and energy (more, actually) into taking care of my baby (if he ever decides to arrive). Even though it’s not a 9-5 job with a paycheque, it will be my PURPOSE, and one that I plan to take very seriously. It’s like the most important job on earth!
These few weeks of waiting, however, have left me with no real purpose. The days are LONG and EMPTY and full of WAITING. It’s like being in a holding pattern, just waiting to get to the next step. It’s sort of like the (horrible) way I have felt in the past, when unemployed, except I know this is temporary.
People try to tell me that my “purpose” for now is to “rest” and “get ready for the baby.” Well, the baby stuff has been ready for months, and I’m getting an atrocious amount of rest. For someone like me, who is used to a fast-paced, busy schedule, it does not feel RIGHT to lie on the couch watching TV all day. I need something to doooooo!
Sure, I have accomplished stuff. Everyday, I add a bunch of “to-do” items into my BlackBerry, no matter how mundane they are. Stuff like “Drive Darling Husband to work,” and “Get groceries,” and “Fold laundry.” Because then, I get to check them off, and get a little burst of satisfaction. I’m doing something.
In case you are also on maternity leave and looking for ways to fill the days, here’s some of the things I’ve done over the last four weeks:
- Read 30-something library books, plus re-read a bunch of my own books
- Organized all of the photos on my computer
- Scanned non-digital photos from around the condo
- Uploaded all photos onto Wal-Mart’s site for printing
- Scrapbooked my entire life (and Darling Husband’s) up to this point
- Downloaded countless TV shows and movies
- Caught up on latest “popular” movies (New Moon, Valentine’s Day, Leap Year, The Blind Side, The September Issue, etc.)
- Watched episodes of random but awesome TV shows (Family Ties, Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, Secret Life of the American Teenager, Sex and the City, Make it or Break it, Yes Dear)
- Sewed baby-sized versions of Darling Husband’s work uniform
- Bought presents and cards for an out-of-town baby shower and a wedding that I will not be able to attend this summer (because of the baby)
- Went on a massive frozen-food shopping trip, and loaded up the deep freeze with meatloaves, stuffed chicken breasts, etc.
- Baked bran muffins and cooked pancakes and frozen them in individual serving baggies
- Opened up my been-packed-for-two-months hospital bags, and re-organized them so it’s easier to find things
- Gotten a pregnancy massage
- Gotten a pedicure
- Gotten a haircut
- Gotten an eyebrow wax
- Made instructions for washing our clothes, the baby’s clothes, and the cloth diapers (complete with photos of our machines’ dials), and affixed them to the dryer with magnets
- Cleaned out all of the kitchen cupboards
- Bought birth announcement kit and designed the announcement
- Addressed all of the birth announcement envelopes
- Wrote letters to the baby
- Went on endless walks around the neighbourhood with Little Dog
- Went to two malls with C
- Went to a Mommy/Baby movie
- Went to a Mommy/Baby swimming session
- Made labels for all of the storage baskets in Little Baby’s room
- Made labels for storage bins in the laundry closet
- Mended Darling Husband’s torn uniforms
- Bought tons of cleaning supplies, and stocked each bathroom with its own supplies (no more dragging stuff from room to room when I clean)
- Bought a lifetime supply of toilet paper and paper towels
- Painted a canvas for the en suite bathroom (an abstract pattern that matches the shower curtain)
- Cleaned out my armoire (moving clothes that “won’t fit for a while” to the bottom shelf)
- Downloaded hundreds of baby- and kid-friendly songs, and loaded up an iPod for the baby
- Downloaded more songs for my iPod, and made a labour playlist
Looking at this list makes me feel pretty good about how I’ve spent these last four weeks. I’ve done things around the house, I’ve done things to prepare for the baby, I’ve done things that are just for fun, and I’ve definitely done things that I know I won’t have time for once the baby is here (like snacking on chips and pop and watching a movie at 2 p.m. in my pajamas).
However, let’s hope it’s VERY SOON that this baby is here, and taking up all of my time. I am so eager to meet him that I feel like I’m constantly ready to burst — ah, from excitement, and from the fact that I also literally feel like my body is going to burst.
Five paradoxes about being nine months pregnant
- You have time to shop, but no shopping budget (since maternity leave benefits don’t kick in for freaking ages)
- You have time to cook, but no stamina/patience to stand in a hot kitchen all day
- You have time to do a proper deep clean, but your husband prohibits you from pulling out the stove and the refrigerator to clean behind them
- Walking can induce labour, but your aching back prevents you from walking far
- People tell you how small your belly looks — but back when you were 28 weeks, you apparently looked ready to pop???
Counting woes
Friday, June 4, 2010
39 weeks, 5 days pregnant
As I get closer to the end, I am realizing that somehow my little sidebar counter must be wrong.
I’m due Monday, not Sunday, so technically I have three days left — not two. Does that mean I am actually 39 weeks, 4 days pregnant? FML!
I’m really too tired to figure it out. But at this point, it is depressing to GO BACKWARD in this lovely countdown. So I’m going to stick with my count, and just be 40 weeks, 1 day on my actual due date.
Screw the system.
I need chicken fingers.
Five reasons I will hopefully have the baby very soon
Thursday, June 3, 2010
39 weeks, 4 days pregnant
3 DAYS TO GO!
- My cervix is soft
- Even horrific birth stories involving tearing are not grossing me out, because I am SO EAGER to get this party started
- I’ve had not one, but two major episodes of false labour with real-but-irregular contractions. My body is clearly rehearsing for the big performance
- Hopefully the false labour has helped to dilate me … a little … maybe?
- I am almost out of pregnancy staples like stretch mark oil and heartburn pills
Quit playin’ games with my heart uterus
Thursday, June 3, 2010
39 weeks, 4 days pregnant
3 DAYS TO GO!
Where was I yesterday? Oh right, not having a baby. But almost. Sort of.
Yup, there was another episode of false labour, just like Sunday. Actually, it seemed much more real than Sunday. Once again, Mrs. Sky-High Hopes (me) got very excited for something that turned out to be nothing.
The good news is that I’m starting to learn more about this mysterious “false labour” business, based on my two recent episodes. Here’s the deal, so you can all learn from my genius findings:
What happened on Sunday:
- Had contractions 20-30 minutes apart
- Contractions lasted for maybe three hours
- They were not regular at all
- Pain was focused on the lower part of my belly
- I felt nothing in between contractions
What happened yesterday:
- Had contractions 5-15 minutes apart
- Contractions lasted for seven hours
- They were not regular at all
- Pain was all over my belly
- Felt like my belly was being squeezed by iron bands
- It was hard to tell when they were stopping and starting
Crazy, right? Something is definitely happening in there — it just hasn’t developed into the something (LABOUR) yet.
Yesterday was intense. I had gotten my pre-baby eyebrow wax and pedicure early in the afternoon (chose a lovely shade of blue polish, to welcome my boy). I had been feeling crampy all morning, but once I got out of the salon, it was Contraction City, population: me!
I tried not to get too excited, and continued on with my afternoon. I went to the mall, bought gifts for an upcoming baby shower and a wedding (both of which I won’t be able to attend, sadly, because they’re out of town). I wandered through stores. I navigated the vastness of Wal-Mart in search of a spray bottle for my cloth wipes.
All the while, I was feeling contractions! I wasn’t timing them, because (A) I can barely walk and chew gum, and (B) they weren’t hurting enough that I was concerned. I just kept strolling around, and was delighted that I still felt them even when driving. It was almost uncomfortable to drive, at some points, because of the tightening.
I got down to business after picking Darling Husband up from work that evening. I was still feeling them, so it became his job to time them.
We remembered “4-1-1” from our birthing class — that contractions had to be four minutes apart, lasting at least one minute each, for at least an hour, before you come to the hospital. So if you began a contraction at 5 p.m., it would need to last until 5:01 p.m., and your next one would need to begin at 5:05 p.m. — four minutes after the last one ended, but actually five minutes after it began.
Um …
We had no idea it would be so HARD to time them! I think this is a definite sign I was not in real labour. The contractions were so ripple-y — as in it was hard to say for sure when one was stopping, and when one was starting — that we both kept getting confused on what we were timing.
Darling Husband kept blindly activating the stopwatch on my BlackBerry, and then we’d both be clueless as to what we were timing — the length of a contraction, or the distance between them. Arrrrgh!
But before we spent too much time arguing over how they were supposed to be timed, and who should be telling who what numbers, they stopped. Just … stopped.
I paced around the condo for a while, trying to get them going again, and then dragged Darling Husband and Little Dog on yet another walk. But all I got was horrible back pain — the contractions never came back.
False labour? Please stop screwing with me!
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