I started my maternity leave last week, which I’ve been waiting to do since I found out I was pregnant. I’d been crossing off dates on my calendar for months. My last day in the office was a Friday, but as my working week was Weds – Fri, it officially started last Wednesday, while I was 33 weeks.

When I was pregnant with Tyler I went on maternity leave at 37 weeks, as I had a really short commute and it wasn’t so hard. We lived in Brixton then, which is the first station on the Victoria line so I always got a seat. This time I had the longest commute ever, what with dropping Tyler to my parents from Slough to Hillingdon, then driving to Greenford to park at my mother-in-laws, and getting the Central Line and Overground to Gospel Oak, and then the 15 minute walk to the office – it was long! And especially hard getting a seat on the way back while it was rush hour. I was completely exhausted and it was painful under my bump doing all this travelling.

So that is why I went a bit earlier on maternity leave at 33 weeks. Plus it gave me 7 weeks of time with Tyler before the new baby arrives. And here are some plans I have for maternity leave:

1. Take Tyler on a tram ride (they have them at Wimbledon/Croydon)
2. Take Tyler on a DLR train
3. Take Tyler on the Emirates Cable Car
4. Buy a new car with 5 doors
5. Sell my mini 😦
6. Get blinds for our front room
7. Set up Honey Nut’s nursery corner in our bedroom (bring cot over from my mother-in-law’s house)
8. Set up Honey Nut’s corner in my bedroom at my parents’ house (dismantle Tyler’s cot bed, declutter, throw old cushions etc away)
9. Go to Ikea to buy fabric and make monochrome cot sheets for Honey Nut.
10. Get a buggy board for the pushchair for Tyler to stand on.
11. Set up changing table and storage in our bedroom.
12. Buy stuff for hospital bag and baby/nursing stuff for home
13. Nursing friendly clothes shopping
14. Do a hospital tour

That’s all I can think of right now – it does help writing it down.
Here’s how my Week 1 went:

Maternity Leave – Week 1

Day 1, Weds 10th – Tyler stayed over at my parents so they could take him to preschool in the morning, while I was back at the flat waiting for an engineer to install Hyperoptic. It was quite nice having the first day to myself. I then went around the shops in Slough before picking up Tyler, and we were back home at 6.45pm. It felt amazing to be back home at a decent time, after two years of getting back at 9pm with all that commuting. We had dinner, bath and bedtime like normal people!

Day 2, Thurs 11th – I dropped Tyler off to my parents for preschool and then went to the Mothercare AW16 Press Show! That was a lovely experience and I got to wander around Oxford St after and I was back at my parents at 3.30pm. Normally I’d still have an hour and half of work to go! You can read about the Press Show here, and have a sneak peak at the new Mothercare range before it’s out in stores.

Day 3, Fri 13th – Again at my parents, this time I picked up Tyler from preschool which was a nice surprise for Tyler. We had a lovely sunny walk back to my parents. It was my mum’s birthday that day, so we stayed until quite late, celebrating with a KFC for dinner and chocolate cake.

Day 4, Sat 14th – Tyler had his Little Kickers class in the morning, which he was reeeeally excited for. I’ve never seen him so excited for a class before, so I think we’ll continue after Honey Nut is born, with my husband taking him by bus. We then had a drinks break in Harris and Hoole before doing a big Tesco shop, and in the evening we had a Eurovision party at the flat with my bro.

Day 5, Sun 15th – I have a Mini whose road tax is about to run out at the end of the month. And we need a bigger car to fit our two children, so today was car shopping day. I really like the look of the new Toyota Aygo/Yaris with the cross at the front. Our nearest Toyota showroom is in Bracknell, so we had a mini adventure there and test drove a couple of cars. Then we had a picnic in the nearby village of Binfield. I just love the name -BINfield hehe!

Day 6, Mon 16th – I took Tyler to playgroup in the morning, and then we went on the train and underground to visit my mother-in-law. Tyler had the best time going on the Central line, admiring himself in the window reflection. My husband works down the road, so he came over after work and we went home together. Tyler needed the loo on the way back, I noticed him jiggling on the train, but he was so good and held it until we got back in the flat. What a trooper!

Day 7, Tues 17th – I had my 34 week midwife appointment in the morning. Tyler found it very amusing watch her prop my tummy looking for where Honey Nut is. She’s not head down but should be by now – eek.  We had planned to go on a train adventure afterwards, but when we got back to the flat, we were both shattered and fell asleep for two hours! So it ended up being an afternoon of tidying up, hoovering, laundry, making train tracks and taking bump photos 🙂

So if you ever wondered what mums-to-be do on maternity leave, I hope this gave you a glimpse. 6 weeks to go!

Sabrina x