Having had an unplanned induction for my firstborn this concept of waiting around for labour to start whilst on maternity leave is luxurious yet foreign to me. I can potter about for a bit I suppose and try to rest as much as I can before my life turns upside down with the pending arrival. But I really don’t know for sure how much pottering about I can take. And something tells me that this little girl will take her own sweet time just because we are so much more prepared this time.
In pregnancy I have already slowly unpacked and organised the clothes for our little one trying to figure out what gaps we may have as I have loaned a lot of clothes in the last two years and sadly found that not all have made their way back to me. Also my firstborn was born in Spring but this new babe is to be a Winter babe so I need layers in a different size.
So here’s what my pottering about entailed.
Day 1:
-Laundered and Miltoned and set up the Bugaboo pram, car seat and carry cot again.
-Cleaned the oven and microwave.
-Reorganised the pantry and made room for baby bottles in our already cluttered kitchen.
-Took out the baby toys and dummies.
-Went for a lovely long lunch with the hubs to celebrate our six year anniversary.
-Ordered a car seat liner and piddle pad to protect the seat I just washed as I am still trying to potty train my toddler.
-Repacked my hospital bag.
-Made chicken stock and batch cooked fried rice for toddler for when she isn’t in nursery.
Day 2:
-Laundered and packed away the Babyzen stroller.
-Unpacked and set up the bassinet and changing station as well as took stock of the products I still have from my previous babe-barrier ointments, almond oil, nipple cream, cotton wool, cotton tips, wipes, nappies.
-Took my laptop in to get it fixed after two years.
-Also took the toddler to buy shoes for next season and next year when she starts preschool.
-Washed the Dyson vacuum out.
-Got my eyebrows threaded.
-Caught up on all ITVs Victoria season 2 episodes
-To reward my hard day’s work? The toddler woke up at 8.15am, then proceeded to skip her afternoon nap at nursery so she slept 11 and a half hours straight tonight hurrah!
Day 3:
-Laundered the baby blankets, toys and car seat liner.
-Applied a 10 minute exfoliating facial. It’s the Ordinary AHA 30% + BHA 2% Peeling Solution one.
-Wrote my birth plan.
-Installed the family toilet seat and decluttered the toilet of other potty training aids( insert and stools) that were bulky.
-Went to the shops to try to buy a buggy board. Big waste of time though as my voucher wouldn’t work so I didn’t end up placing the order.
-Had a late long lunch instead and enjoyed talking to the other mothers in the cafe about our husbands and raising children in a foreign country.
-Got a haircut.
Day 4:
-Toddler not in nursery today so planned to really fix her potty training issues. Read the book Oh -Crap Potty training and realised the toddler’s issues stemmed from us being too confusing not being consistent with the diaper situation as we still slapped on a diaper if we went out or when she’s meant to take a nap...which kind of takes a few hours sometimes with her if we are at home cause she’ll flat out refuse her nap and carry on playing. The book recommends blocking out the whole day with no distractions or social activity and just watching your child. It was blissful luxury just interacting with my little one like that. My favourite bit was reading an Angels & Urchins magazine with her because she loved all the ads and pictures of the kid activities. Don’t know if we succeeded in achieving much potty training though as she was so well behaved the whole day, we didn’t have one accident and she always stopped her activity to tell me she needed the potty. Maybe all the other times she’d been ( as the book says) giving me the inner F* you as an attention seeking mechanism. Sigh.
-Had dinner cooked for us as my toddler’s godmother offered to come over to make us the Crab Linguine recipe from her Gousto box order. It was delicious! And because the toddler missed her nap she was out like a light by 7pm which meant we had a lovely adult dinner with our friend with wine and dessert and didn’t once have to entertain an attention seeking toddler. Said toddler also slept all through the night till 6am so I am stoked.
Day 5:
-My husband worked from home so that I didn’t have to deal with taking a toddler with me on public transport at peak hour as my midwife had booked me onto a nine am slot with the obstetrician. Thank goodness he did as by some Friday the thirteenth luck, the hospital needed some of the obstetricians at the labour ward which meant consultation patients were kept waiting for over an hour delay. I then had to wait to see a midwife and the whole thing took over three hours in the end. We had a good lunch and then came home to continue potty training the little one. She ended up taking a nap at five pm which freaked me out a little but all’s well that ends well.
Weekend:
-We bought the buggy board (woohoo!) and discovered the Colliers woods’ Burger King has a children’s play pen which obviously the toddler insisted on going on. It melted my heart when upon seeing she couldn’t get up the slide by herself, the other kids who are only very slightly older than her hoisted her up. She had a lovely day of course and we rounded it up by taking a whirl on her new buggy board to the playground in the afternoon.
-On Sunday after an ingenious buggy stroll where the toddler fell asleep for two hours, I managed to order her big sister present online and made siew mai and roast duck noodles as we hosted family in the afternoon. After that lovey dinner and a bubble bath together their 3 year old girl refused to go home deciding that she wanted to sleepover. So there we were at the end of my first week off, we suddenly had two little girls in an impromptu sleepover at our flat and I have this warm fuzzy feeling as I tucked them in and watched the two girls asleep that perhaps it isn’t quite that daunting being mother to two. Perhaps I can do this after all.
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