One thing I really regret about my pregnancy is stopping work when i did. I worked up until 38 weeks which is pretty far along but really I didn’t want to go and wanted to do an extra week. (I probably would have worked up until the 40 week limit to be honest). Of course, there was no way to know the baby wouldn’t have come by the due date so it’s easy to look back and think I could have been at work – but even when I stopped, I didn’t want it to be my last day, I was just listening to advice from other people.
All the forums and everyone I had spoken to said I will want at least a couple of weeks to myself before the baby comes because I will never get time on my own again etc, and on the first day off, it was pretty nice not to be waking up to an alarm, but I get bored having two days off at a weekend if I don’t have constant plans, so two whole weeks with no real plans was never going to suit me.
Everyone keeps telling me to ‘relax’ and ‘make the most of it’. Maybe retrospectivley people can say that, but to me ‘relaxing’ doesn’t involve staying in the house with my feet up – that’s just not enjoyable to me at all, I need to be constantly productive. And it’s not like I can take myself out for day trips just incase the baby decides to come, so Newport is the furthest I’ve been venturing.
So instead of getting stressed at everyone telling me to ‘relax and enjoy it’, I’ve decided that every day will have a focus. Tidy the house day, baking day, pampering day, do an online course day, read a book day, harry potter marathan day (the only time it’s acceptable for me to sit in front of the TV for hours on end), ebay day, and anything else I can think of until the baby comes. I think this way, instead of pottering around doing bits and bobs not feeling like I’ve achieved anything, at least by the end of each waiting day, I will feel like I have achieved something!
Reading this back in six months time when I can’t remember my last night’s sleep and I’m preparing to go back to work, I might have a completely different opinion, but I think I believe you have to do what will make you happiest at that moment in time, because you can’t live your life thinking retrospectively, or likewise from other people’s retrospective opinions.
