Ah! Relaxing into maternity leave

Well here I am, day 1 of week 2 of maternity leave. Or day 4 of maternity leave. Baby 2 is due in about 11 days, which means that in 24 days I will have a baby, as my doctor likes to induce at 12 days over.

Thursdays tend to be full days for me as I have yoga and ante-natal appointments, plus tomorrow I'm getting my hair cut too. So I kept today free so I could relax and get a few jobs done around the house, such as packing my hospital bag.

Wait! Did I say relax? Ha! It seems that far from suddenly having a load of free leisure time to languish in pre-baby, I have simply replaced my work duties for my employer with more domestic duties. Here is how my day has panned out thus far:

Miss Chief and I both woke slightly late after a late night. She woke around 11pm with a poo in her nappy and excruciating nappy rash, poor darling. Took us a while to figure what was wrong. I knew she was in pain and presumed a tummy ache, couldn't get any sense out of her. Eventually I lay her down and started to undress her so I could check her nappy and that was when she eventually cried "my bum". We changed her, bathed her, lay her in front of a DVD to air-dry and then gently applied the cream, letting her do it herself. Eventually we all got back to bed.

So anyway, we woke late and Toby had already gone to work. I pottered around getting Phoebe's breakfast ready. I delivered her cereal to the table which for some bizarre reason prompted an emotional meltdown. She returned the dish to the kitchen bench, saying she didn't want it and spilling milk on the way. She then sat back down and demanded a gummy bear (vitamin chew). I put some paper towel down and told her to wipe the mess she made first. She refused and screamed louder. Then she announced that she wanted her cereal back. So began a stand-off where I refused to let her have anything until she cleaned up her mess.

Eventually, I got her to help me clean up the mess, she got her gummy bear and we sat down to breakfast. Then I made her lunch and morning and afternoon tea, realising on opening the fridge that hubbie had made off to work with the leftovers I'd planned to turn into lasagna or similar for dinner tonight. There's enough there for a family of four so I hope he's not expecting to take more lunch with him again tomorrow. Did a quick internet search to find a recipe for dinner, wrote my shopping list, packed Phoebe's daycare bag, took her to the loo, helped her brush her teeth, dressed her, dressed me, brushed my teeth, realised I didn't have time for a shower so scraped hair into a pony tail, dealt with another couple of emotional meltdowns about who knows what, and finally got us both into the car.

Dropped her off, which thankfully was easy. No tears or protests - she's pretty good these days, headed to shops and did shopping. Somehow spent a fortune but then did get things like batteries, more vitamins, a couple of change table items and some toiletries for hospital. Couldn't get Lansinoh, which is what you put on your nipples when you're breastfeeding, and I also use it to lanolise woollen nappy covers. Went next door to pharmacy to get that and it cost me $20!!! Couldn't believe it. I swear it was 30% cheaper than that when I had Phoebe. Anyway, just wanted to get everything and not have to worry about it.

Got home, rushed to loo, changed out of nice soft belly band into tight supportive belly band to relieve belly ache. Changed out of normal maternity bra into huge oversized (14D if you must know!) Bonds maternity singlet to relieve aching ribs. Changed out of nice t-shirt and jeans into daggy tracksuit bottoms and t-shirt. Don't know why I didn't just put them on in the first place. No one expects a woman at this stage of pregnancy to look good, least of all the ladies at daycare and the people in the supermarket.

Collected yesterday's mail from the mailbox, which I forgot to do yesterday. Put it all straight into the recycling bin - can't believe how much junk mail we get. Got shopping out of car, put it all away, rushed back to loo again. Realised that I had forgotten to put stock cubes on my list and that we only have 2 dishwasher tablets left. Unpacked dishwasher and stacked it with last night's dinner dishes, washed dishes that didn't fit in, tidied recycling stuff off bench. Followed sultana trail around the house, sweeping it up as I went. Hope Hansel and Gretel can still find their way home. Cleaned up Phoebe's breakfast mess, which by now was caked onto the table and chair like cement. Swept the fallen bits of cereal up from the floor. Marvelled at how dirty the floor was where hubbie and Miss Chief sit at the dinner table less than 24 hours after the cleaner had been and gave up all hope of ever living in a clean and tidy house.

Finally, at 11.06 sat down with a cup of de-caf coffee and the chocolate toffee biscuits I've been craving for 3 days (well, a poor Aussie alternative really but they're nice enough) and my recipe books to plan a nice pudding for dessert tonight. Still haven't had a shower, still need to change the kitchen bin bag and take the rubbish and recycling out. And I haven't even started on the to-do list.

Oh, gotta go, the plumber's here. Wonder if I'll get round to packing that hospital bag today or if I'll collapse in a heap and nap until it's time to pick Phoebe up again.