Maternity leave day two: how goes it

I'm on "true" maternity leave for the first time in my life! With Nathan, I worked until past my due date (although several of those last days I worked from home due to the misery of PUPPP). I was on email and working from home the day after returning home from the hospital- I vividly remember dictating an email to my mom as I nursed Nathan :)

This time I decided to take a different approach- rather than keep working to get my mind off of waiting, I decided to take off beginning at 37 1/2 weeks so as to enjoy my last few days with Nathan alone, better get myself into the mindset of the work ahead, eliminate stress, and just generally take better care of myself. Yesterday was my first official day off of work, and it felt like a second Sunday. We went to Sea World for a short while in the morning to catch the Elmo show, then came home, relaxed, and after meeting with our doula, ran a few errands. I was lucky to have Jason's help yesterday, but most of the coming days will just be Nathan and me, as Jason is working full time now.

I'm having some seriously conflicted feelings about taking a maternity leave- I place a lot of self-worth on working, so now staying home for 12 weeks means I need to adjust to earning my keep in different ways. Sadly, domestic goddess is not on my resume, so it will take some effort on my part. I always expected Jason to carry the bulk of the workload, since he worked part time while I commuted extensively and worked 40+ hours per week, but now the tables have turned. I also need to work on frugality since I'll not be pulling a paycheck for a while.

Besides for keeping up the house, I need to work on activities and learning for Nathan. Another thing I'm not good at, crafty teacher stuff. I've been trying to find some websites with resources and also working on planning out activities while he is napping so I am ready to go when he is- usually when I decide to do a project, I scramble to get all the pieces together while he sits and waits.

Lastly, today was my midwife appointment. I brought Jason in case he had any last minute questions, but he was predictably reticent. Oh well. Good news is I am 1 cm and about 70% effaced, much better than 38 weeks when I was pregnant with Nathan! I am practicing hypnobabies daily and it involves a lot of visualization, and I really think it's working! I have it in my head that the baby (no name- Jason has now said he likes the name Noah after all, so we are undecided between Lincoln and Noah) will come within the next week, but we shall see. Overall all I'm feeling good, relaxed, not too itchy, and ready!