Nesting

Only 2 weeks to go until our due date now. I finished up work on Friday and today is my first day of maternity leave.

What does one do on maternity leave before baby arrives? I suppose this is the time for me to start nesting. Cleaning the house. Doing laundry. Baking. Gathering twigs and leaves.

Our midwife delivered the birthing pool yesterday. We blew it up, put the liner in, and then took turns sitting in it.

I probably will not be smiling next time I sit in this pool...

Although the pool is called a "birth pool in a box" it actually came in a bag. Possibly the name "birth pool in a bag" had already been taken. It doesn't look terribly big in this photo, but that's probably just because I'm so big I dwarf the pool. It's actually quite big. Both me and Gareth can fit in it quite comfortably, if we want to. So now we have this huge pool in our living room. A constant reminder that the boy will be making his appearance any day now - if we needed any reminder. My huge belly and the little feet trying to push their way out of it are another constant reminder.

As I said, my maternity leave started today. I get 2 weeks of "special leave" to use before the baby comes. This is unpaid leave. I wasn't going to take it at all, but it was getting harder and harder to go into work every morning. I have no idea how other women work until they go into labour. Maybe they're doing it because they have to. I think that must be the only reason to do it. Most of the women in our antenatal class have stopped work already - many of them 3, 4, or more weeks before their due dates. That seems to be the way women do it here. This is a time to rest!

After the boy arrives, I get 14 weeks of paid leave. The pay comes from the government rather than my employer, and they do not pay my full paycheck but only part of it. Still, it's better than nothing. And it will be enough for us to get by on without having to dip too much into our savings. So all that is good.

Back to nesting...