What do you do during your leave?

Resting, shopping, beauty treatments, nail styling, enjoying the terrace or having a nice lunch, just savoring the calm for a bit more...
I must say my leave only lasted 2 weeks, then I was admitted, but enjoy the calm and the fact that you don't have to do anything!
Let yourself be pampered...

Lfs

Hey, I'm now 17 weeks and have been at home since week 7 of my pregnancy. I was put on maternity leave right away at work, so I'll definitely be at home until January 2013.
I'm not really bored, I always have something to do. And especially enjoying the pregnancy and the movements that are starting to kick in, especially when I'm calm myself, then I feel them well
Greetings, Wendy...

Hi,
With my two oldest kids (now 10 and 7), I worked as long as possible and got back to work pretty quickly (I was working in the family business then), and I couldn’t imagine life without my job.
For the past year and a half, I’ve been at home (I hadn’t worked in our family business anymore before that), because I was burnt out (first half year) and then had a work conflict, so now I’m definitely at home.
It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me (though I thought otherwise a year and a half ago)! Since last September, I’ve been doing a flexible/reduced PABO (teacher training program), and now I’m consciously pregnant for the third time. I’ve missed so much with my son and daughter!
So I’d say: enjoy it. It’s over before you know it, and once your baby is born, you’ll have enough to deal with anyway. Don’t do what I did: don’t keep working (almost) full-time. The family business and the self-imposed obligations and responsibilities that came with it were NOT worth it. Life is meant to be enjoyed.

I work 32 hours and after the birth I'll keep doing that. I'm not so happy about it but sometimes you just can't do anything else.
With my daughter I worked 24 hours mostly on call. I stayed home from week 9 and went back to work after 10 months.
Now I hope to hold out a bit longer and not get complications like then.
I feel a bit lonely here sometimes because I haven't lived here for long and only have one friend living nearby. The rest live at least half an hour away and they also work.

I do plan to see what there is to do here, I don't want to become isolated, I'll go out myself if I have to.

Hi Dani,

You don't need to feel lonely, I totally get how you're feeling. You're a nice, spontaneous girl. You have your little family, your husband, and your daughter. Spoil yourself, it's nice. I won't say "go see those fishies" :-), hahaha, because I know you find that gross.

And you have a friend anyway, even though she lives more than 2.5 hours away from you ;-) Distance doesn't mean anything, really. Stay strong, it'll all work out fine, Dani.

Love, Ju

Here in Norway, we have 9 months to a year of maternity leave. Funny that I’m going through that now too. Kids can only go to daycare when they’re one year old, and in our situation, it’s nice that maternity leave is so long since we don’t have family nearby who can help out.
I’m curious if the length of maternity leave has changed in the Netherlands?
Here, we have to keep working until 3 weeks before the due date unless you qualify for sick leave, which changes things. So, 3 weeks before the due date is usually when you wrap up the last things and get enough rest before the birth.
Greetings, Renate

Hi Ju,

Missed your message haha.
2.5 hours is half of 1 and a quarter, seems totally doable soon!

Renate, maternity leave here is still 16 weeks, I think you have to stop at the latest 4 weeks before, and then the rest after the birth.
Last pregnancy I also went 2 weeks over and I was already home for so long...but those weeks off after the birth are so nice, I'm already looking forward to it!!

And no Ju, I'm NOT going to the fishies haha, brrrr

Reading books, watching videos and series, shopping, having lunch, getting the baby's room ready as a tip-top, and happily browsing around this forum Enjoy your leave because it's going to get busy soon enough!!

Actually, maternity leave is way too short... I read recently that they have almost two years of leave in Sweden!! Here's the article: http://www.zwangerschapsverlof.eu