How I Prepared for Maternity Leave

Hello there!

Today's blog is for those pregnant mamas who may be nesting their faces off or just wondering what they can do to get one step ahead after baby is born. I will discuss how Dave and I prepared for my 12 week maternity leave. Taking 12 weeks was not going to be easy financially, but I wanted to take 12 weeks of time to be with my mini me because I have no idea what I'm doing!

The first thing that Dave and I did before I went onto leave was stock up on toiletries, snacks, and household products that we use often. For us that included: toilet paper, paper towels, laundry detergent, dish soap, canned goods, dry goods, and snacks. I knew that I didn't want to go to the store right after having a baby and I didn't want Dave to have to worry about everything after the baby was born.

With inspiration from Pinterest, I made 11 smoothie packs and 9 crockpot meals, which I stored in the freezer. I chose recipes that had cheap ingredients and tried to prepare as many vegetarian dishes as possible. I also froze chicken breasts with olive oil and spices so that all we had to do was throw them in the oven or on the grill for an easy meal. Finally, we purchased 3 frozen pizzas, froze various pre-cooked sausages, and froze pre-made cheese tortellini for those days that even turning on the crockpot seemed hard. I also made sure we had frozen vegetables and shredded cheese so that we could add them to meals.

 Above: Freezer crockpot meals

Below: Smoothie packs before and after. Yogurt is in the ice cube trays.

Aside from food and home goods, I prepared "padsicles" made from super absorbent pads, witch hazel with aloe, and tea tree essential oil. You can find various instructions for these online. Some other products that I stocked up on included: 1 package of Tuck's pads, 1 can of Dermoplast pain relief spray (buy the blue canister, as the red reportedly burns), adult wet wipes, a package of combs to be used to be squeezed in the palms during labor for pain relief, tennis balls to be used during labor for massaging the lower back and hips, and stool softeners. I did not end up using the tennis balls or combs, but they are great pain management aides recommended by the doula that taught our birth class! After I had Dillinger, I used the padsicles, wet wipes, Dermoplast spray, and stool softeners daily. There is a ton of vaginal bleeding and swelling, so these products are a must. In addition to stool softeners, I ate prunes daily, which helped my first bowel movement after delivery be pain-free. I didn't really use the Tuck's pads because I did not get hemorrhoids, but that is a common issue many pregnant women suffer from after childbirth, so you may want to pick up a container just in case. The hospital provides you with a container of Tuck's pads, multiple sanitary pads that you snap in half and they turn into cold freezer pads, multiple pair of mesh underwear, 2 packages of normal sanitary pads, and a few peri bottles. You could probably get more if you ask the nurses.

Thankfully for me, I was nesting for a long time before baby came. I cleaned the entire house the best I could and I even labeled the cabinets with what was inside of them in case I had a C-Section and needed more assistance with cooking and cleaning. I would recommend cleaning up as much as possible before baby arrives because after the baby is here, it is hard to have the energy or time to clean more than dishes and laundry. Dave also put the crock pot on the countertop from the tall kitchen rack so that it would be readily available for the freezer meals.

What I wish I knew to stock up on before maternity leave:

If you did not get gripe water, a humidifier, a nasal aspirator (we adore the Nose Frida), or saline nose drops at your baby shower, then I recommend getting some. We have had to use the aspirator, humidifier, and saline drops almost daily and we've used gripe water by Little Remedies multiple times for gas and hiccups.  I also purchased Calm a Kid Sleep Drops at Grassroots Baby to help calm Dillinger down at night, since he's been fighting sleep. Lavender baby lotion and bedtime shampoo/body wash are helpful for bath time as well.

You will bleed for a long time after having the baby. I bled for around 26 days and had to buy 2 extra packages of sanitary pads, in addition to the pads I made and the ones that the hospital gave me.

You will need more high-protein snacks than you think because if you breastfeed, you will burn 300-500 calories per day just from that!

You may want more than one small package of newborn diapers, which is all that we had. We highly underestimated how long Dillinger would be in newborn-sized diapers.

Thanks for reading and good luck on your future births. If you're not a parent and are just reading for fun, thanks for taking the time :). Go online for more inspiration for how to prepare for maternity leave so that you're not wasting precious time at the store!

Best,
Lauren