Maternity leave and a little OCD?

~ by Kim

I'm 33 weeks now and officially on maternity leave!

Everyone is curious how the maternity leave works for us, being a surrogate pregnancy, and if I'll be taking the whole year off that moms usually take. (I wish!) In Canada, the year off is subdivided into two parts: 15 weeks maternity leave and then the remainder of the time is parental leave. I'm entitled to take the 15 weeks that's the maternity portion, and Janelle will be able to take the parental portion. Initially, I wasn't sure how much time I would take off work, but after Carl and I talked about it, we've decided to take the whole time off and enjoy having the summer off with the family. I was starting to find the long days (my shifts are 12 hours) and shift work (switching from working days to nights) more challenging, but really that was only a small reason. Truthfully, I didn't need much convincing when Carl suggested I take all the time allowed. I'll never qualify to take it again, so we've decided to take advantage of being able to take the summer off, till I go back to work in September. Lily starts full time kindergarden this fall, and at times I fell a little sentimental as we approach this milestone. This will be her last bit of time at home until she becomes a school-aged kid.

Since getting back home from our trip to Calgary, it has sort of felt like an extended vacation. Actually, it's been pretty awesome. I'm still feeling good physically, and I feel like I'm getting into the groove and finding my place in the "stay-at-home-mom" mode. It hasn't been long enough for me to miss work or get bored at home, so right now being at home is still a luxury. I'm on top of the groceries, laundry and meals and feeling pretty productive in general (for the time being anyway.)

I still haven't been able to accurately plan out my day or what I hope to accomplish each day, in that I never seem to be able to do everything I think I should be able to. Just doing the basics at home with the kids seems to fill my days, so the extra projects like organizing storage areas or sorting old baby things haven't happened. It's hard to find the time, and when I do have the time I either don't have the energy, or I find something more fun to do, especially with the good weather we've been having. One afternoon this week, when I could have been tackling said-projects, the 3 of us ended up at the beach with buckets and shovels instead. Another day, I put Rowan down for her nap and just put a movie on for Lily and then went to lie down myself. Maybe I'm not as productive as mentioned earlier...

Procrastination at its best

There was one day this week, I was looking for something that was in the back of the kitchen cupboard, and realized just how disorganized the cupboard was. How had I not noticed this earlier? It was a mess. There was canned fruit on 2 different shelves. *gasp* I had a sudden urge to pull everything out, wash all the shelving, (there was a sticky spot from syrup that had dripped), take inventory of what was in there and re-organize! Then I wondered...am I nesting?!? Is it some hormonal thing that just happens to pregnant women regardless of circumstance? My shelves really are ok, and we've managed just fine with the salt and pepper not always being right beside each other for ages. I'll check with Carl later, but I'm pretty sure he hasn't been suffering. I had to pick Lily up from preschool, so I had to close my cupboard door and go without changing anything. Unfortunately, it's now on my radar, and it's in the back of my mind of things that need to be done. Before we know it, we'll have a full house here, and what will they think if they see my cupboard is such disarray?!?

Otherwise, all is good with us. I now see the midwives every 2 weeks, which is a bit of a milestone and reminds me that we really are getting close to the end.

I wonder if I'll miss being pregnant...

Bahahahaha!
Sometimes I crack myself up.

Bring on the summer cocktails!

33 week bare belly shot