What I’ve been up to during maternity leave
I had a lot of plans on how I wanted to start maternity leave this time. With my first child (born in 2022), I was put on sick leave after a series of complications.
As I’m preparing to welcome the second addition to our family we adjust to a family of four (I started this post when I was still pregnant 😂), I was thinking about different ways that I could keep myself engaged during the pregnancy, whilst still resting as I found myself feeling lonely and disconnected during the first part of my maternity leave (I started at around 32 weeks last time). But as things often happen in life, I went on maternity leave early again due to new complications.
Still, I was determined to keep myself in a better headspace and find ways to balance my interests whilst taking care of my body and baby. Though I started fine-tuning some of the things I wanted to do during this nesting period early, I want to share a few things that have kept my head above water (even whilst taking care of my 11-month-old child).
Baking & Cooking
One thing that has always brought my family together (before and now with my husband) is our shared interests of food. Trying to make sourdough has by far been one of the most challenging and frustrating experiences.
If you’re a beginner like me, here are two of my favourite recipes: walnut sourdough, rosemary sourdough
Patience level: 5/5 (these recipes take up to 14 hours to make)
Not a fan of waiting? Start with an easier/ no-fuss recipe (not a sourdough). I love BA recipes and this is my husband’s favourite bread (no-knead focaccia with garlic butter). The garlic butter at the end is amazing, but we also like adding a bit of rosemary to it sometimes just to shake things up. This recipe takes 3 hours max to complete (including proofing), and is a great thing to snack on (if you don’t have gestational diabetes like me).
Some other things I’ve also really enjoyed making (mostly desserts) include: pistachio dome (I switched it to strawberry), and most recently, chocolate macarons with a coffee custard.
Sewing
This is something I have always wanted to be good at, but “never had enough time to do.” During mat leave, I wanted to make sure that these excuses were banished and I took on new projects that were both easy (fun little bunting flags for my older son’s birthday and a pair of overalls for my younger one) and harder ones too(making a Christmas quilt AND a twin size quilt for my older son).
There are plenty of places that offer free (wonderful) patterns, but here are a few of my favourite places for purchase:
Etsy
This is the exact pattern I used for the first quilt I ever made. There are A LOT of squares you have to cut out (if you are making a Twin or larger) so it is definitely not for the faint at heart. For C’s project, I created a quilt based on things he loved so most of the squares include prints of bananas, berries, mickey mouse etc. I will probably make another one for his little brother once we start figuring out what he likes as well!
Lowland Kids
These patterns are a little more challenging, but the designs are very cute. For Halloween, there was a tutorial on how to add little bat wings to a sweater, which I thought was so cute!
Patience level: 1-4/5 (some patterns are really hard to take on, but smaller projects sometimes take my mind off things and give me such a sense of joy to complete)
Latin Social Dancing
This is something I’ve always enjoyed. Dance has been a part of my life since I was 4 years old and since I retired my pointe shoes, I started swing dance and latin social dancing (bachata and salsa don’t count as Latin ballroom so I don’t want to mislead anyone). I threw myself back into salsa dancing after almost a two-year hiatus because I was incredibly cautious during both of my pregnancies (especially since I had my first in 2022 — straight out of the pandemic).
Now that I’m un-pregnant, I wanted to start dancing again (cautiously because I had a newborn on my hands who is now considered an infant now, eek!) because dance has always been something that grounds me and helps me clear cache (that’s how I see my problems and random thoughts during the day) because I focus on the movement and music solely when I’m dancing. I have some goals (I would LOVE to compete in the 2024/2025 season) and enjoy dancing again.
That’s it.
That’s all for now. I’ve been waiting so long to create the perfect post, but like motherhood, I think I just have to let things go and send this into the universe and see what it brings me. So in short, let me do a quick intro: My name is Jocelyn. I’m currently on my second mat leave and have two kids under two. I love to create things — it adds a little bit of joy every time I brainstorm, start, and finish a project! Follow along if you have similar interests or want a light read every now and again!