Maternity leave - one week in

I have been not working for just over a week now. It's a strange state to be in - having been in full-time employment for what, seven and a half years, to be off with no fixed date of return. And no real idea when the big event is going to be.

To deal with all this free waddling time, I compiled a long list of things to do to keep me entertained. Ranging from cook lots of food to freeze, to sort out all the baby clothes by age. But as I'm likely to have up to five weeks of this, moderation and pacing myself is the key. So I'm trying not to do more than one or two things on the list in a day. I have also been adding to the list sporadically, and have stocked up on a large quantity of reading matter. That said, after popping to the library and picking up four books last week, I've already read two of them.

At 37 and a half weeks, the bump could become a baby any time now. I reckon we've still got a little way to go yet as bumpee is moving like a crazy thing, we sat watching my belly fascinated for about half an hour the other day. It was like there was an earthquake in there. I somehow feel that when it's imminent things will slow down slightly. I have had a new sensation, however. For the last few days I've been getting what feels like mild period pain and back ache in the evenings. Having googled this extensively, I suspect that it's the baby's head engaging. I'm pretty sure it's not Braxton Hicks because it's not something that comes and goes, and there's no 'tightening' feeling that I think would be associated with any kind of contraction. It's just like slight period pain. But it does feel like things are in motion...