40 Things to Do While You're Waiting to Go Into Labor
1: Go out for dinner and a movie with your partner. Every night. See every crap movie out there if you have to.
2: Cook and freeze meals, or place orders for meal delivery service. Or drop hints to people who call to see if that pesky baby is here yet that FOOD IS APPRECIATED.
3: Bake cookies, breads, brownies.
4: Pamper yourself with a face and hair mask. Overly lotion feet, wrap in saran wrap, don socks. (Don’t walk though, you’ll slide.)
5: Scrapbook and organize all the photos you’ve been meaning to scrapbook and organize.
6: SLEEP.
7: Walk the mall and eat your weight in pretzels.
8: Stock up on liquor. You know, “for the family to celebrate.”
9: Read a book that has absolutely nothing to do with babies or pregnancy.
10: Get a manicure and pedicure. (Also suggested: chew all your nails off…then go get tips put on…then chew THOSE off.)
11: Get a pregnancy massage.
12: Create and listen to your labor music mix. Practice finding your happy place.
13: Mow the lawn.
14: Give the pets baths and toenail clippings.
15: Wash your car.
16: Learn to knit and make a hat.
17: Cover mattress in plastic in case water breaks in bed.
18: Decide plastic is too noisy when rolling huge booty around to get comfy, take chances.
19: Clean out forgotten cabinets — under the sink, the Tupperware drawer, etc.
20: Lie on nice cool bathroom floor and clean the grout with a toothbrush.
21: Have sex. It’ll be your last chance for weeks, such as it is.
22: Window shop for a celebratory “you’ve lost at least some of the baby weight” outfit for later.
23: Take a nap without apology or hesitation.
24: Hide things in house that may be inappropriate for visiting grandparents and family members.
25: Get a carseat inspection at the State Police Post.
26: Charge anything and everything that resembles a phone or a camera.
27: Make a decision regarding your nether regions: get waxed? get help from partner? or decide that if you can’t see it, it clearly no longer exists or matters?
28: Alphabetize your CDs and arrange DVDs by genre.
29: Buy some guilty pleasures on iTunes and make a fabulous one-hit-wonder playlist.
30: Write thank-you cards for any gifts you’ve already received.
31: Re-wash, re-fold, re-organize the baby clothes.
32: Assemble swings, bouncy seats and other battery-operated baby gear, make sure you have at least one full set of batteries for everything.
33: Pack a diaper bag.
34: Start an ambitious new project that is guaranteed to remain unfinished for the next six months once you go into labor halfway through it.
35: Go out for ice cream cones.
36: Clear out one shelf in kitchen for breastpump parts, baby food and plastic dishes.
37: Fill and re-order Netflix queue.
38: Sign up for an infant CPR class.
39: Take a dry-run test-drive to the hospital (or several, at different times of the day.)
40: Call your doula..
2: Cook and freeze meals, or place orders for meal delivery service. Or drop hints to people who call to see if that pesky baby is here yet that FOOD IS APPRECIATED.
3: Bake cookies, breads, brownies.
4: Pamper yourself with a face and hair mask. Overly lotion feet, wrap in saran wrap, don socks. (Don’t walk though, you’ll slide.)
5: Scrapbook and organize all the photos you’ve been meaning to scrapbook and organize.
6: SLEEP.
7: Walk the mall and eat your weight in pretzels.
8: Stock up on liquor. You know, “for the family to celebrate.”
9: Read a book that has absolutely nothing to do with babies or pregnancy.
10: Get a manicure and pedicure. (Also suggested: chew all your nails off…then go get tips put on…then chew THOSE off.)
11: Get a pregnancy massage.
12: Create and listen to your labor music mix. Practice finding your happy place.
13: Mow the lawn.
14: Give the pets baths and toenail clippings.
15: Wash your car.
16: Learn to knit and make a hat.
17: Cover mattress in plastic in case water breaks in bed.
18: Decide plastic is too noisy when rolling huge booty around to get comfy, take chances.
19: Clean out forgotten cabinets — under the sink, the Tupperware drawer, etc.
20: Lie on nice cool bathroom floor and clean the grout with a toothbrush.
21: Have sex. It’ll be your last chance for weeks, such as it is.
22: Window shop for a celebratory “you’ve lost at least some of the baby weight” outfit for later.
23: Take a nap without apology or hesitation.
24: Hide things in house that may be inappropriate for visiting grandparents and family members.
25: Get a carseat inspection at the State Police Post.
26: Charge anything and everything that resembles a phone or a camera.
27: Make a decision regarding your nether regions: get waxed? get help from partner? or decide that if you can’t see it, it clearly no longer exists or matters?
28: Alphabetize your CDs and arrange DVDs by genre.
29: Buy some guilty pleasures on iTunes and make a fabulous one-hit-wonder playlist.
30: Write thank-you cards for any gifts you’ve already received.
31: Re-wash, re-fold, re-organize the baby clothes.
32: Assemble swings, bouncy seats and other battery-operated baby gear, make sure you have at least one full set of batteries for everything.
33: Pack a diaper bag.
34: Start an ambitious new project that is guaranteed to remain unfinished for the next six months once you go into labor halfway through it.
35: Go out for ice cream cones.
36: Clear out one shelf in kitchen for breastpump parts, baby food and plastic dishes.
37: Fill and re-order Netflix queue.
38: Sign up for an infant CPR class.
39: Take a dry-run test-drive to the hospital (or several, at different times of the day.)
40: Call your doula..