Maternity leave questions

[midjd]

I'd like to get the collective YM opinion on allocating my maternity leave benefits and deciding how much time to take off.

For purposes of this discussion, let's assume I actually have the baby on my due date (12/1/13). I would use sick time to get through the elimination period for short-term disability. On 12/31/13, my short-term disability coverage would kick in (for 2 weeks if a regular birth, 4 weeks if C-section). STD pays 60% of my salary, or 80% if I choose to use one PTO day per week. After that, I'd be using leftover PTO through 12 weeks, returning to work on 2/24/14.

I'd be fully paid for 12 weeks (except for the 2-4 weeks of STD at 60% or 80%) but would have fewer than 2 days of PTO when I returned. I accrue PTO at the rate of about 2.25 days per month.

I also have the option of taking fewer than 12 weeks off and returning part-time for a while. One of my coworkers took 10 weeks off and then came in 3 days a week for the next 5 weeks. I'm leaning toward this option as a way to ease back into a working routine, plus it wouldn't affect my paychecks - but I'd likely still be paying the FT daycare rate.

I also have the option of taking unpaid time off after the STD lapses, and conserving my PTO for when I return. Financially, we could swing 2 or 3 weeks of this, but more than that and we'd have to dip into savings, which I'm reluctant to do.

They're not going to hold me to anything I decide now, but I'd like to have at least a tentative plan in place, since I will be reallocating quite a bit of work.

So my questions:
- How much PTO would you recommend keeping in reserve?
- How much time did you take off? Did you come back full-time or ease back into it? Any regrets? What do you wish you had done differently?
- What else should I be considering?

[raeoflyte]

I'd keep 2 weeks in PTO since you're going to have 10 months left of the year to get through. There are going to be a lot of doctors appointments, probably some sick days for your baby, and hopefully a vacation to use with that time.

I went back full time at 9 weeks with ds, and part time at 6 weeks with dd. Definitely too soon with dd, but part time and just easing back into things was nice. If I did it again is go back part time at 9 or 10 weeks.

[Peace Of Mind]

I'd hold the baby in until the holidays so I had extra paid days off.  This is YM after all. 


Yay!!!  You are having a baby!!! 

[giramomma]

I would keep 5-10 days of PTO in reserve. (Up to two weeks). How much PTO does your DH get?

With #1 and #2, I took 3.5 months off (two paid, one unpaid)

For #3 I took 4.5 months off, all paid. I saved up two years of vacation and a bunch of sick leave.

The problem is, you don't know what kind of kid you are going to get. I've been lucky, my kids get sick once a year or so. My middle child never had an ear infection. Some other parents have kids that catch everything: pink eye, lice, colds, viruses, and come down with ear infections very routinely. One of my clients had a kid that even got foot in mouth disease.

Then there's sleep. My first two were awesome sleepers. They were sleeping 12 hours a night by two months. My third, well, we all know about that.

I also worked during leave. I'm the only one that knows how to do my job. Others CAN fill in, but they don't know the nuances. I also didn't think it was fair to ask others to take on a higher workload simply because I chose to have a baby.

I didn't work much, about 80 hours. But it helped stretch my time off and kept me in a working mindframe so I wouldn't pull a Dark. Since I bring/brought home 80%-100% of the income depending on which child we're talking about, me quitting wasn't an option. I wanted to keep work in my head so I would remember that. (The "plan" was for me to be the SAHP. We never did find a way to make that work.)

When I did go back to work, I went half time for a week, and then back to full time.

(I should also say this is for my full time job. I was back working my part time job two weeks after birth. Again, it wasn't much-about 5 hours a week. 4 weeks after birth I was working 15-20 hours/week at my part time job.)

I also tend to bounce back for births pretty easily. I really wasn't a hormonal mess leaking fluids all over. Course it helped that  my milk never came in with #1. (Less fluid to leak). And, it helped that my DH was an equal partner in parenting and I no issues "letting" my DH take care of his own child(ren).

The only thing I regret is not bonding with #1 sooner.  I'm sure I had PPD with #1. It was made worse by the fact that I couldn't breastfeed. I didn't really bond with #1 until he was a toddler, because I internalized all the messages about how "breast is best" and only good/non-failing moms breastfeed. And, since my DH was the SAHP, I figured there wasn't anything I could do to foster a good relationship between us. So, I really didn't try all that hard.

[giramomma]

I also wanted to say quick, that working when the baby was very young was easy. Babies don't do much.  When DS was born, DH and I watched like 4 seasons of the sopranos. Around 3 months, they start to get sort of interesting and do something other than eat, sleep, and poop. I'm really glad that I got as much time off as I did with the last baby, because I got to see her be interesting more than the other kids.

[Deleted]

I left at 36 weeks because I had a minor pre-term scare, and I wanted the baby to make it as close to 40 weeks as possible. Some people said they were bored for those weeks leading up to the birth... OMG, it was wonderful! I spent that time relaxing, catching up on reading, browsing/gabbing on YM/EE, cleaning as much as my huge tummy would allow, and slowly preparing for the baby. I also napped a lot because I didn't get much sleep at night toward the end. This time was 100% covered (got my full salary) since I got a doctor's note to pull me out of work.

Then I took 12 weeks after the birth. At week 8 I was ready to be back to work (I am convinced I had mild PPD and I also realized that I am NOT a baby person). 6 weeks were fully paid by my company, the remaining 6 weeks were at 2/3 pay through NJ's paid FMLA. I was reimbursed via prepaid debit card which they spontaneously loaded with random amounts of money. I'm glad we had enough cushion to cover everything and I couldn't imagine if I actually had to rely on that money to pay bills.

[kittensaver]

I second the comment to save at least 2 weeks worth of sick or PTO time for doctor appointments and well baby visits. You don't want to return to work "naked" of any time off. If you can come back part-time for a while that's great! Many people can't.

[Deleted]

Mid I agree with keeping 5-10 PTO days. You will probably need days off for doctor's appts, and as somebody else mentioned, you'll want some vacation time during the year too. 

I also have the option of taking fewer than 12 weeks off and returning part-time for a while. One of my coworkers took 10 weeks off and then came in 3 days a week for the next 5 weeks. I'm leaning toward this option as a way to ease back into a working routine, plus it wouldn't affect my paychecks - but I'd likely still be paying the FT daycare rate.

I think this would be a great option.

[muttleynfelix]

Since you accrue PTO through out the year, I wouldn't worry as much about holding on to PTO.  You'll still want to hold onto some, but it isn't AS big of deal. 

I did the part time/ease into it with both kids and I loved it. I needed the time out of the house and away from the kids. I started coming into the office really early with both kids (3 weeks with DS and 2 weeks with DD, but with DD it was just one day a week until 6 weeks, with DS I added more days each week). But I had easy recoveries and it didn't bother me at all. I was full time at 6 weeks with DD and 7 weeks with DS.  I had to come back quick with both. I don't regret it.  The first couple months, I was more able to run on adrenaline.  It is this time that I'm going through - in the 4-9 month range that everything starts to get to me.  This is the time, I'm rushing home to see the baby before she (or he, it was the same things with DS) goes to bed.  DD doesn't sleep through the night yet. DS didn't sleep through the night until 9 months. I haven't seen DD awake since Tuesday night.  I fed her a bottle last night at 9pm, but she was basically asleep. She had skipped her morning nap and DH put her to bed at 5pm. And she slept in Wednesday morning and this morning.  It was at 4 months postpartem with DS that I started having some PPD issues and I've definitely been fighting some depression issues that started around 4 months with DD.

Just remember it feels like it lasts forever, but when you look back on it, it is over in the blink of an eye.

[Deleted]

Since you accrue PTO through out the year, I wouldn't worry as much about holding on to PTO. You'll still want to hold onto some, but it isn't AS big of deal.

Mutt makes a good point ... but I'd still want to keep at least 5 days. 

[Deleted]

I agree on keeping PTO days out. Probably 5 is fine since you still accrue.

I took almost 14 weeks off, 12 of them after the baby was born. I have to say that I was definitely ready to go back to work. I've been back almost a month now and, while I'm perpetually exhausted, I'm happy to be back. I would suggest going back part time at 8 or 10 weeks. And if you're paying for full time day care, you can put the baby in daycare on the days you're not working too. For some you time. We put our DD in daycare the week before I went back to work. I got a week "off", but ended up having some medical issues that caused me not to be able to enjoy them really.

But I'm an introvert and need a lot of alone time. And quiet time.

[Sam_2.0]

I took 10 weeks with DD, and it was enough. I started going stir-crazy after 8. I wish easing back in PT was an option, that seems ideal. And you seem to accrue PTO at a pretty good rate, so you should have plenty of time off throughout the year.

What's your DH's work schedule like? Could he also take off for sick baby days if needed? Or do you have a family member nearby that could watch her if you needed to work? I never really had to take sick baby days because my mom or MIL could watch DD if she just had a cold. And she never really got more sick than that.

[midjd]

I'd hold the baby in until the holidays so I had extra paid days off. This is YM after all. 

LOL! I thought I timed it pretty well, as far as a tax deduction goes. And I'm hoping I can make it through the winter without having to drive in snow.

I would keep 5-10 days of PTO in reserve. (Up to two weeks). How much PTO does your DH get?

He gets (I think) 5 vacation days and 3 sick days a year. However, he is currently on his second week of leave (had surgery on 7/30) and will probably not go back for another week or two. He's scheduled for another operation in October and will be out for at least two weeks then. Most of this will be unpaid (I think he exhausts his vacation/sick days today or tomorrow).

Our plan was always to have him handle the sick kid pickups, etc., since his job is pretty flexible and he works much closer to home than I do, but I think he's concerned about needing to take much time off next year after his extended absences, so I'll probably be handling that for a while.

[swamp]

I got full paid maternity leave, but I also kept working from home.

My secretary would bring real property and estate files to my house once a week.

Yeah, it doesn't work that way in the real world.

[973beachbum]

I got four weeks before and six weeks after, through the state unemployment/disability insurance program, then 26 weeks paid at some % maybe 70, for DD.

for DS i had medical problems and ended up on disablilty for about three months before,  plus six weeks after that was covered through the state unemployment/disability program.  Then my employer maternity leave kicked in and I got twelve weeks from them at 70%.

It is something I don't think about until I read something like this.  It is real nice to have the short term disability through the unemployment/disabilty insurance taken out of the paycheck through the state and not have to worry about it.

[Shooby]

With my 3 children , i took off 12 weeks for each.  I used my vacay and then just took the balance as unpaid leave.  I don't regret a minute of doing so.

[Deleted]

I'm embarrassed to say how much maternity leave I had. France has socialized medicine and what they offer is probably excessive, but 12 weeks (which seems to be the max in the US) doesn't seem like very much. 

Here (for info, I'm certainly NOT trying to start any sort of political discussion!) the rule is 16 weeks total for a first or second pregnancy, 6 weeks before, and 10 weeks after. (That's if you were working at least a 60% PT before your pregnancy.) Vacation time continues to accrue so in reality, most people go back after 12 weeks, not 10. And no, you CANNOT shorten that six-week BEFORE period to extend the AFTER period. 

There is also a pre-printed form that gives you an extra two weeks off before if your OB/GYN thinks you are "tired" (how many 7.5m pregnant women do YOU know who are not "tired", especially if they have a toddler?!). I never took those extra two weeks off. I am LITERALLY the ONLY woman I know who didn't. You can also easily get another two weeks off afterwards if you breastfeed. 

As of your third pregnancy, it's 28 weeks total. I can't remember but it's either 8 or 10 weeks before, and either 20 or 18 weeks after. Again, your vacation times continues to accrue, so most people go back after 24 or 22 weeks.

But the LEGAL time off is 16 weeks for the first two, and 28 weeks for any subsequent pregnancy. At full pay.

If you haven't worked enough before, you don't get PART of this. Either you're entitled, or you're not. Again, not trying to start a political discussion, just for info, if anybody is interested.

I think one or more of the Scandinavian countries, and Canada, are the only countries with more maternity leave than France. 

[Deleted]

I agree with keeping at least 5 PTO days because I hear those little suckers tend to get sick a lot at the beginning.

Also some daycare if your kid is (obviously) sick they make you come pick them up.

Dr visits that cannot be scheduled on the weekends or after hours. Bad night/no sleep because the baby was sick or just for hell of it decided it was fun to cry his lungs out.

So yeah, definitely keep a few PTO days in there.

[lurkyloo]

I'm doing 3 months off (55% pay through CA's state programs) plus I'll do half time (other half unpaid) for the first two months back.  I'm definitely holding on to my sick and vacation time though (I have 18 sick and 7 vacation days accrued).

My coworker's baby has been sick more than I ever would have guessed and she's had to take an awful lot of time off.  It seems like he's perpetually sick and often in the hospital. He's 3 now, and has to have a tonsil out.    DS is healthy as a horse so far (knock wood) but waking me up enough during the night that I'm pretty worried about being functional when I go back.

Have you talked to your boss about the possibility of doing some work from home during your leave?  I get time credit for calling in to meetings, etc.; I'd think a lot of lawyer type stuff would lend itself reasonably well to working from home.

[midjd]

Have you talked to your boss about the possibility of doing some work from home during your leave? I get time credit for calling in to meetings, etc.; I'd think a lot of lawyer type stuff would lend itself reasonably well to working from home.

Not a bad idea, I may bring that up. The office as a whole isn't very WAH-friendly, but my boss (who has young kids) seems happy with my work speed and would probably vouch that I was putting in time. Plus the thought of emails piling up unread in my inbox for months gives me hives

I'm leaning more and more toward the PT idea... maybe take 9 full weeks off and then come back 2 days a week for 5 weeks. There are a few meetings/events in early February I'd like to attend, and if it's only a couple of days a week I can probably talk MIL into coming up to babysit. I'm a little worried about the timing of starting daycare (we're waitlisted at 3 places and 2 have no anticipated infant openings until Feb/March) so it would be nice to limp along with a PT arrangement until the baby is a few months old.

[Deleted]

Aug 8, 2013 17:08:27 GMT -5 @debthaven2 said:

I'm embarrassed to say how much maternity leave I had. France has socialized medicine and what they offer is probably excessive, but 12 weeks (which seems to be the max in the US) doesn't seem like very much. 

Here (for info, I'm certainly NOT trying to start any sort of political discussion!) the rule is 16 weeks total for a first or second pregnancy, 6 weeks before, and 10 weeks after. (That's if you were working at least a 60% PT before your pregnancy.) Vacation time continues to accrue so in reality, most people go back after 12 weeks, not 10. And no, you CANNOT shorten that six-week BEFORE period to extend the AFTER period. 

There is also a pre-printed form that gives you an extra two weeks off before if your OB/GYN thinks you are "tired" (how many 7.5m pregnant women do YOU know who are not "tired", especially if they have a toddler?!). I never took those extra two weeks off. I am LITERALLY the ONLY woman I know who didn't. You can also easily get another two weeks off afterwards if you breastfeed. 

As of your third pregnancy, it's 28 weeks total. I can't remember but it's either 8 or 10 weeks before, and either 20 or 18 weeks after. Again, your vacation times continues to accrue, so most people go back after 24 or 22 weeks.

But the LEGAL time off is 16 weeks for the first two, and 28 weeks for any subsequent pregnancy. At full pay.

If you haven't worked enough before, you don't get PART of this. Either you're entitled, or you're not. Again, not trying to start a political discussion, just for info, if anybody is interested.

I think one or more of the Scandinavian countries, and Canada, are the only countries with more maternity leave than France. 

you HAVE to take off 6 weeks  before your due date?  that sounds like hell on earth to me.  with my first I took off 2 weeks before my due date and was stir crazy after a few days, I couldn't imagine 6 weeks of sitting around.

[taz157]

Aug 8, 2013 20:09:05 GMT -5 @singlemominmd said:

Aug 8, 2013 17:08:27 GMT -5 @debthaven2 said:

I'm embarrassed to say how much maternity leave I had. France has socialized medicine and what they offer is probably excessive, but 12 weeks (which seems to be the max in the US) doesn't seem like very much. 

Here (for info, I'm certainly NOT trying to start any sort of political discussion!) the rule is 16 weeks total for a first or second pregnancy, 6 weeks before, and 10 weeks after. (That's if you were working at least a 60% PT before your pregnancy.) Vacation time continues to accrue so in reality, most people go back after 12 weeks, not 10. And no, you CANNOT shorten that six-week BEFORE period to extend the AFTER period. 

There is also a pre-printed form that gives you an extra two weeks off before if your OB/GYN thinks you are "tired" (how many 7.5m pregnant women do YOU know who are not "tired", especially if they have a toddler?!). I never took those extra two weeks off. I am LITERALLY the ONLY woman I know who didn't. You can also easily get another two weeks off afterwards if you breastfeed. 

As of your third pregnancy, it's 28 weeks total. I can't remember but it's either 8 or 10 weeks before, and either 20 or 18 weeks after. Again, your vacation times continues to accrue, so most people go back after 24 or 22 weeks.

But the LEGAL time off is 16 weeks for the first two, and 28 weeks for any subsequent pregnancy. At full pay.

If you haven't worked enough before, you don't get PART of this. Either you're entitled, or you're not. Again, not trying to start a political discussion, just for info, if anybody is interested.

I think one or more of the Scandinavian countries, and Canada, are the only countries with more maternity leave than France. 

you HAVE to take off 6 weeks  before your due date?  that sounds like hell on earth to me.  with my first I took off 2 weeks before my due date and was stir crazy after a few days, I couldn't imagine 6 weeks of sitting around.

With DD, I took the week I was due with her off and I ready to be done by the time she was born. After she was born, I had 8 weeks maternity leave (due to c-section) and I was going stir crazy towards the end. With the firm I worked for, I did go in a couple of times with DD to some things. They didn't have any issues with DD when she was there (that I could tell). They just liked to hold a baby! I did have STD pay at 60%, then my firm paid the rest of the my salary that STD didn't cover while I returned. At the firm I work for now, I don't have as sweet as a maternity leave policy for if/when the time comes.

[taz157]

Also, I was able to not touch any of my PTO except the week I took off before DD was born so I had plenty of time after she was born, if needed.  Fortunately, I didn't need to take much time off for her being sick as she stayed with my neighbor for her 1st year.

Also don't hate me (and you will) but my DD did sleep through the night from when she was 2-3 weeks old.    (FWIW, she was FF and didn't get rice cereal until she was 5 months old.  She did sleep in her car seat for the 1st month, then we transitioned her to a playpen then to her crib.)

[Deleted]

I agree, I was off a week and a half early rue to high BP and I was bored silly.

[motherto2]

I have to second the motion of keeping some days on the books if you can.  Both of my kids were born 2 weeks early.  DD (#1) I had planned on taking off 4 months, and we had our vacation planned for just before I went back.  Since she was early, I went ahead and stayed out 4 and 1/2 months.  Well, she is one for the books.  Everything Dr. Spock says about babies and children, you can go with the odds that DD is going to do just the opposite.  She was breastfeed until 4 months.  She did good, just had massive constipation issues.  Like really bad.  Totally opposite of what they say.  Then right after I went back to work, she got really, really sick.  Throwing up and diarrhea like you've never seen.  The docs couldn't figure out what was wrong.  She was like this for months.  Which in turn made her susceptible to every single thing that came along (and some things only she managed to catch).  I had taken advanced sick leave (this was before the family leave act stuff), so I came back to work with no leave, and not earning any sick leave.  I did still earn annual leave, but at six hours each two weeks, it wasn't much.  Because I literally was up all night with her, then to work the next day, I stayed sick also.  Very miserable first year of motherhood/baby life.  She finally ended up getting tubes in her ears at 11.5 months (she was deaf at that point and couldn't walk or crawl).  She started standing up that afternoon.  She only weighed 16 pounds on her first birthday.  She was at the doctor's every 2-3 days/nights for something.  She slowly started to straighten out as she got older.  Had her tested at 3 (that was the earliest they would do it back then) and she literally was allergic to everything she ate.  I can't tell you all the stories with her. 

DS was born and I had planned on taking 3 months with him, and about two weeks before I went back to work, we found out he had a hernia.  At that age, they go by gestational age vs. when they are born.  Since he was two weeks early also, I had to wait another two weeks for his age to catch up to safe surgery.  The doc actually did it about a week earlier than he wanted to.  I had to stay off with that and then another week or so for recovery.  He wasn't as sick as DD, but he had his own issues as he went along.  A lot of bronchitis and whooping cough around his birthday due to allergies at that time of year.  I learned the first time not to take advanced leave, so I took a day or so every week of leave without pay while I was home.  We don't have any sort of disability insurance or anything to get a partial paycheck.  It was all about your leave as an individual. 

Looking back. the only thing I regret was taking the advanced leave.  There were days I was so sick my boss would let me go to my folk's house (they were about 15 minutes away from work) for several hours to sleep and generally be sick myself, and then let me come in on the weekend to make the time up.  Back in those days, I think we made like $30-$35K and I couldn't afford to take any more time off without pay because of paying for daycare and all the doctor visits.  This was also before the copay days when DD was little. She hit her deductible max in January back in those days.

[Deleted]

<<I also have the option of taking fewer than 12 weeks off and returning part-time for a while. One of my coworkers took 10 weeks off and then came in 3 days a week for the next 5 weeks. I'm leaning toward this option as a way to ease back into a working routine, plus it wouldn't affect my paychecks - but I'd likely still be paying the FT daycare rate.>>

I would do less time off up front & then go PT for a couple/few weeks AND reserve a few days of the FMLA time for sick baby/sick momma time off.  You want ALL your absences to be coverable under FMLA (assuming you have been with your current employer at least 12 months), including any baby care time for illness.

I worked up until my delivery date.  With my first child I was ready to come back to work after 4 weeks.  With my 2nd child I had to come back after 6 weeks & I was a train-wreck (exhausted).

I think your employer would jump at a part time return because some of MID is better than no MID!

I would work up until delivery, unless you develop a medical issue that prevents it.
Week 1-8 Medical Leave/Recovery
Week 9-11 Work 20 hour week
Week 12-14 Work 30 hour week
Week 15+ Back to a 40 hour week and you still have FMLA coverage left for 8 days

[Deleted]

Aug 8, 2013 20:44:58 GMT -5 @rockit said:

I would work up until delivery, unless you develop a medical issue that prevents it.
Week 1-8 Medical Leave/Recovery
Week 9-11 Work 20 hour week
Week 12-14 Work 30 hour week
Week 15+ Back to a 40 hour week and you still have FMLA coverage left for 8 days

My FMLA was only 12 weeks and ran concurrently with my medical leave for having the baby.  But I'm not sure that's really an issue...my FMLA expired 2 weeks before I came back to work.  FMLA doesn't pay you, it just means they can't get rid of you.  If you don't think there's a chance of that, then if it runs out a little before you go back, not a big deal.

[giramomma]

How can you be bored with time off?

Shit, I read one book a year, if I'm lucky, cover to cover. And that's after starting it like 5 times.
I have had hobbies. Don't get to indulge with them too much.
Friends-don't have much time for that, either.
Then there's my flower beds. Which kinda falls into hobbies, but kinda not.
I can't even make it through a movie anymore. I don't remember the last non-kid movie I went to the movie theater for. It's been a few years. The most tv watching I can handle is a 40 minute tv show.
Sleep.
I've also quit practicing and performing my instrument. I really should get back to that.


I know my situation is different because I work a full time job,  several part time and have three kids. That literally sucks up all of my time. If I got a bunch of time do do whatever I wanted, I wouldn't be bored. I'd go to my above list and dig in...

[muttleynfelix]

How can you be bored with time off?

I was bored at the end of both of my pregnancies and I worked until the day before my induction date with both (which was 10 and 6 days past my due date respectively). I was bored because I was ready to go. With a family history of going more like 37-39 weeks and lots of Braxton hicks contractions starting at 20 weeks, I made sure I was all set by 36 weeks with both.  I had meals in the freezer, I made cookies weekly, I sewed diapers for DS and blankets for DD, my bags were packed and I was ready to go. I read a lot, watched TV a lot, and with my second pregnancy I tried to just enjoy DS. Since I was due in January with both kids I had everything ready for the holidays ahead of time. Including having the big parts of Thanksgiving and Christmas Dinner's in the freezer. We had Christmas shopping done early both times.  While I was at work, I had everything ready to just hand off if the day came.  I was bored.  Now once the kids came, I wasn't bored.   DS was such a terrible sleeper (as in, he didn't) that he just sucked the life right out of you. DD was a better sleeper (didn't take much), but I had DS to keep me busy (and the chaos of DH having back surgery).  I liked going into work to give me some me time (as crazy as that sounds).

[Deleted]

Aug 9, 2013 9:04:44 GMT -5 giramomma said:

How can you be bored with time off?

Shit, I read one book a year, if I'm lucky, cover to cover. And that's after starting it like 5 times.
I have had hobbies. Don't get to indulge with them too much.
Friends-don't have much time for that, either.
Then there's my flower beds. Which kinda falls into hobbies, but kinda not.
I can't even make it through a movie anymore. I don't remember the last non-kid movie I went to the movie theater for. It's been a few years. The most tv watching I can handle is a 40 minute tv show.
Sleep.
I've also quit practicing and performing my instrument. I really should get back to that.


I know my situation is different because I work a full time job,  several part time and have three kids. That literally sucks up all of my time. If I got a bunch of time do do whatever I wanted, I wouldn't be bored. I'd go to my above list and dig in...

I already shared how much I enjoyed my time off before the baby (other than being extremely physically uncomfortable), but yeah - it was definitely one of the more enjoyable chunks of time off from work.  Hell, I could be a SAHW (note a W not an M  ) and fill my days with working out, reading, volunteering, cleaning, etc.  You don't need a job to keep busy.