pregnancy

The pregnancy bucket list: all the things to get done one last time before the baby comes.

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Thanks to our brand partner, Westpac

If you’re planning to push a baby from your nether-regions for the very first time in the near future, a word of warning: self-indulgence is about to become fairly tricky.

Days will be dominated by feeding. Nights, also by feeding. Mid-mornings and afternoons will be spent feeding. Any other time will be taken up changing nappies.

It only follows, then, that before you have to care for a human baby full-time you engage in as much self-indulgence and shallow spending as possible. While it’s still about you.

Herein lies the essence of the pregnancy bucket list; an inventory of activities and pleasures you wish to undertake carefree for one last time.

We’re not talking ‘spiritual’. We’re not talking about sitting in silence or spending four weeks meditating inside a giant egg.

We’re talking shallow. And indulgent. Things and activities that benefit you and you alone.

Amanda Blair, Woman’s Weekly columnist and mother-of-four has some suggestions to kick-off your list.

“Well I think go and have facials. Go and have one of those really good ones where they extract the blackheads and put the steam on your face for half an hour,” Blair says on Mamamia’s pregnancy podcast, Hello Bump.

She goes on, “Do all the things you want to do by yourself. Go for a walk. Go to an art gallery.”

“Go to the movies. See every movie you’ve ever thought about seeing.”

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Image source: Getty.

Want more suggestions?

Cage dive with sharks. Perfect a signature dish. Learn to code. Go to Spain.

Whatever floats your boat. However, try and remember. You will get to do all this stuff again. Having a baby is not the end of your life. It may be the end of your life in it's current form. But we adapt. Life goes on. And we learn to balance our own needs and wants with our new baby's.

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"Don't be frightened of losing your life," says Blair. "I remember being pregnant with my first thinking, 'everything's going to change', and it's not like that at all."

"Babies are incredibly mobile, and incredibly tolerant of the circumstances you put them in."

Listen to Monique Bowley and Bec Judd talk through the pregnancy bucket list with Amanda Blair, on Mamamia's Hello Bump podcast. POST CONTINUES AFTER AUDIO.

"Out of sheer necessity more than anything... I made a real point of not stopping my life because I had kids," Blair says. "I've transitioned my kids along with me, and I think that's been part of the fun, part of the journey."

"I think the modern face of parenting is 'make the kids come with me, make them experience what you're experiencing'."

So never fear. Have all the facials while your pregnant. But if you want to have one post baby? No dramas. Just take bub along with you.

It's the modern face of parenting.

You can listen to the full episode of Hello Bump, below. 

This content was created with thanks to our brand partner Westpac.