Creating structured spaces to help mums live intentionally and not let this precious time pass them by.
When I had my first baby, I was overwhelmed with the thought of how precious this time off work was and how I didn't want it to pass me by. I knew I didn't want to look back on it with regrets of not being more present or not making the most of it (hence the shop name!).
But as much as I felt this, (and I am sure other mums can relate!)... I still started to feel days and sometimes weeks go by where I was almost in a daze, no structure to my day, no real plans, just feeling pressure to get the housework done, get myself ready fed and watered whilst at the same time try and be completely present and engaging with my baby - Not to mention looking after my amazing but needy dog!
A time I had dreamt about for so long was finally here but also was realising that this precious time with them was going to pass by very quickly and this was it, I couldn't redo it or wait until I wasn't tired to make the most of it!
I knew only I could change how the remaining time of my maternity leave would go and that would be by getting some sort of organisation & plan to my week (whilst also being very accepting that these plans could be completely changed depending on sleep/baby!).
That's when I created my first 'planner' - I was in the bath on a Sunday night and I started to create some notes on my iPhone - what I wanted to do this week, what was actually important to me, how I wanted to feel, who I wanted to see, where I wanted to go. After doing this for a couple of weeks my boyfriend said to me 'you seem so much more in control and happier recently' so I showed told him how much just writing my week out was helping me. He said you should make into a notebook / planner and print it out! And because one the things on my notes was 'spend less time scrolling during evenings / baby feeds' I swapped scrolling for playing around with creating these pages and over several months this is where I got to!
I also over time realised that with a baby, reaching for my printed version wasn't always practical so for convenience I would start editing the pages I had created on my phone using the markup function (I didn't have the time or headspace to figure out how to use a pdf editor!) I sent a screenshot to my friend of my planned week and she asked where I got the planner from and I explained I just made it myself she convinced me to polish it off and share with other mums! So here I am - this shop probably isn't perfect as just like you I am just trying my best to do what I can for my baby and have some fun along the way!
I genuinely hope that these planners help you to organise your thoughts and weeks to help you live a happy, intentional maternity leave with your little one!