Anticipating the delivery of your bundle of joy is an exciting time. But let’s not kid ourselves… It’s also incredibly nerve-wracking and stressful. How will you care for another human being (let alone multiple human sapiens)? Will you still have time to spend time with your honey love? Will you become a monster due to lack of sleep? How will you afford… everything?

But let’s break it down a bit. I find that tackling bite-size problems helps get you closer to tackling the larger issues. So let’s talk maternity leave. How do we prep for it to ensure it’s a positive experience emotionally, mentally, financially and physically? How do we manage our time during our time off to make it the most pleasant experience? Here are some things I learned during my first experience with maternity leave (along with some tips from dear friends).

1. Plan Early

It’s never too early to start planning for your maternity leave. There’s a lot to do to prep for your new little bundle of joy. So to alleviate some of the stress, I recommend to start planning early (i.e., six months before baby’s scheduled arrival).

2. Save Money

One of the most important things to prepare for maternity leave is a nest egg to use during your time off. I know many employers may have different policies. My employer provided short-term disability insurance. This payout included six weeks of only 60% of my pay. However, the company supported the federal Family Medical Leave Act, which meant I was allowed to take 12 weeks off for maternity leave. So combining those two benefits with a little vacation time and paid time off, I ended up taking three weeks at 100% pay, six weeks at 60% pay and three weeks at 0% pay.

But bills and necessities don’t stop during maternity leave, so we needed to make sure we had enough saved up to account for the decreased salary for that time period. So for the sake of your own emotional and financial sanity, save a little money.

While pregnant with Baby #1, I was conservative in my estimation of how much money we’d truly need. But because I wasn’t traveling as much (I have a 62-mile round trip to the office) and some other money saving techniques (some described below), we ended up only using half the money saved. So now I’ve altered that amount as we anticipate the arrival of Baby #2. It’s always a learning process, right?

3. Be Prepared to Set Boundaries

Everyone loves babies! Who can resist cuddling with a warm little bundle of joy? But don’t let people take over your home, especially if it ends up stressing you out. This is a time for you and your husband to get to know your precious little one, to bond with it, to learn how to function as a family of three (or four or five, as the case may be). You have to learn your own new routine, all while healing from the ordeal called childbirth. You need to make sure you are taking care of you. You need your sleep. You need your snuggles. You need to eat well. You need to rest.

When we had Baby #1, we were fortunate that many of our friends had already had kids so they understood how overwhelming it can be at first. But I won’t deny that I had to ask that some people give us our space. We had to make priorities as to who we spent time with. There’s only so much time in a given day, and we needed to make sure we were doing what was best for us at all times.

Setting boundaries simply could involve saying “Yes, we would love for you to meet little Charlie, but you can only stay for an hour.” Reasonable people will understand, especially if they have kids of their own.

The same goes for the delivery room. Some women love it when their entire extended of family joins them in the delivery room to witness the miraculous birth. Meanwhile, I just wanted to share this intimate moment with only my husband (and obviously the doctor and six nurses). It’s okay to set the rules on your experience.

Like I said before, you have to take care of you and do what’s best for your family. If others get upset, that’s their problem. You shouldn’t want to make others happy to the detriment of your family. (The mama bear in me is starting to come out. So if you need a buffer with your family/friends, let me know! I’ll protect you.)

4. Determine Last Day at Work

This one ties into the last subject. Since many of us are juggling responsibilities at work and at home, it’s important for us to make arrangements for our respective workloads during our time away from the office. Most of the time, you can rely on your colleagues to help divvy up your workload. In my own case, many of my tasks simply were put on hold until I returned. But in other cases, it makes complete sense to hire an outside consultant to fill in the gaps. Talk with your employer to determine what makes the most sense.

Lastly, it’s okay to tell the office to not contact you after a certain point. Like I’ve mentioned before, you need to do what is best for you and your family. Work will wait. Trust me, it isn’t going anywhere. And if you have set up contingency plans, your office shouldn’t even need to contact you during perceived emergencies. They’re grownups. They’ll figure out. Plus, no woman has ever returned from maternity leave wishing she had worked more. If anything, she wishes that she had more time to stay home to spend time with her little one.

5. Prepare Crockpot Meals

This one is by far our favorite tip, which we will be implementing once again for Baby #2!!

Beginning four or five months before my due date, I started preparing one or two crock-pot meals each week to store in the freezer. By the time baby arrived, we had three weeks’ worth of dinners ready to go! Combine that with friends and family bringing food, those frozen meals lasted us at least six weeks! Not only did this save a lot of time (and sanity) during the first few weeks home with a newborn, but also it saved us money during maternity leave. Talk about a win-win!

Some of our favorite meals were pulled from this crock-pot recipe list.

6. Set Up the Nursery

This is likely a no-brainer and it’s frankly a part of nesting… but making sure everything is set up for baby’s nursery makes coming home from the hospital a little easier. From designing your interior masterpiece to making sure you have all the baby essentials, I encourage you to invest the time (and sadly some money) to set things up early.

If you’re expecting a baby girl and are looking for some design inspiration, check out what Baby R’s nursery looked like!

7. Get Out of the House

Some women naturally love going out every day for some activity, while others enjoy being hermits. I’m somewhere in between. I don’t mind spending a few days at home where I’m relaxing and being productive. Yet I didn’t want to be home for a solid 12 weeks on maternity leave. I made a point to get out of the house at least twice a week. Sometimes that was simple as getting groceries or having lunch with a friend (yes, all with baby in tow). But it was good for me (and baby) to get some fresh air and interact with other people.

As a side note, take daily showers too! There were only two days during my leave I did not take a shower. Just like getting out of the house was good for my mental well-being, at least rinsing off was refreshing every day. That’s not to say there weren’t days when I didn’t shower till after lunch. And many of those days, I didn’t both curling my hair or putting on makeup. But just rinsing off breathed new life in me. (We’ll see how well that plan goes when home with Baby #2!)

8. Ask for Help

I don’t know about you, but I often have trouble asking for help. I like to be superwoman, tackling everything that comes my way—on my own. I always have been Little Miss Independent (and Baby R is showing the same tendencies). But being a new mom is hard on so many levels. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Be it help with laundry or cleaning to simply watching little one while you catch some shuteye.