Has anyone taken opportunity of parental leave to learn new skills?

It's hard to believe, I know, but in two years, those 5 weeks will look like they did not have any influence at all in your long term productivity or what you could have achieved. After some time, you will realize that the perceived less amount of time allows you to do more, and more efficiently. than people that actually have all the time of the world in their hands.

You maybe could learn a skill while the kid is sleeping; but the irregular patterns and not-so-long periods of quiet sleep would better be used to do stuff you necessarily need to do (bills, paperwork, household tasks, grocery shopping, little repairs, making place in the cupboards, perhaps installing some furniture, etc.).

Usually given total undivided attention without rush to the baby leads to much easier and faster resolution; for example, when trying to feed, or sleep time, 30/55 minutes taking care that the kid feels well, that temperature is good (if it is to hot, for example, gently moving a towel), providing entertainment flying some toy and engaging them, quietly singing, etc. will lead to less time overall than trying to rush in 10 minutes and find yourself an hour later with a very tired baby that will sleep out of sheer exhaustion.

Best of luck and think that 5 weeks will look like nothing in the future. Think that if you had removed one year of your education in the past, quite probably, things would not have been so different anyway.

When my daughter was born I spent every hour either caring for her or for my wife. I couldn't imagine doing anything else on top of that. Diaper changes and feeding every 2 hours for the first 4-6 months at least.

First time? Congratulation! Sleep now, because the next 18 years are hard.

As other commentators said, you will get a very irregular sleep schedule. Essentially while the baby is sleeping. Luckily they sleep a lot, but while they are not sleeping they will require a lot of attention, and while they are sleeping you must do a lot of small task related to the baby or yous enjoy half an hour doing nothing.

You can try to learn something, it is not impossible, but it's hard.

I was so tired I barely managed to cook for myself. The only new skills you’ll likely to learn is new ways of coping with extreme tiredness (and no, a misspent youth partying still doesn’t prepare you for the tiredness of parenthood). You’re better off finding a TV box set you can half watch while feeding the baby rather than trying to engage your brain.

Enjoy parenthood. It is also the most rewarding job you’ll ever have.

Yep I learned the skills of how to take better care of my children! It improved my bond with them massively. Use the leave for that. It's what it's for. If you waste it 'learning' you won't get it back.

Parental leave is for taking care of your baby. You'll be lucky if you manage to do anything else during the first month.

I taught myself how to play guitar and mandolin but my parental leave was 5ish years.