[This week marks the anniversary of my pregnancy saga, so for the next few days I'm going to take some time to reflect on what happened last year and how it's affected me since.]Before last year, I’d heard about the nesting instinct, the urge many pregnant women get to prepare their homes for the new baby. Honestly, I was hoping it would hit me hard, forcing me to clean the house and organize my life with a previously unseen passion. While I can’t say that did happen, I can’t argue with this site that says, “Nesting brings about some unique and seemingly irrational behaviors in pregnant women.”
For me, I was driven to making more lists than ever. (And for those of you who know me, you can imagine just how many lists that was.) Here’s a sample of the lists I made last year while I was pregnant:
- Projects around the house (new carpet in the nursery, fix the drooping siding on the front porch, put in new outlets and buy safety covers)
- Things to buy for nursery (bedding, paint, shelves, chair, pictures for the walls)
- Books to read about parenting (BabyWise; Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child; Girlfriend’s Guide to Pregnancy; What to Expect When You’re Expecting)
- Healthy habits to start now (exercise, taking vitamins, stretching, eating vegetables)
- Other random, very important things to do (show Mark how to pay the bills, finalize my spreadsheet of addresses for baby announcements, organize the pantry, clean out the garage, make dozens of meals to freeze for later, put all my recipes in a binder, finish every scrapbook I ever started, sign up for that scary childbirth class, pay my library fines)
For the record, I did not accomplish all of these things. Partly due to an early delivery and partly due to a stubborn case of procrastination that can beat even the strongest nesting instinct.
