Nesting

People have said all sorts of cliches to me during my pregnancy. Anytime pickles are mentioned, people look meaningfully in my direction as if they know, they just know, how often I eat them these days.* "You're huge!" is the current, highly annoying comment.* But at the top of the list is the significant giggle when they warn me about the NESTING INSTINCT!!!


Now I'm not a domestic goddess. Only once in my life have I become excited about house cleaning, and that was for the week after my wedding--a week which ended with me accidentally slicing my wrist open and nearly losing the use of my left hand forever. Judgement, I remind myself whenever cleaning becomes too exciting, for getting too involved in something so inconsequential.

But this morning I turned to my husband and said, "I really feel like I should be freezing food. But we don't have any room in the freezer." And then I looked down at the five (lovely) muffins remaining from our breakfast and said, "I think I'll freeze these muffins for after the baby comes."

And then realized that all those people were right! I've been worried over laundry, the unfinished-until-yesterday nursery, the dirty little strips of wax on the kitchen floor, the vaccuum bag, the handsoap refill which seems to have disappeared, food, food, and food. My nesting instinct might look more like a normal person's stewardship, but for me, it's a bit overdone.

The great thing about it all is that our little one will come when its ready regardless of whether I made that apple pie or not. Or bleached the bathroom. Or dusted my pantry. And thankfully, soon, the nesting instinct will creep out the back door in my psyche, ashamed at how little progress it made. I'll wave goodbye and grin.




*Irregardless of the fact that the combination of pickles and ice cream sounds like heartburn on a plate, besides, in a metaphor-mixing way, taking the cake for gross dinner ideas!

*I know, of course I am, every woman at 38 weeks is huge--there's a full-sized baby in there! I'm not as big as a house, I'm a hotel! The wonderful little person in there will be checking out soon and I do think we'll both be relieved!