"Nesting is an uncontrollable urge to clean one's house brought on by a desire to prepare a nest for the new baby, to tie up loose ends of old projects and to organize your world. Females of the animal kingdom are all equipped with this same need. It is a primal instinct. Just as you see birds making their nests, mothers-to-be do exactly the same thing."


My nesting instincts probably kicked in when I was four or five months pregnant. I wanted everything cleaned - the floors scrubbed, the walls wiped down, the curtains washed, and the laundry always done. And then it went beyond the cleaning and transferred into thinking we need a new couch, wanting to buy a TV stand that better covers all our wires so baby boy won't be able to get to them, and then wanting to buy a better TV to go with the TV stand. Wanting everything that has previously been on a shelf to be tucked away in a cupboard, folding and refolding clothes. Scrubbing, soaking, cleaning.

Nesting has become sort of a joke among the pregnant community, mostly because many women resort to doing ridiculous, irrational, and unnecessary things. One day, for example, I decided all of Kory's white shirts needed to be soaked in a tub of Oxiclean for four hours before we put them in the washer. Then, when they were done being cleaned, I insisted on ironing and hanging all (12 or 15) of them right away (until Kory helped me realize that was unnecessary). The point, though, is that nesting is quite real - it is instinctive. And while many people find the things us pregnant women do to be humorous, ridiculous, or bizarre, I think nesting is one of the coolest parts of pregnancy.

Because we are human, it is often thought that we rarely act on a purely instinctual basis, particularly in comparison to the animals around us. We take a lot of pride in being governed by reason and not instinct. Being pregnant, though, has made me realize that there can also be a lot of value and beauty in instinct. There are some days I literally cannot contain my nesting instincts. It takes over me and suddenly I have new found energy and motivation. I find ways to do things that I couldn't get myself to do before. And while some of those things may seem funny or weird they are all a part of preparation. And I love it. I love that you can see animals in nature doing the same thing. I love it because it shows that there is something inherently in me that knows how to be a mother, that knows how to prepare to bring life in the world. And I think that is so incredibly lovely. What better instinct could there be.

and, because we're talking about pregnancy, here's a little belly update (I'm a little bit bigger now). our little man is due 13 weeks from today (!!!!)