Let’s talk about “nesting.” Well… my experience with nesting in particular.
If you’re not familiar with the terms “nesting” or “nesting instinct,” let me fill you in. It’s a time in a pregnant woman’s life* when she feels the need to compulsively organize and clean every surface that crosses her face or nose or enormously swollen uterus.
Me? I was totally nesting. And apparently, dropping phrases like: “enormously swollen uterus.” Sorry ‘bout that.
I like to think I have a generally neat and tidy house.
No, it isn’t always sparkling clean but for the most part, the cleanliness level of my house keeps me happy enough and close enough to a comfortable level of Godliness.
The list of things I’ve cleaned or organized in the last couple of weeks is kind of astounding. For me. Astounding for me. I know a lot of people that do this type of cleaning on a weekly schedule so if that’s you, don’t judge me. You’re definitely closer to Godliness than me.
I didn’t follow a list. There’s no rhyme or reason to what I cleaned. Each thing just sort of hit me out of the blue. I’d like to share some of my thought processes with you, so you can make me feel better about my level of crazy.
- “These stair treads are such a pretty color. Washable, too! Sweet. Good purchase. When did I buy these? Two years ago, I think. Two years ago, two years ago, TWO YEARS AGO! I haven’t washed these stair treads in TWO YEARS.” [Into the washer they go.]
- [Looks around bathroom.] “I really hope this bathroom gets the facelift it desperately needs in 2014. It’s not in bad shape, it’s just in need of some good ol’ updati—- ACK! Why is there so much dust on the ceiling fan?! How long has that been there!? Have I been breathing that in forever? Have my house guests noticed?!? [Grabs step ladder, removes fan plate, cleans.]
- [Watches Travel Channel’s Anthony Melchiorri run his finger along the top of hotel picture frames to check for dust.] “Hmmmm, maybe I should do that in my house.” [Gets up to run finger along the tops of picture frames.] “Good Lord.”
- [Cleans the outside of the stove.] “Wow, these cabinets haven’t been wiped down since we painted them. They’re kind of gross. I wonder if they’re all gross.” [Looks around at the cabinet fronts.] “Must. Wipe. Down. Every. Cabinet.”
- [Notices a drip of laundry detergent dried to the side of the washer.] “I will feel so much better about myself if I sanitize and wipe down every part of my washer and dryer! This will make doing all of that baby laundry so much more tolerable!”
As you can see, my nesting instincts knew no boundaries. I tackled nearly every surface in the house. This includes but isn’t limited to: the ceiling fan, light fixtures, screens, windows, behind and on top of appliances, under couch cushions, the porch floor and the garage floor, the mattresses and box springs, kitchen drawers and the icing on the nesting cake: the garbage can. Yes, I cleaned and sanitized the garbage can.
Of course now that Harrison is 2+ weeks old, the house has gone to crap again. Oh well. It’s cyclical, right?
They say that nesting happens right before labor, and that was my experience. My instincts kicked into high gear about a week before I gave birth!
If you’ve been pregnant before, have you found yourself to be a slave to the nesting instinct like me? If you haven’t been pregnant, do you ever get the urge to clean every surface in your home? I’d love to say that I do a deep clean every Spring and Fall, but that just doesn’t happen.
*Apparently, fathers-to-be nest, too! I’m not sure if Matt is nesting or not. He popped on a new camera, video camera and bedroom TV to prepare for this baby… does that count? Also, it took him 3 weeks to help me hang a curtain rod over the back window. If I wasn’t so scared that I’d rip out drywall, I’d have done it myself in 3 seconds. Looking at these examples now, I’d say Matt isn’t affected by nesting instinct…