There’s nothing like having a baby that makes you want to get your shit together even more.
As I enter the third trimester tomorrow, I am feeling the increasing pressure of all the things I want to check off the list before baby boy arrives. I’m not sure my commitment to writing 100 essays in the 100 days before my due date helps, but we’re in deep now!
As mentally prepared as I feel to welcome a baby, there’s still much to be done to set up our space and organize certain parts of our work and lifestyle. I know there’s time, but I can feel the clock ticking.
I have a little theory about this whole nesting thing that they say creeps up towards the end of the third trimester. I think it starts much sooner than that, and that it comes in stages—for some even before they fall pregnant.
A somewhat working model of the stages of nesting:
Mind-nesting: This is how I lovingly described what I was doing in all those months before conceiving and even up to now. With the idea of a baby coming, I started making lists: all the things to get updated in the house, long-term business to dos to clear out, things to stock up on, and financial goals to square away. At this stage, the brain gears start turning and suddenly we are mind-nesting, doing all the mental organization and note-taking to start attuning our minds to what it takes to bring a new family member home.
Pre-nesting: Ah, but the artist must have an impeccably clean and blank canvas! I believe I’m in my pre-nesting era right now, where we are getting our house ready before the influx of baby stuff.1 This includes clearing out the soon-to-be baby’s room, getting some work done around the house, and massive amounts of decluttering. Pre-nesting is all about setting the physical foundation.
Hyper-nesting: This is nesting as we think of it. Setting up the crib, doing the baby laundry, organizing drawers and shelves and books. Sterilizing everything in sight and finding the perfect set-up for diaper stations and middle-of-the-night feeds. I’m not there yet, and won’t be until June since our baby shower is late May (please don’t come too early, baby!).
Let’s see how this model works out as I near the end :)
I’m pretty proud that we’ve been able to make it this far without too many purchases for the baby. I did snag our car seat at an incredible deal, and we got a cloth diaper sprayer installed during renovations, but other than that we are holding off until after the baby shower!