Week 26: The best nest

Something strange and wonderful happens during pregnancy: I get the urge to nest—big time. I’m not just talking about picking up a few accoutrements to decorate the house to make it a little more cozy, either. No, no. What I’m going through is on an entirely different level. I opened up the pantry the other day and decided that it was just all wrong. So I rearranged it. Yesterday, I decided that it was time to tackle our Anaïs’s bedroom while she napped. Because space is limited, both kids are going to have to share a room. Which means it’s time to divide and conquer.
It’s amazing how much stuff accumulates. Jesse and I have moved countless times in the last couple of years, and with every move, we purge more and more. Yet it still feels like an uphill battle trying to get rid of things that hold both actual monetary and sentimental value. I unearthed bags of the cutest little girl clothes that Anaïs wore when she wasn’t even a year old. I saved them “just in case.” What I didn’t anticipate was that in finding them years later, I would also feel all the feels. Seeing the tiny dresses and singlets made my heart swell, especially with the knowledge that in just a few short months, we will again be dressing, holding and loving someone so tiny. I emptied out a drawer that held nothing but junk, rearranged Anaïs’s current wardrobe and actually gave our little boy his own drawer! I even started placing some onesies that we’ve already bought in it. It goes without saying that this is feeling more and more real.
Not only am I making more room for our boy, but I am also noticing that I am increasingly more particular (read: obsessive) about keeping our place clean. Along with the routine maintenance that includes vacuuming and mopping, I have also decided that things that aren’t visible to anyone else suddenly need attention—like the little sliver of space between our kitchen counters and refrigerator. Who else sees the crumbs that have fallen in that crevice? No one! Yet I can’t shake the fact that it absolutely needs to be taken care of. Don’t even get me started on the hard-to-reach dust bunnies that have found a home under our bed. I’m still trying to figure out a way to get them out without straining my back.
Today, I plan on tackling our filing cabinet which includes reorganizing paperwork, shredding unnecessary documents and general decluttering of things no longer needed. Why? I don’t know. It just feels like I should. It has nothing to do with the birth of our child. (Or does it?) It isn’t in anyone’s way at all. But today feels like the day to do it. I might even be extra ambitious and wipe down every shelf in our fridge. What can I say? Pregnancy makes me do some pretty strange (and seemingly absolutely necessary) things. Oh, and although we can’t even think of having another child down the line, I still kept those pretty little dresses “just in case.”