Your Nesting Instincts

You may be the sort of person who has always tossed things into a junk drawer in your kitchen or disregarded the growing piles of clean laundry crowding every horizontal surface in your bedroom. If you're like most women, you may be seized by a sudden burst of energy late in pregnancy and become a human dirt devil, scaring your partner and friends with your obsessive new devotion to organizing closets and scrubbing bathroom tiles with a toothbrush.

Making a safe, warm, comfortable place for your baby is probably instinctual, brought on by that cascade of hormones, as well as an emotional response to feeling your baby move inside you and growing more attached every day.

Make the most of these last weeks or days before your baby arrives. Go ahead and refold those baby clothes. Get rid of the recycled newspapers that have been taking up space in your garage too. But choose low-key activities instead of rearranging the furniture or climbing ladders. Remember that you're clumsier than usual, and there's no need to get tired or achy when you'll need every ounce of your stamina and strength for delivering your baby.

Originally published in You & Your Baby: Pregnancy.

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