This is how I can really tell that the first trimester is gone. I'm getting the nesting instinct big-time, and I actually have the energy to follow it through. I've had the kind of afternoon that makes me feel like I need to tie my hair back in a kerchief. Laundry machines, dishwasher, and Roomba have all been involved. There's even a pot of lentil soup on the oven, all simmered and ready for our dinner tonight after we get back from a meeting at church.

My weekend to-do list is already buzzing in my head. I'm officially in maternity clothes all the time now (at almost 4 months), because maternity pants/shorts are the only bottoms that fit, and I need shirts that are long enough to hang down over those pants/shorts. A major reorganization of my closet and dresser needs to happen this weekend so that I have easier access to all the clothes I can actually wear right now, instead of being taunted by my favorite things that I can't wear.

Last weekend, I started to tackle the guest room and its closet, since the room will become a hybrid guest room/nursery when the baby is here. Kent's room will remain Kent's room, and we'll have the baby in a co-sleeper in our room at first but will keep his/her crib and changing table in the guest room. Potential guests, don't worry — we won't make you sleep in the same room with the baby if you come. The crib will only be used for the occasional nap, and we're open to the possibility of co-sleeping with this baby for longer than we did with Kent (5 months) if things seem to be working out that way. Anyway, there are other furniture changes happening in that room as well, and craft stuff that needs to go somewhere else, so I'll be spending some quality time with my belongings in that room.

We put all of my school file boxes in the attic last week, a strange thing that should have happened months ago but that I wasn't quite ready to tackle. See, I had all of those boxes where I could get to them easily, in case I had a sudden need while writing my dissertation to find an old article or class paper that I realized was relevant. To say, "No, I'm done with those things for the next several years, possibly forever, and don't need them nearby anymore," was a little weird, but I said it and now that's done, at least.

My nesting is being foisted on others, too. Jack has a short but difficult list to accomplish during the eight days that Kent and I will be gone to North Carolina: he's going to paint the guest bathroom (fairly straightforward) and clear off the computer desk (a horrific task that I don't even want to be around for). I know how he works, and I know he'll want to spread out everything from the desk so that he can go through it and put it in piles, then let it sit there for a few days and look at it while he decides what to do with everything. That will best be accomplished when there is no two-year-old around to run through the piles and move things around, and no nagging wife around who's constantly hassling him to get rid of everything. Patti will still sit on the piles of paper — we can always count on her to sit on stuff on the floor — but she won't be quite the detriment to task-completion that Kent or I would be. He'll also be catching up on studying for his exam in November, and hopefully enjoying a bit of down time. I hope for his sake that he takes advantage of a temporary lack of responsibility with nighttime parenting and actually gets some sleep, though he usually ends up staying up at least an hour later when I'm gone. At least I can be relatively sure that he won't eat only popcorn for dinner, the way I used to worry when we were younger.

I have a good husband. A really excellent husband. He takes such good care of me, and it makes me want to take even better care of him. I joke about him, but it's important to remember that he's also the love of my life and that I think he's the best partner I could ever have.

Labels: husband things, nesting

• posted by erica 9/02/2009 04:52:00 PM
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