Nesting/Hoarding Instinct
The stereotypical "nesting" instinct has kicked in for me, big time, not always in completely rational ways.
Filling the freezer of heat-n-eat foods for after the wee one is born, that makes sense. Getting plenty of diapers and wipes and cream and milk freezer bags and whatnot, okay, those make sense, too. Cleaning out the "nursery" and crib and stuff, even though we never even used them for our first child … well, okay. Sure.
Some of the other things I’m feeling driven to do? Not quite so much sense.
Now, even when I’m not pregnant, I’m somewhat apocalyptically minded and make sure we have 2 weeks worth of water and at least a month or so’s worth of food and other household provisions stored up. [I’m not Mormon — which is obvious, otherwise I’d have a year’s worth! — but I do think they have some good ideas on self-reliance in emergencies.] Lately, though, our pantries have been looking a wee bit little crazier than normal. I’m sure the National Soy Sauce Council salutes me, but perhaps we don’t need quite so many bottles in the closet…?
There’s good survival-reasoning in wanting to have everything stockpiled before the new one comes, so I’m not going to knock it. It would be totally just my luck to have an otherwise very unlikely avian flu outbreak occur right around the end of April/beginning of May.
But maybe we wouldn’t need quite so much mustard to get through it
Lisa said,
April 6, 2006 @ 7:58 pm
Ya gotta love the nesting instinct. When I was one month away from giving birth to our now 6 year old son, I had it in my noggin that I needed to mulch the garden with cocoa shell mulch because I liked the way it smelled. IN JUNE. IN CHICAGO. IN 90 DEGREE HEAT. And it JUST so happens that, unbeknownst to me, it was the day of my “surprise” baby shower, being held RIGHT NEXT DOOR. So, when my neighbor called me over to show me something she had just bought, I go over as a huge, fat sweatball, and…SURPRISE!
What can I say…pregnancy is pretty darn close to temporary insanity. I also wallpapered our living room during those last 2 months. Look at how prepared we can be when the occasion calls for it!