Tick tock, Tick tock...

Am I losing my mind? Probably... I seriously have 4 months left to go (121 days until the due date, but who's counting?)

I can help but feel like I have to get everything ready for the baby NOW... or even YESTERDAY... it's the strongest urge and I'm completely obsessed with getting the nursery completely set up. We ran into a snafu with the crib, and I started crying and almost let it ruin my whole evening that I couldn't get it completely set up yesterday. Yeah- I'm hormonal and insane... props to you for correctly identifying my symptoms LOL

According to Tim, this is apparently the 'nesting urge' according to his book on now to have a pregnant wife and survive... and that the book advises men to just let us do whatever we feel like we have to do to get ready for the baby, help as much as they can, and basically stay out of the way. I can't help but think that it's a bit early for me to be this obsessed. It's like, I can't sleep until I'm completely ready for this baby. I barely slept last night, and dreamed that the baby came early and it had to sleep in my dog's bed and that I was a terrible mommy!

I just really really really really really want everything done (at least in the nursery) before the end of the month, and I'm not sure that's going to happen... I also think I'm going crazy, but that's okay too! All I can hear is that clock going tick tock.... tick tock....

Added a few minutes after the original post....

Okay, apparently I'm not as crazy as I originally thought... and it IS common to get it this early...

Around the fifth month of pregnancy, the "nesting" instinct can set in. This is an uncontrollable urge to clean one's house brought on by a desire to prepare a nest for the new baby, to tie up loose ends of old projects and to organize your world.

Females of the animal kingdom are all equipped with this same need. It is a primal instinct. Just as you see birds making their nests, mothers-to-be do exactly the same thing. The act of nesting puts you in control and gives a sense of accomplishment toward birth. You may become a homebody and want to retreat into the comfort of home and familiar company, like a brooding hen. The nesting urge can also be seen as a sign of the onset of labor when it occurs close to 40 weeks of pregnancy.

Nesting brings about some unique and seemingly irrational behaviors in pregnant women and all of them experience it differently. Women have reported throwing away perfectly good sheets and towels because they felt the strong need to have "brand new, clean" sheets and towels in their home. They have also reported doing things like taking apart the knobs on kitchen cupboards, just so they could disinfect the screws attached to the knobs. Women have discussed taking on cleaning their entire house, armed with a toothbrush. There seems to be no end to the lengths a nesting mother will go to prepare for her upcoming arrival.

This unusual burst of energy is responsible for women ironing anything in the house that couldn't out run them. Being preoccupied with ant killing, squishing them one at a time for weeks on end. Packing and unpacking the labor bag 50 times. Cleaning the kitchen cupboards and organizing everything by size to the point that you make sure the silverware patterns match when it's stacked in the cutlery drawer. Sorting the baby's clothes over and over again is a favorite theme. Taking them out of the drawers and re-folding them, putting them away and doing it over and over again. Nesting will provide interesting stories for years to come.

Nesting can be one of the more humorous aspects of pregnancy. One that you and your partner are sure to laugh about in the years to come...if he ever forgives you for sending him off to work and ripping down all the wallpaper in the hall! You may laugh about it now but you probably won't laugh when you're in the middle of it. No one can pull you out of it no matter how silly your behavior may seem. It simply becomes something that you must do!