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Pregnancy

Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

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Original poster

Nesting instinct? Real or myth?!

28 replies

squishy · 09/07/2006 18:38

Ugh, I hate housework (as does work-from-home DH) and consequently, our house is not very clean. Don't get me wrong, it's clean enough for everyday life for us, but we don't dust and wipe walls, skirting boards etc!!

Am 24 weeks now and recently have been looking around the house thinking "yeurch, this needs to be done before s/he arrives". But still can't muster the energy etc to actually get cleaning.

I've got a friend who is itching to come and clean with me (she's anal about cleaning and housework!) and have heard that women do get the instinct to clean in their pregnancy, but can anyone share their stories?!

Am kind of swaying between feeling grubby and wanting to get clean and feeling apathy because I really can't be @rsed!!!!

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Twiglett · 09/07/2006 18:39

real

but much later

oranges · 09/07/2006 18:44

Same as you squishy until two days before I went into labour, when I went mad and cleaned all kitchen cupboards, wardrobes, floors and curtains. Only stopped when labour pains started.

JessaJam · 09/07/2006 18:45

Agree twiglett - later
But I did this too, am healthily apathetic normally, spent middle of pregnancy thinking how parts of the house really needed sorting out...then at about 34-36 weeks I spent an entire day on hands and knees scrubbing and washing entire stair bannisters/rails etc etc, all nooks and crannies !!!!

gothicmama · 09/07/2006 18:46

nesting doe s not have to be cleaning it is whatever you need to do before the birth, you get a sudden burst of energy usually 1 to 2 days before birth

Miaou · 09/07/2006 18:49

Mine kicked in about 6 hours before labour started! Dh was snickering to himself as I whipped round the house and couldn't mop the kitchen floor fast enough

Original poster

squishy · 09/07/2006 18:57

LOL! I keep warning DH that when it kicks in with me, it will also kick in with him, or he might find himself with chronic earache!!!

OP posts:

Chandra · 09/07/2006 19:19

Real, I even vacuum cleaned the front garden 3 days before labour started.

chelseaxxx · 09/07/2006 19:29

i was a bit dubious about all this nesting lark - until today !!!! i'm 37 weeks tomorrow and practically jumped out of bed this morning itching to get going - i've scrubbed every floor, every inch of my bathrooms and kitchen and sorted out the nursery and baby clothes - i'm now sat here planning what i can do tomorrow

jofeb04 · 09/07/2006 19:51

I didn't have the instinct at all, hence when I was in hospital for both my dc, my dh was rushing around the house all all times of the night trying to tidy up lol

snowleopard · 09/07/2006 20:00

Ooh yes, about a week before labour, I started running around getting everything cleanand sorted out, and did stupid things like grouting. What a waste of time. I could fancy that week now to sit on my arse and read a magazine...

beansprout · 09/07/2006 20:01

Nesting is just prior to labour. I put 200 word fridge magnets in alphabetical order so I have to claim that the instinct exists as I don't know of another explanation for that sort of nonsense!

mrsbang · 09/07/2006 20:08

Would have said no, until my 3rd. (although was in and out of hospital with first two anyway and allowed to do next to nothing).

Was being monitored with No 3 too, but that last weekend before he was born (two weeks early) I was adamant that certain jobs needed doing before they could admit me...pml - don't know what I'd have done if they'd have insisted I needed to go in.

alexsmum · 09/07/2006 20:17

i had it with both mine.1st time i had to clean all the skirting boards in the bedroom and the 2nd time i got really bothered about the paint splashes on the bedroom doors that had been there for months.oh and i had a new bathroom installed the week i was due.
now that was stressful.

YellowFeathers · 09/07/2006 20:23

Not for me.
All I wanted to do was curl up on the sofa and feel sorry for myself because I'd gone over my due date.
I think I stuffed my face full of sweets at the same time too

MumtoBen · 09/07/2006 20:30

My husband has the nesting instinct on the weekend before I had my son on the Monday. He scrubbed the house from top to bottom and even washed the cars!

I was too knackered to move though.

Original poster

squishy · 09/07/2006 20:40

ooh, I like that MTB, nesting by proxy!!!

OP posts:

edam · 09/07/2006 20:45

I had nesting by proxy too, my lovely sister came to stay to help out, and ended up cleaning my oven.

Beetle73 · 09/07/2006 21:09

I want shopping for hospital bag, tried to install a new lamp shade, rearranged the spare bedroom/nursery and polyfilled a hole in the wall. DD born that evening. Was it imminent labour that brought on the burst of domestic energy, or the excessive domestic effort that brought on labour? Hmmm...

emmawill · 09/07/2006 21:17

Didn't have nesting but was fed up when 2 weeks overdue with both of mine and move things around more out of boredom and anticipation than nesting I think.

moondog · 09/07/2006 21:19

I fell down a flight of stairs when 39 weeks pregnant because something gripped me and told me I had to climb on a stool to clean every window in the house.

Spent the night in hospital being monitered.....

CarolinaMoose · 09/07/2006 21:43

yes, 2 days before labour started, I just had to paint the two strips of wall in the kitchen that got missed when we decorated. I'd been ignoring them for months .

tarzan · 13/07/2006 14:48

We have been in the process of moving house for 4 months!! I am well over it!! Cant wait to get into the new place and start nesting. Don't know what I have for the baby or what I need as everything is in storage!! Its our first baby and I'm 33/40. Looks like the move may be in two weeks time but am not holding my breath as their have been so many hold ups. Bring on the nesting. Feel terrible not being organised!! Am usually a bit anal on the clean house routine but am living in a box-room at a friends pending the move. Please dont let the baby come early. There goes my plans of relaxing on my maternity leave. So much to do when we move....

tribpot · 13/07/2006 15:15

My nesting took the form of insane decluttering, I was hoiking stuff to the tip at 39 weeks (in the boiling heat of last summer, as well).

Quite annoyed that none of the blokes who worked at the tip offered to carry anything up the steps for me to chuck in the skips!

And then I cried when I found nine boxes of impossibly heavy books at the back of a cupboard - MIL had taken them in as a favour to a friend when she moved into a nursing home. They were all books about gardening. Someone else has got them now, I insisted on them being moved out after ds was born, but MIL (typically) won't get shot of these books or use them, they just have to be kept - in case the woman in the nursing home ever wants them or something.

At least I know where my dh gets his hoarding tendencies from

LeahE · 13/07/2006 15:44

I didn't get it at all. DH was very disappointed

eidsvold · 13/07/2006 21:56

myth in my case - poor dh waited and waited for the nesting instinct to kick in - felt no compulsion to do anything- either time.

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