I am 29 weeks pregnant and I am definitely doing what a lot of people would call “nesting.” I don’t know whether it’s “instinct” exactly; but just like anyone wants to straighten their home before visitors arrive, I want to be ready for a guest that’s going to be arriving late this spring, taking up all of my time and attention, and staying for a couple of decades.

It’s a matter of knowing that in my whole life is about to change in ways that I won’t be able to completely understand until after it’s already happened; and I want to be as prepared as I possibly can be. This means a lot of things.

It’s looking at the screen door to my back porch that I have never once cleaned in the 20 months that I’ve owned the house and seeing all the dirt shoved into crevices that I never noticed before and thinking, “It would really be nice to have that clean before the baby comes,” for the simple reason that I have no idea when I might have the opportunity or inclination to clean it later.

It’s finally emptying the backpack that was somehow never cleaned out after graduation from college almost two years ago because I found it shoved in the closet of the soon-to-be-nursery.

It’s suddenly caring that the dishes get washed and the stove gets wiped down every night before I go to bed because I’m trying to get out of the habit of letting little things pile up and become big things.

It’s getting down on my hands and knees to look under cabinets and other furniture trying to think like a crawling eight month old as I add task after task to our “projects to finish before June” list.

As a new father, Daniel could be seen as “nesting” too—although he doesn’t have it quite as bad as I do, so maybe a little bit of instinct is involved for mothers. And some of what I worry about may be a bit over the top… But whether it’s instinct or just plain smart, or a nice combination of both, it’s good to be ready.