With the recent arrival of my new daughter, I thought I'd share a funny story...
My last few weeks of pregnancy, I'd catch myself looking around the house, thinking of all the things I had left to do to prepare for the new baby, and wondering, "When does this famed nesting instinct kick in?" I just felt too tired after a long day at work, much of it on my feet (although I did start dragging a chair out to the circulation counter, towards the end) to get much cleaning or organizing around my house accomplished.
Wednesday, February 25, the branch library was closed due to a potential ice storm. Thursday, the library was opening late... I found myself hoping for another snow day, due to the low fever I was running, and finally decided to call in sick that day and rest up. Friday, I returned to work, as normal. On Saturday, the library is generally very busy. I got to work that day, and even though I'd been meaning to go easy on myself, I found that I really could not stand how backlogged we were.
For folks who like to imagine that librarians lead lives of leisure, idly flipping through the pages of the latest novels as we sit, bored, at the circulation/reference desk, you could not be more dead wrong. There were so many carts of returned books to be shelved, and simply not enough staff to get it all done. I shelved like a madwoman all day! That is a workout that any fitness instructor would be proud of... lots of lifting (boxes of books are heavy!) squatting, scootching, stretching, kneeling and lifting, getting everything back into its proper place.
Sunday I had the day off, and spent the day visiting with family. And early Monday morning, on March 2, I went into labor, nearly three weeks early! Oh gosh, what a surprise. Everyone in my family typically goes way overdue, needs to be induced and delivers 10-pound babies. That was what I had been expecting. I was a little mad at myself - if I hadn't exerted myself at work, would I have gone into labor so early? My mother-in-law (who is also a librarian) and several of my librarian friends immediately said, "Aha! That was your nesting instinct!"
Oh, my gosh... they're right! That was it - I can't believe I finally felt like nesting and I used it all up at work! I could have been, oh, I don't know, mopping my kitchen floor, or obsessively organizing and re-organizing baby clothes, you know? Ah, well... I hope our patrons appreciate it. I'm on maternity leave now, and won't be doing any shelving for several more weeks. ;)