Preparing the Nest

About Preparing the Nest

This is the furniture half of getting ready, and it's the half that gets skipped.

Enormous thought goes into the birth and almost none into whether there's a lamp you can turn on at 3am without lighting the whole room, or a water bottle within reach of where you'll actually be lying. None of it takes thought. All of it takes energy, and the version of you who has slept four hours shouldn't be the one doing it.

Eight lists, one to a page, so you can hand a page to whoever keeps asking how they can help. That's what they're for.

What's inside

• The bedside station — everything within one arm of where you'll be lying
• The bathroom — the room nobody sets up, and the one you'll notice first
• Where you'll feed — the furniture, whatever feeding looks like for you
• Food you won't have to make — the single highest-value thing on the list
• The reset — laundry, bins, sheets and pets, done the week before
• Numbers and paperwork — written down, in one place
• Older children, and pets — who collects, who feeds, who does bedtime
• The last forty-eight hours — when it stops being preparation and starts being packing

At a glance

What it is

Eight one-page checklists for setting up your home before the birth, with space on each for the things a list can't know about your house.

Who it's for

The last month of pregnancy, and anyone setting up a home for someone who's about to give birth. A good thing to hand the person who keeps asking what they can do.

How you use it

Print it, tick it, write on it. One afternoon around 35 weeks is plenty.

Format

One PDF, US Letter, 11 pages. Real text, so it can be read aloud by a screen reader, searched and zoomed.

Printing

Any home printer, black and white is fine.

What you receive

An email right after checkout with a download link for Mycelia_PreparingTheNest_v1.0_2026-09.pdf.

This is the practical companion to The Nest, which is where the decisions live — who comes, who does what, what you want someone to notice. This one is only the furniture.

Before you buy

How you get it

A download link, emailed right after checkout. Each link works for 7 days and 5 downloads; if it runs out, request fresh links on the order page or write to contact@myceliabirth.com.

Yours to print

For you and your household — as many copies as you need, for yourself and your support people. Please don't resell, share or post the file.

Updates included

If I revise it, you get the new version free, by email.

Refunds

Within 14 days, for any reason, and you can keep the file. See the shop terms.

Reading it

Real text, not scanned images, so a screen reader can read it and you can search and zoom. Need a different format? Ask me and I'll sort it out.

What this is

Educational and supportive material from a non-clinical doula practice. It doesn't diagnose anything and it doesn't replace your midwife, doctor or pediatrician. If something worries you, call them. In an emergency, call 911.