Senior Year

 I am currently 25+ weeks long with my pregnancy, which puts me about 10 or so days away from starting my third trimester.  That is such a strange feeling for me.

I am starting to feel physically uncomfortable (which I know will get worse before it gets better), and I'm starting to wonder how I can get any bigger... and yet I know I will (Lord willing) before the baby comes... and I'm starting to feel like my due date is still a LONG ways away, but it really will be here very soon.

All that said, this pregnancy for me is the equivalent of Senior year.

Hubby and I are in full agreement that this will be our last child, number six, which will complete our family.  We are fully at peace with that (and very prayerful that my pregnancy will continue to go smoothly through to a healthy birth, healthy mama, and healthy baby).  I feel very grateful that I have the chance to experience a pregnancy with the awareness that it will be my last.

There is something about knowing you are experiencing something for the last time that makes it extra special and that prepares you for moving on -- like Senior year of college.

Everything that is unpleasant -- you grin and bear it because you know its your last time ever to have to experience it.  You get through it because you know you've done it before, and you know it is temporary.

Everything that is special is made all the more special because you treasure it with a sincere appreciation, knowing it will not return.

Just like a part of me will always feel nostalgic for my college years (and especially my Senior year of college), I know that my college years were a wonderful season of life, but they were just that -- a season of life.  They were not meant to last forever, and after Senior year, it was time to move on.  Even when I have missed my college years, I have never really wanted to go back -- after graduation, it is time to move on.

That is exactly how I feel about these wonderful, blessed, incredible past 8 years I have been pregnant (or postpartum, or nursing) as Hubby and I have been able to grow our family.  I am sure I will always be nostalgic for the years I was pregnant and nursing -- they were an incredibly beautiful season of life, and I will remember them with joy, love, and (I'm sure) a slight ache of missing them.  But really, this was meant to be a season, and Hubby and I are both ready for this to be our Senior year, and then it will be time to move on to other wonderful seasons of life.

And, just like Senior year -- I have made choices that I was perhaps too focused or responsible to make during my earlier college years (or earlier pregnancies) -- I have probably indulged more pregnancy cravings this time around, and I have allowed myself to put my feet up on the couch a few more times without any guilt knowing that this is my last chance to help my body grow a tiny human, and that deserves a little R&R, or an extra slice of pizza.

And for fun... here is a picture from my "Senior Year" pregnancy... and a few funny pictures from my actual senior year of college.