Saying yes to the mess at 9 months pregnant

I’ve sort of slipped into that nostalgic part of pregnancy when I begin to miss the family unit that we have right now.  We will never be the same again in only a couple of short weeks.  Though of course we look forward with all our hearts to the time when we have a new little one, I can’t help but feel a slight bittersweetness at what will go away from our family forever.   Things will have to be redefined.  There will be a season of discovering our new normal as a unit, which is always exciting and adventurous.  Yet I want to pause and reflect with gratitude and appreciation for what we’ve had thus far.  Only three short years ago, I wondered if I’d live to see the light of another day.  Newborn twins threw me for a loop, and I found myself missing the days when simple defined us.  Now that I look at my little three year olds, I actually would describe the ins and outs of life with them as simple.  Busy, but simple.  And that’s about to get tossed up again.  I love what having a new baby does for us.  We simply cannot remain stagnant.  We are forced to grow – every last one of us.

So tonight when the children begged me to paint, I found myself embracing it and saying yes.  I’ll admit that I usually steer clear of messy art projects towards the end of pregnancy and this one is no exception.  It’s not that I don’t love to see my little budding artists expressing themselves, it’s just that if I have to squat down to clean up one more speck of glitter or paint drips at this point, my seven year old daughter will be catching her baby sister.  With hubby there to help with the creativity though, I didn’t have an excuse.  Who could resist the children’s little pleading eyes?  This will probably be the last family art night for awhile, at least until we’ve made a good rhythm with the new baby.  It was so fun and I’m really glad I didn’t miss the opportunity just because my back aches.  I’m not promising them anything crazy in the next several days, but at least I know we have a good chunk of summer left to do some great science projects.  Birds are all the rage these days!

With only a few weeks (or less) until d-day, I am eternally grateful for the difficult work I did ahead of time for the kids’ school schedules.  All that work has paid off in great dividends so that we are going to be able to finish up a little bit early.  With how awkward I feel shuffling around the house these days, it will be really nice to have some time to rest before baby arrives, as well as for a few weeks afterwards.  I’ve also stocked my freezer with meals and tried to finish up any long-term chores well ahead of time so that when the baby comes, we can simply enjoy her with little outside stress being added to all of us.  Yes, sometimes with a newborn even preparing dinner can fall into the category of “outside stress.”  I have no idea what I would do if I had not discovered once-a-month-cooking!  I just might be finally getting the hang of this adding-a-new-baby-to-the-mix thing.