A dawing realisation

I've been a bit slack with writing in my Gratitude Book...
I was having so much fun during our Christmas holiday that I kept forgetting to write in it.

Every night since we've come home, I look at the book sitting on my bedside table just waiting for my return.
And every night, I turn off my light without making an entry.

It's not like I don't have anything to be grateful for - if anything, there's too much to even begin to mention.

But this morning as I walked into work after dropping the Little Monster off at daycare, I suddenly realised exactly WHY I should start writing in it again...
I am 28 weeks pregnant, and I need to be writing down everything I feel about this pregnancy; the good and the bad.

At around 9-weeks, staving off yet another wave of nausea (and a week after I realised that being pregnant again meant I was going to have to GIVE BIRTH again - eek!!), I turned to Husband and stated, "This is it. Two is enough; no more children..."
To which Husband agreed.

About 3 weeks ago, I hit the I'm-so-totally-over-being-pregnant phase (only 11 weeks early!) and claimed to Husband, "Ugh. I'm sick of being fat. I want my body back!"

Again, to which Husband agreed.... not to the "I'm fat" part!, but that he wants me to be back to normal, back to being me. Which I'm guessing doesn't involve me being a host to a not so tiny parasite, or inhaling my food without taking a breath, or falling asleep on the sofa at 8pm....

But this morning, I had a far more profound realisation - this will most likely be my last pregnancy.

This realisation made me both sad and determined.

Sad, because this will probably be the last time that I carry and grow a baby.
The last time that I feel the first flutters through to the full on belly stretching of movement.
The last time I will ask my body to put itself through the paces that nature intended.

Determined, because I have not been as appreciative of this pregnancy as I was the first... I have been almost blase about whole thing, really.
And because despite all my whinging, I do love being pregnant.

I love feeling the baby move and guessing what baby body part is poking me where (usually a double whammy of a punch to the bladder and a kick to the lungs).
I love the freedom to go back for seconds without caring what other people think.
I love my maternity jeans!

I love watching my LM kiss my belly, and whisper "Morning Baby".

So, rather than complaining about how I can't walk 20m without huffing and puffing like a steam train; or how badly I am sleeping because the Baby keeps moving; or the agony of waking up with a leg cramp in the middle of the night...

Instead of all of those things, I am going to embrace the remaining 12 weeks of my pregnancy:

• I will cherish each internal kick and punch.
• I will celebrate the fact that my body is so freaking amazing at the job it does of growing our Baby.
• I will write in my Gratitude book every night, of just how lucky and grateful I am that I have a beautiful healthy son, and how excited (and terrified!) I am with the imminent arrival of our new child.

What sudden realisations have you had recently? Were they enough to change your way of thinking?

 {images 1, 2 and 3}