I am 31 weeks pregnant with our third child and we’re in a whirlwind of all things PCS. And this isn’t the first time I’ve moved pregnant; when we moved to our current station, I was six months pregnant. I must enjoy it to keep putting myself in the same position [insert *eye roll*].
To be fair, this PCS is not like the others. When I say it was a short-notice move, it was a very short-notice move. We received our official orders on Jan. 2nd and my husband’s show-no-later-than date is Feb. 12th. However, to be cleared to PCS at this point in my pregnancy, I have to be six weeks out from my due date and that would be Jan. 31st. So, there’s that. Getting orders and booking flights that leave that same month has been a mad rush and don’t even get me started on the four-day weekends, training days and “office hours” we’ve had to work around.
RELATED: The mental load of being a military spouse
In the midst of it all, however, I am oddly cool, calm and collected. I’m fairly certain it’s my anti-anxiety meds working in overdrive but, also, my body and mind must be in survival mode. Whatever it is, thank God because I know I would be a hot mess otherwise; plagued with stress and insanely overwhelmed. I’m not sure I’d be able to think straight or function properly.
I’m reminded often that moving, let alone internationally, and having a baby are two of life’s biggest stressors and here I am, in the thick of both. But isn’t that the military way of doing things?! It’s what we get for not planning our lives around the military. My husband applied for OTS (officer training school) and he found out in July that he was accepted and the next day we found out we were expecting baby #3! We knew we wanted another baby and OTS was not a sure thing, so we weren’t going to wait around. Well hello, karma!
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger … or just really exhausted and on the verge of a mental breakdown but it’s fine. As I’ve said before, I’m a military spouse and resilient, blah blah blah, so we’ll get through it and come out the other end with another PCS horror story we can share with the next group of spouses as a way of bonding through the military life [insert *biggest eye roll* here].
Joking aside, moving — whether military or not — is stressful, and chaotic, and there are so many freaking hoops to jump through. To make it worse, these hoops are special “active-duty” hoops. The majority of the out-processing checklist is placed on their shoulders while we sit at home and do the bare minimum and feel so very helpless. It’s beyond frustrating.
There’s always so much to do and it all varies depending on whether or not you have kids or pets, and it’s so expensive! Yes, we get reimbursed for some of our moving expenses but not the entirety of it. It costs thousands of dollars to move and even more if you’re moving internationally.
Honestly, there are so many different factors: kids, animals, rental car until you have a car; do you have a car(s) stateside waiting or do you need to buy one or two; any appliances; etc. It’s a lot and it adds up insanely quick. But when the military says jump you say how high and how much is this going to cost me?!
Oh, what a life. I’m nothing if not an optimist so here’s our silver lining for this move, I get to be home with my parents to have this baby and my kids get to spend quality time with their nana and papa. There may be a lot of big changes in our near future, some we can see on the horizon and others unbeknownst to us, but I’m excited and I’m ready (or so I think) to start this new chapter.
