I’m the type of person who loves babies. I ooh and aah over every single one I meet and could sit and cuddle a newborn all day long.
In fact, I’d be perfectly happy having baby after baby after baby, but the thing is: I don’t want any more kids.
And, unfortunately for me, all the babies I’ve ever had grew into toddlers and then kids and now the preteen and teens years are lurking in the shadows of my not-so-distant future.
So, how do I know I’m done having kids? That my baby train has ended? Well, I’ve got these 7 reasons (and more):
My last pregnancy was 50% excitement and 50% pure terror.
My first three babies were planned, nearly to the minute. We decided we wanted a baby and, extremely fortunately for us, we got a baby. Baby number four, however, was more of a “Maybe we should have thought that through better” situation.
I wanted another baby, my husband wasn’t so sure, yet here he is. And all those mixed up feelings of should we, shouldn’t we, is now the right time? left me feeling excited for the baby I’d wanted but terrified for the future our family was facing and I’m pretty sure another would tip the scales to 10% happy, 90% freaking out.
Potty training makes me want to sell my toddler to a gypsy.
I’m deep in the darkness of potty training my last toddler and let’s just say it’s not the most fun I’ve ever had in my life. I’m sort of okay with diapers. It’s not something I really enjoy doing but it’s not something that makes me want to run away from home. Potty training, though, makes me want to sell my toddler to a gypsy.
I just don’t have the patience it takes to make it stress free for my little guy who just wants to climb on and off the toilet instead of sitting and can tell me “I say ‘pee pee coming’ and run, run, run to the potty!” but won’t actually do it.
I’m exhausted.
The sleep deprivation from having a newborn never really bothered me. I always managed it okay. But now, I’m exhausted just from dealing with the four kids I already have and barely make it to my bed before collapsing at night.
The running around, managing all the things and arguing wipe me out by the end of the day. And I’m pretty sure doing night wakings again would make me nonfunctional which would not be good seeing as I’m responsible for keeping a small army of humans alive.
Car seats complicate my life.
I currently have one rear-facing car seat, one forward-facing car seat, and two boosters crammed into my car. And every car we ride in or time we travel all those things have to come with us. I’ve been buckling and unbuckling and installing and checking for over a decade and I’m over it. I’m definitely looking forward to the days when we can hop into a cab in a rainstorm or grab a ride with a friend without a ton of planning and stressing over safety.
The babies keep getting bigger.
It’s pretty common for second babies to be larger than firsts and in my situation, each baby was bigger than the last. What started out as a reasonably sized 7 1/2 pound first baby quickly escalated to a hefty 9 1/2 pound fourth baby. And while his birth was easy enough, the end of my last pregnancy wrecked havoc on my body and I can’t fathom doing it again with an even bigger bundle of joy!
We’re already a lot to handle.
I’ve become very careful of where we go and who we descend on. It’s not that my children are hard to manage or behave poorly. It’s simply that, as a family, we are a lot. A lot of people, a lot of activity, a lot of noise, and that all requires a lot of energy (trust me, I know!) I think one more would get us quickly uninvited to things or, at the very least, directions to the nearest motel for all future visits.
Kids are expensive.
Cost has never stopped us from having more kids, but the truth is that one more would probably put us beyond our comfort. It would mean we’d be looking at another big car, we’d be locked into a larger house (or some crazy kind of bunk beds), plus extra food expenses, more college tuition, and another airplane ticket every time we want to go somewhere. It all adds up rather quickly.
What more could we want?
There is no perfect family and the ideal family is different for everyone. But after two girls close in age and two boys close together, I’m not even sure what we would hope for if we did have another baby.
Overall, we’re content where we’re at. We’re generally thrilled with all we have but live dangerously close to the edge of chaos. We’re living a perfect mix of craziness and happiness.
And that’s why I’m confident knowing that we are unquestionably done having babies.