When You're Done Having Babies

Would you believe that I get asked almost daily if we are done having babies?

Yes, daily.

No, I'm not kidding.

While I think this is an incredibly personal decision and people can and should have as few or as many babies as they darn well please, I've reached a different point in my life when I've had to really sit down and think, are we done?

We have always talked numbers of kids or when we reached our end, and while I'm not quite ready to say we are done having kids, I am pretty confident saying that Eloise will be the last baby to grow in my belly. Take that for what you want, things could change, but for now, that's where we are at.

For the past 5 years I have been pregnant, breastfeeding a new baby, chasing around toddlers and never seen or thought of an end to diapers, night time wake up calls and baby cuddles. But I see that end now, I've become pretty comfortable seeing the end, but I have had to ask myself, what now?

I haven't worked in order to take care of the kids and keep them home with me and I have absolutely loved that. I am very lucky that we had that option. I have done a few small projects, volunteer work, but everything has always revolved around my kids. With the twins off at full time school and seeing what that is like, and what my future will be like when all 4 are at school, I've had to really sit back and think about, not my kids, but myself. Gasp!

What do I want to do with my days? What do I want our family to be like when we have school aged kids? Do I want to work? Go back to school? Take a long vacation on a beach when I'm finally done breastfeeding? Ok, that's a given. But what about ME? What do you do when you're done having babies?

It's a different chapter in life and one I knew would come eventually but haven't given it much thought. I'm happy and excited to see how these 4 little miracles turn out but I'm also excited to have more time for myself and what I want to do and figure out what I want to be for this next chapter. I still don't think I know what I want to be when I grow up. At 30. Ya know.

So my question for all of you lovely readers, how did you know you were done? What changed when you were done having babies? What should I expect for life without a baby in the house? Besides taking all the baby gates down. Can I get a hallelujah for that one? :)