and then there were four

people keep asking us if we are done having children or if we want more. and perhaps, we've happened upon that decision rather unexpectedly.

NO- im not pregnant.

Rather, we had an experience this past weekend that changed our outlook a little, and gave us some perspective on what it would be like to have more kids...

Early Saturday morning, I received a call from a friend in need. She and her husband had to go somewhere urgently and had no place to leave the children. Without question, i told her to drop them off....i figured it would be fun! a baby to cuddle with (only 2 weeks old!!!!), and a playmate for levi (another 3 year old).

I was right, it was a LOT of fun!!!!
BUT- it was also A LOT of work!!

Jeff had been on call Friday night, so he did not get home until 10:30am, was awake for an hour, and then took a nap himself. So essentially, I was taking care of all four children alone from 7:30am onward....

The older ones occupied themselves really well, but it seemed that whenever one of the babies needed something, one of the older kids would start crying and need me to help fix the disassembled train track or negotiate the terms of toy sharing or read a book to them.
And when one baby wanted to eat, of course the other one needed to eat too! I found myself feeding the baby cradled in my right arm holding the bottle in my right hand and feeding Tali baby food with the spoon in my left hand. Needless to say, we were all a bit messy in the end.

i describe the situation as semi-organized chaos.

we even took a walk down the street (when jeff was home AND awake) to easily occupy all four children at the same time, since we strapped each and everyone into their own seat in our two double strollers so there was no escaping...

My biggest accomplishment of the day was getting ALL FOUR CHILDREN (PLUS MY HUSBAND) to nap at the SAME TIME!!!!

I put the boys in bed together and told them to go to sleep. I heard them giggling on the monitor a few minutes later and went back into the room to tell them that if they did not go to sleep right NOW, that i would have to end the "sleepover" and take Levi's friend home (yah right, home to an empty house- but they didnt know that!).....and then, i did not hear another peep for over 2.5 hours!!!!!

I nursed tali and put her in her crib, where she slept soundly for almost 3 hours....and then I brought the baby to the basement, fed her a big bottle, and swaddled her and put her in the bouncer we keep downstairs, where she slept for 2 hours also!!!! I relaxed watching TV on the LCD in the basement- well deserved peace and quiet.....

Once the afternoon came and my friend came to pick up the kids, I realized how crazy the day actually was and how hard it was to take care of four children. It was more like 2 sets of twins (although tali and the baby are six months apart, they both need to be fed and carried and entertained).
I had a ton of fun while I was doing it, but also experienced a lot of relief when it was over! Having 4 kids would be hard work!

I know that if we choose to have another child, they would be spaced adequately so it wouldnt be like taking care of twins, but still- kids of all ages have needs and who knows how complicated and difficult it would be to fulfill all those needs at the same time!

And what happens if we get pregnant with twins???? i think chaos would be an understatement.

We are still up in the air about the decision, but more and more things are coming together to maybe say we're leaning towards keeping our perfect family of four a family of four.