Five Reasons to Be Happy the “Baby Years” Are Over

As a mother with four kids, my husband and I often discuss the ‘baby’ years. After 10 years of marriage and four kids, we have a daughter who will turn 7 in a few months, twins that turned one over the weekend and a daughter who turned 4 on St. Patrick’s Day. We no longer have ‘babies’ technically, and we really miss that. I’m not going to lie; our kids are good babies. They sleep through the night right away (all in under 3 weeks – including the twins) and by through the night I mean 8-9 hours for a few weeks and then by 6 weeks it’s a full on 12 hour a night sleep and it’s always been like that. They aren’t fussy, they don’t cry unless they’re hurt or hungry and we never had any issue with naptimes with any of the kids. So the baby stage is one we really like. We could take them anywhere, do anything we wanted with them in tow and never have to worry that they’d misbehave. We are blessed with really great kids. The toddler years, on the other hand, are a bit more of a challenge for us just because it’s more work with the running in opposite directions and the keeping them out of things phase. But it’s still not bad. For other people, however, the baby years are not good ones, and there are several reasons that those people are happy this stage is over. And we have a few of those reasons here.

People Stop Visiting

Once the real baby stage is over, your house will go back to normal. You will no longer find yourself entertaining people who want to hold the baby until it cries and then they give it back to you. You no longer have people begging to wake sleeping babies. It is just much nicer.

You Don’t Have to Feed Them Everything

When a baby can feed him or herself, life gets so much simpler. You have time to get things done, you have more time to be yourself, and you have more time to just relax for a few minutes until it’s time to clean that messy baby up.

No More Formula

When you don’t have to make another bottle or pay for another container of formula, life gets much better. So here’s to not having to buy that stuff anymore. And here’s to figuring out how to fit those giant containers of whole milk in the bottom of that double stroller in the grocery store.

It’s More Fun

Once your baby is not a baby anymore, the walking and talking and love really start to happen. It’s so much fun to have a child that interacts and has fun with you, and it just gets better from here on out.

Sleep is Good

For those who have babies that don’t sleep well, the exit from the baby stage is quite welcome. I don’t know why some babies just don’t sleep well, but for some people this is a painful reality that they are so happy to leave behind.

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