1 month

Kate is 1 month old today. I can't believe it has already been that long. It seems the more children you have the faster time goes. I feel so lucky to have her in my life. To have 2 healthy kids is a real blessing. Kate at one month: Is a pretty content well mannered baby. She doesn't cry too much unless she is tired or hungry. She sleep pretty good at night. She wakes up usually about twice to eat and then goes right back to sleep. Actually I have to work hard for her to get a full feeding before putting her back down. Right now she is having a hard time falling asleep to go to bed initially. Once she is fast asleep she sleeps very well.  I am trying to follow a sleep plan from the book "Baby Wise" which tells me to put her down awake and let her fall asleep by her self. She does this pretty well during the day but when it is time for bed she cries and cries. I let her cry for about 10 minutes at a time before going to soothe her. After about an hour she still isn't asleep I rock her to sleep and then put her down. The book discourages this but I think that maybe is too young to cry to sleep. She has slept in her crib since we got home from the hospital.  This is much different from Alyssa who still sleeps in our bed most of the time (we will work on that at some point).  She eats about every 2 1/2-3 hours during the day. She looks like she is growing to me although I don't know how much she weighs. At 2 weeks she was 7 lbs 5 oz (almost back to birth weight). She doesn't like tummy time but I try and put her on her tummy every time she is awake. I swear yesterday she smiled when I was playing with her. She is darling and I am in love. Alyssa is in love with her as well. She kisses her, hugs her, holds her a lot, puts her binky in when she cries, crawls in her crib when we wake her up to say good morning.
The hardest part of having a second child so far is dealing with the disobedience of the older child. Alyssa seems more defiant since Kate was born. This maybe not be the case, but I am home full time right now and so it seems like she never listens to what I ask her to do. We have created a star chart to encourage good behavior. The days that we have things planned like library class, gymnastics class she seems to behave better. We are all use to more structure than we have now and I think this is an adjustment for us. I try and plan things to do everyday. I am home for 9 weeks and then will go back to work part time. Here are some pictures.

one month picture #1

Alyssa feels way to comfortable holding Kate. she will pick her up and move her around. She has even tried to pick her up out of her swing

one month picture #2