3 months

Kate is now 3 months old. Seriously I can't believe it. I swear she was born yesterday. I love this phase. She is getting so interactive. She smiles all the time. Coo's and almost laughs. She is a wonderful sleeper and sleeps through the night =)!!! She hates her tummy and cries every time I give her tummy time. She is very close to rolling from her tummy to her back. She loves it when I sing to her. She just stares and smiles at me the whole time. (little does she know that I don't have a good voice =)
Before she was born I was nervous I wouldn't love her as much as Alyssa. I loved Alyssa so much I couldn't imagine that I could love someone else that much too. Our hearts are amazing. We have the capacity to have endless amounts of love. I love Kate with my whole being. Now that I have her I realize how much I missed her before she came. It is weird to think that I may have other children that I will feel this way about in the future. I am so happy to be a mother of 2. I think it is so fun that I have Alyssa to go do fun activities with and then a sweet baby to cuddle. I want to hold on to this stage as long as I can.
I went back to work when Kate was 9 1/2 weeks old. I am working part time. 2 1/2 days a week. It has been really good so far. I think it is the perfect combination for me. I miss Kate terribly while I am at work, but I also love engaging my mind intellectually. I feel grateful to have a job that is flexible so that I can do what is best for me.
Here are Kate's 3 month old pictures.

One of Kate's many expressions

Beautiful smile that gets me everytime!

Kate's Blessing

Yesterday we blessed Kate at church. It was a great day. We had lots of friends and family come support us. Russ gave a sweet and special blessing.

Sweet sisters

Grandma Kathy

4 generations, Grandma Hanni, my mom and me and Kate

Grandma Patti and Jim

Sleeping

We have had a lot of changes to our sleep schedules since Kate was born (obviously). Kate is fantastic! She started sleeping through the night at 8 weeks. She would sleep through the night for a few nights in a row and then wake up once the next night. For the last 10 or so days she has sleep through the night every night. What a great baby. Alyssa didn't sleep through the night till 6-7 months! This I believe is attributed to my behavior more than hers. She slept in our bed because I was so tired that it was easier to feed her practically while I slept. This led to her eating at night much longer than needed. The bad habit of sleeping in our bed continued for a long time. Occassionally we would get her to sleep in her bed but she would wake up in the middle of the night and then be transferred to our bed so we could go back to sleep. About a week ago I said enough is enough. She was waking up in our bed asking us to rub her feed, crying for no reason. I thought "this is ridculous that my 2 month old sleeps better than my 3 year old!" Russ agreed. We had a long discussion with her and set up some positive reinforcement agreements.The first few days she woke up 4 times a night, crying. Russ went into her room to calm her down, occassionally laying next to her until she feel back to sleep. The last 3 nights she has done great! She slept all night with out waking up crying. In the morning she comes into out room and says "I slept all by my self" (very proudly). This also in hoping to get the promised reward if she sleep in her own bed all night with out crying for 30 days (she gets a princess bed frame).  (We were planning on getting a bed frame at some point so why not take it on as a reward =)
Needless to say I am less tired than I have been in 3 years!