4 months

Kate is now 4 months old. She is so adorable. She is very happy and fun. She rolled from her tummy to her back and now doesn't mind being on her stomach. She will look around while on her tummy before she decides she is done and rolls over. She softly giggles if we work really hard to get her to laugh. She smiles all the time. I posted before how Kate was just a good sleeper, Well then she got a cold and was sick for a while and that threw everything off. She has been sleeping awful for the last 3 weeks. I am exhausted! Since she was better I decided to do some sleep training. It went okay and on night 3 she didn't wake up. Then last night she cried for 2 hours! It was awful. She had her 4 month old check up today. She is 11.2 lbs(3%) 22.75 inches (2%). She dropped from the 20% to the 3rd. This worried me of course. The Dr was concerned but not too worried since Alyssa was small as well. He said we will keep an eye on her weight and see how she is at her next check up at 6 months. She also has mucous behind her Right ear drum, probably from her cold. She has been acting normal minus the sleeping so he didn't want to do antibiotics. I agree. So that is why she hasn't been sleeping well. Now I don't know what to do about her sleep. Anyway I have been thinking about it all day. My Dr. didn't really have an opinion either, he was on the fence. The problem is not feeding her at night, its that even if I do she wakes up an 1 hr or so later and on and on. I am trying to develop healthy sleep habits for her. Since I know the consequences of not doing that (Alyssa!). Anyway we are still working on Alyssa sleeping in her own bed all night. She usually comes in our room at some point in the middle of the night. Most of the time we are so asleep that we don't even know that she climbs in our bed until the morning or when I get up with Kate I see that she is there.
The summer so far has been fun. We love going to the pool, it is too hot to go to the park. I am training for a half marathon and it is so much harder than the last time I did it! I have 2 friends in my ward that are doing it with me so we run together, which is fun. But I am so self conscious about my speed and I hate feeling like I am slowing them down. But since I started training so soon after having Kate, my main goal is to finish and I don't really care about my time.

Russ and Alyssa at the pool

Swimming

We have been swimming a few times this summer. Alyssa took swimming lessons at the rec center. She learned basic things like blowing bubbles and floating with assistants. This past weekend we went to St George. We mostly relaxed and went swimming. It was over a 100 so those were the only options. We wanted to play tennis but at night it was still in the 90's! Alyssa got really comfortable in the pool. She swam all around by herself just holding on to the noodle. It was really cute, the first few times she did it by herself she was giggling and screaming none stop. We threw little objects in the water and she would go get them. Kate got in the baby pool with me for a few minutes, she didn't seem to mind until kids kept splashing her.

at the splash pad near my house

swimming by herself

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!

Easter

Easter was really fun this year. Alyssa was so excited  about it. She went to 4 Easter egg hunts. One at Riverwoods (total waste of time, 1000's of kids and the hunt lasted 10 seconds). One at each grandma's house and one at our house. For the week after Easter she wanted to play hide and find the Easter eggs over and over again. We would take turns hiding and finding them. At Easter dinner she asked almost everyone to play this with her, when that person got tired she moved on and asked someone else. We also tried to teach her about the true meaning of Easter. She basically understood that it was about Jesus. We also have a Sanders kids (and spouses) hunt, there is money involved so it makes it more fun. This year our newbie found the jackpot and came out with the most, Every person gets to find 10 eggs, if you touch an egg it is yours. Not all eggs have money. Every year Adam only finds 9 eggs, this year everyone found 10, Adam had 7 or 8. We all went searching and helped him find all 10. (He still came out with the least amount of money).

Getting ready for the hunt,

My Grandpa playing " hide and find the eggs"

Out hunting for the eggs

Easter picture of the girls (Kate's life-being smothered by Alyssa)

2 months

Kate was 2 months old on the 24th. I seriously can't believe it. I love having her in our family. She is a great baby. She has slept through the night a few times (2 nights in a row last night and the night before!) She normally wakes up about 5:30 to eat then goes back to sleep. We will see if sleeping through the night is going to continue. She smiles and is almost laughing. Today she laughed in her sleep, it was so cute. Alyssa is still totally in love with her. She wants to hug and kiss her all the time. She wants to help with everything. I am really enjoying the baby phase. With Alyssa I was always excited for her to get older and do more things. now that I have Alyssa who can play and do a lot of fun things I like having the baby to cute and be tiny. I know it goes so fast and I am trying to soak it up. I love how she fits perfectly in my arms and how I can do most things one handed. Today we had her 2 months check up. She is 10.1 lbs (20%) and 22 1/2 inches long (40%). I was surprised I thought she was bigger than that. Alyssa was 10.7 at her 2 month check up. I am going back to work next week. I will be part time working 2 1/2 days (wed-fri). Alyssa is excited to go back to day care. I am sad to leave Kate but I'm sure it will be fine. My babysitter is awesome and is so excited for my girls to come.
I have adjusted being at home full time. At first it was really hard for me, plus Alyssa was acting out. Alyssa is behaving much better now. I didn't know how hard being home all the time was. To be a good stay at home mom is actually harder than going to work.