Kate at 3 1/2 Months

First I need to point out...TWO POSTS IN ONE WEEK! Shocking! Hopefully you were able to get up to speed on Emma at 22 months...if not, read here.

So, on to my sweet Sarah Kate...



She has really turned into a little sweetie pie. While the first 10 or so weeks of her life were pretty tough - I had to hold her all night long and she was very fussy, especially in the car - she seems to have mellowed out.

First, by the grace of God, I got a sleeper! She is such the polar opposite of Emma. Listen to this general sleeping routine.

• To bed around 8pm.
• I wake her up around 5am to eat.
• She goes right back to sleep until at least 10am (yesterday, it was 11:15am)
  
• Down for a nap around noon, which can last up to 4 hours.
• And finally a short "cat nap" in the PM

I keep holding my breath figuring that this is all going to change. But for now, I'm thanking my lucky stars. I will admit that her sleeping settled out when we started putting her down on her belly. I know, I know, don't judge me. But it works.

She's also a lot less fussy. She still has an ear piercing scream that she graces us with right before she falls asleep. But she usually will ride in the car without crying, which makes driving a whole lot less stressful.

Not sure about her size...she was right around 50% in everything at her 2 month check-up, though most people comment that she looks to be on the small side. She is definitely less sturdy than Emma was, meaning she has a floppier neck and just generally a newborn body. I've just started putting her into some 3-6 month clothes and size 2 diapers at night (since she sleeps so long, she was peeing out of her size 1).

Kate is a smiley baby and is pretty content to lay on our playmat while awake. We put her in the Bumbo seat some, too. She is quick to grab onto stuff within reach, be it a toy on her mat or my bra strap or hair while I'm feeding her. She has also become a finger sucker - her ring and middle finger - and I attribute her calmer demeanor to this now that she has something to soothe herself with.

We'll see how life changes as I head back to work on Monday. Yep, today is my last day of maternity leave. My sister-in-law will still have Emma three days a week but I'll keep Kate home with me (I work from home) for as long as I can. Pretty much until she gets too mobile for me to handle while juggling work. I feel very blessed to have the best of both worlds - stay-at-home mom and working mom - though sometimes it gets to be a little bit more than I can handle.

So, there you go. Consider yourself up-to-date on both of my precious girls. You're welcome!

Emma at 22 months

Very hard to believe that in two short months we'll have a two year old. How can it be?




And what a personality this little one has. Boy oh boy, she keeps us on our toes. She is equal parts strong-will and sweetness!

Some new things she's doing include asking us to chase her around the room; saying "that tickles me" every time we touch her; counts to 5; knows about half of the alphabet and several colors; asks to sit on the potty and doing a good job peeing on it; adores bouncing (both in her crib and on the trampoline we got her for Christmas); and giving us kisses without being asked or us giving her one first.

She talks up a storm but about half the time we only know what she is saying because of the context. Almost everything seems to start with the "b" sound (for example, TV is be-be).

I don't know about her size because we haven't been to the doctor in ages, but she is starting to wear 24 month clothes and even a few 2Ts.

She goes to bed between 7-7:30pm and sleeps until about 7:30am. However, the last few nights she's woken up at some point during the night screaming. The first few times, we went in to console her but then it would take forever to get her back to sleep. So last night I popped in some earplugs instead! And she continues to not be an impressive napper, usually going from about 1-2:30pm.

She's done remarkably well with the addition of Kate...once in a while, she'll ask us to put Kate down so she can be held, but generally, she doesn't show any jealously. She still loves to hug on Kate and asks to hold her all the time on her "shoulder" like we hold her.

I'll do a separate post on Kate later, but wanted to give Emma all the attention for once!