Happy 1 month birthday to Kate!

The Birthday Girl!

Hot fun in the summer time!

OK, these were actually the day after her 1 month birthday but really, no one would have wanted to see a photo of her that day...she spent the whole day crying! I was not in much of a mood to celebrate. But, we really cannot complain. She really only cries when she is ready to eat and never any other time so I guess she was saving up for the celebration. After spending much of the day Saturday at a primary activity day and cleaning house, we took all the girls to the pool at our gym and out to dinner. We have been to the pool several times since Kate was born but this was her first dip in the water and big sisters could not have been more excited! I think they would have taken her for a ride on the alligator if I would have allowed it...

How is she doing? Well, she finally gained back her birth weight at 3 1/2 weeks. She weighed in at 9 lbs 13 oz at her final weight-check appt. I was really thrilled (not) to have the privilege of spending the gas money and the co-pay (3 times!) to go and weigh Kate when secretly I was glad she was slow to gain...it meant my giant baby was small for a little while longer! (And it was not nice of the crazy lady at church to say today that I gave birth to a first grader. Poo on her!)

She has fallen into a great sleep pattern. (I should be in bed keeping up with her but I needed to get some blogging done!) She started out sleeping 6-7 hours and then started wanting to wake up every 2-3 hours, quite restless. We swaddled her and tried to feed her and sooth her but it wasn't working. This past week we decided to move her into her own room and try having her sleep on her tummy. This worked for Caroline and so we tried with Kate. And, voila! We have a sleeper! We are coming into 4:30am sunrise time (thanks to AZ' southern latitude and no daylight savings time) and my bedroom is not very dark but the kid's bedrooms have black out shades which really helps. So, whatever the right combination is, I don't know, but she is consistently sleeping from 10:30-4:30 or 5:00am then back to bed for more snoozin'.

Is she smiling? Any day now! We keep seeing the beginnings of a smile and all of us cannot wait to catch that first "not in her sleep" twitchy smile. It is quite different having a baby when there are 4 of us around to admire and snuggle her. Sure, I think her sisters might just literally love her to death, but, this really is a fun experience to have 4 of us "oohing and aahing" over her every move. Lindsay is a fantastic little mama, changing her diapers and clothes and "babysitting" whenever needed. Caroline has taken to noticing all the "firsts" - the first time she wore a pink dress to church, the first time she held up 2 fingers, the first time she went to the pool. It is cute.

Yup, we are loving our little Kate!