Category: Kate

Dear Kate,

In two weeks, we’re heading on an airplane to go visit your Grammy and Papa in Florida and I’m a little nervous about you. Although you are very stationary, you are a social little butterfly and have become less and less cuddly over time. You rarely fall asleep in my arms–even when I try and snuggle with you before bed. You prefer to be on your back in your dark room–none of which are going to happen on an airplane. We have a long day of  travel and I’m praying you’ll snuggle and sleep on my chest on our flights. Also prayers that nobody gets sick!

I know you’re only 8 months old and there is a whole lot of life to live but the bond you have with your sister has exceeded any expectations that I could have ever imagined. You whole heartedly love Lexi to death. I’ll start to raise my voice at Lexi to knock it off and leave you alone cause I think she’s going to irritate you, only to start hearing you giggle hysterically. She honestly will just look at you and start to laugh. Your head is on a swivel looking for her. I’ve started going into your room and closing the door (opposed to sitting on the couch downstairs) to nurse you as you’re so distracted by her. I pray that you continue to be the peanut butter to her jelly because sisters are awesome.

Sleep

Your fairly regular sleep routine has been disrupted this past month with the two little teethers that have popped through. The first one came about two weeks ago and then the second one came over the past two days. Overall, you have done really well and are still our super happy Beatle, but I can tell they have caused you some pain. You’re waking at night 2-5 times and the ONLY thing that will calm you down is to nurse. I’ll try and rock you and put your blankie next to your face and sing you songs but you just scream and squirm around in my arms like a limp noodle. You’ve also been taking some amazing naps 3+ hours twice a day! We’ve been giving you some medicine to help with the pain and that has made a big difference. However, you haven’t spiked a fever and haven’t been nawing on everything like you had in the weeks leading up to this. The only ‘symptom’ I would say you had was watery eyes. You must have a clogged tear duct because you always have gunk floating around in your eyes and they get excessively watery while teething and get some build up around your eyes. Bedtime is still around 7:30 and includes changing diaper, putting jammies on nursing and then being put down in your crib. You’ll sleep until somewhere in the 4-6 range, nurse and then go back to sleep. You’re down to 2 naps a day and the length totally depends on if Lexi has school or not. If she does, your naps almost always get shortened as you have to go get her but if it is a non-school day, you’ll snooze for 1-2 hours.

Development

You started sitting up last month and have continued to strength those muscles and are now a master at it. You love to play with toys, banging things together, chewing on them and just touching and feeling the different textures and sizes of things.

You love love love bath time. Now that you’re sitting, you go in with your big brother and sister from time to time. We’ll put about enough water in the tub that half of your ears are covered when you lie down to rinse off the soap.

 

 

With the addition of table food and the amount that you’re eating, you’ve started to poop everyday. They are pretty hard and painful for you. We’ve started to put an ounce or two of apple juice into your bottles to give you some extra fiber and for the most part it seems to be working.

 

This month you’ve learned to take your pacifier in and out of your mouth very consistently and will find it while you’re sleeping and pop it back in. You were pretty reliant on the paci for the first 6 months or so, but now, we’ve started to take it away a little bit more often so it isn’t always in your mouth.

You have yet to roll over and show no signs of doing it anytime soon. You are just so content sitting I don’t think you think there is a reason to learn to do anything else.

Happy 8 months little Kate the Great! We love you to pieces.

Love,

Mama

Stats:

• 3-6 month clothes
• size 3 diapers

Dear Kate,

Sitting up is one of my favorite milestones from the first year as it is a total game changer and you are doing a pretty good job at it! You’re pretty laid back as it is, but your ability to watch what is going on around you and sit and play with toys makes life so much easier. I can regularly clean up the kitchen after meals or cook without you in my arms. Granted, you want me in eyesight but I am so much more efficient with two arms instead of just one. And you love to play with toys and your fine motor skills improve everyday.

This month you also learned how to give kisses. You’ll open your mouth like a baby bird and slobber all over me. This messy act of affection is one of the few ways you can show how much you love me and as gross as it is (because lets be real) I love it and will gladly accept them at any point.

Your sleeping patterns are pretty stable and consistent at this point. You sleep from 7:30 to about 5 am and take two naps in the day that are about 1.5 – 2 hours each.

Girlfriend, you love to eat. Whenever we put you in your highchair, you widely kick your legs and hoot in excitement. You have eaten sweet potatoes, squash, peaches, pears, green beans, blackberries, eggs, peanut butter, strawberries, blueberries, yogurt bites, puffs and mum-mum crackers. With the exception of the mum-mum crackers we need to feed you everything.

Nursing is still going pretty good. You nurse on both sides for each feeding and pumping sessions are OK. I’m barely producing enough for you and I’m hoping I can make it the full year.

Earlier in the month (before you learned to sit), you would were really working on building up your ab muscles. You would completely lift your head off the ground as if you were trying to sit up or just do some crunches. It looked like you were doing the 100’s exercise in pilates. With that said, there is 100% zero interest in rolling. You are so content on your back sucking on your toes and you don’t even attempt to roll to your side. I have a feeling that you might never roll over or for that matter even crawl and could go straight to walking. You despise tummy time like big time and its hard to put you into a sour mood by going on your tummy when you’re happy as can be just sitting.

This month, you also celebrated your first Christmas and New Years. You loved playing with the wrapping paper and looking at the lights. You slept through the entire gift opening Christmas morning, but the big kids saved you a couple of gifts to open. Santa and all your relatives spoiled you!

Another big milestone was spending your first few nights away from me. Daddy and I went to Arizona for a wedding and you got to spend some extra time with Grammy and Papa. You did awesome and I’m sure you barely noticed I was gone. I am so grateful you are the most amazing baby every and was barely worried. You are such a happy, awesome sleeper and eater that I knew there wouldn’t be any problems. My biggest fear was about pumping enough milk to replenish the stash you would go through while I was gone. And everything worked out just great. I never did a comparison of how much milk you drank and how much I brought back, but it seemed close enough.

Sweet little Kate the great, I love you to pieces. Your smile and sweet natured personality are going to move mountains someday. I love you and am so grateful you are mine.

Love,

Mama

 

 

 

 

Katelyn,

I have been trying to figure out a way to write the first paragraph of this letter for over 3 months. I’ve written and deleted something probably 15 different times and nothing seems quite good enough. This month we had the honor of baptizing you and officially welcoming you into God’s family/church. And I’ve been attempting to put into words how Gods work is imprinted into the sparkle of your eyes, the soft touch of your cheek, the smell of vanilla on your hair, the roll of skin on your thighs, the calmness of your babbles, the love your siblings have for you and the awesomeness of God that I’ve seen in my life and hope you will too. After umpteen times of writing and re-writing, I’ve figured out that no words or story could possibly summarize the strength and importance faith can have in your life. I see, experience and thank God for his miracles in my life everyday. I pray that as you grow up, you too, will choose this path. Baptism, is the first of many, I believe my role is in being your mom. I promise to do my best to live a life of example and set a solid Christian foundation for you as well as pray that you will allow Jesus into your heart and that someday YOU will choose to put God at the center of your life.

Everything about you is a little miracle from God my sweet girl. Your tender heart, your calmness, your adaptability, your sleeping and eating patterns are all little sprinkles of miracles from the big guy upstairs.

Most nights you sleep about 10 hours straight each night (7:30pm – 5:00pm). The first time you wake up, I’ll pop your pacifier back in and you’ll sleep for another 30-60 minutes. The second time you wake up, you’ll usually be happy and chatty as a bird. As soon as I enter, you quiet down and light up with a huge smile and squinty eyes once you see my face. You’re still not rolling over from back to front so we’ve continued to swaddle you. For bedtime, you’ll nurse and then I’ll swaddle you up, turn off the lights, put a blanket next to your face and snuggle with you in the rocking chair and you’re out in less than 5 minutes. If I’m in the middle of putting the big kids to bed, I’ll just put you down awake in your crib and you fall asleep, without a peep. Naps range from 2-3 a day and anywhere from 20 min to 2+ hours, in your crib swaddled in a muslin blanket.

Nursing is still going well. Each morning, I’ll nurse you on my left (non-dominate side) and then pump the right as I’ll get 6-7oz. Then for the remainder of the day I usually nurse or pump both sides. The morning session, I’ll usually get 5oz and 3-4 in the afternoon. Most nights, I’ve still been pumping before I go to bed around 11 or 12 and will get another 6 oz. So all up, I’m producing an extra 6-10oz of milk each day that I’ve been stock-pilling in the freezer. With all that said, I’m still super stressed about it, more so than I remember with the other two and I’m not sure why I can’t relax about it. Moving on. This month you started to show a ton of interest in my food. I started to give you little pieces of bread and then spontaneously decided to give you some baby squash one night and you LOVED it. You ate the entire container and would open your mouth every time I brought up the spoon. Considering we skipped the rice cereal, you did a pretty amazing job keeping the food in your mouth and not spitting it all out.

You’ve FINALLY started to roll from your stomach to your back–it doesn’t happen very often, but you can do it. You love to lay (on your back) on you playmat and play with toys hanging from it. We also brought out the exersaucer this month and you do pretty good in that (as long as we have a blanket behind you to prevent you from flopping around like a fish.) This month you’ve also started to take your pacifier out of your mouth and put it back in with 50% rate. Your favorite place is in mommy’s arms and are as happy as can be just leaching onto me and tagging along wherever I go. If we put you down and walk away, you throw a fit, but are as happy as a puppy when we’re back within arms reach.

As far as the details go for your Baptism, the actual celebration was on Sunday, December 3rd. We celebrated at St. Andrew’s Church in Mahtomedi, same church your brother and sister were baptized at and that Mommy and Daddy were married at. All of your extended family was there to celebrate and you are blessed to have Uncle Dustin as your Godfather and two Godmothers, Auntie Beca and Auntie Rael. You were a total gem throughout the ceremony and wore the family heirloom baptismal gown, and the 26th baby to wear it! Following the ceremony, we headed over to Grammy and Papa’s house for a dual celebration for your baptism and Lexi’s 5th Birthday!

1st’s for the month: Thanksgiving, Snowfall, Food, Christmas celebrations (school concert, dance recital, music, decorations, shopping! (including Black Friday shopping!) sibling birthday party.

6 month stats

• Weight: 15.1 oz
• Length: 25″
• Head circumference:
• Clothes: 3-6 month
• Diapers: size 2

We are so blessed to have you be a part of our family and I thank God for you and all of your little blessings everyday. You are perfect in every way possible and I love you to pieces little Kate the Great!

Love,

Mama

Dear Kate,

My sweet little Kate. Happy 2 months. Life is pretty grand right now. We are loving the warm sunshine and playing outside and for the most part not having a worry in the world (which means I create them for myself). We are all happy, healthy and loving being a family of five! This month, you really started to fill out more. You’re still 2 lbs. smaller than your brother and sister were at this age but growing at a healthy rate. You continue to be more observant of your surroundings, sleep like a champ and really are just the sweetest, mellowest baby ever and we all love you to pieces.

Stats

• Height: 22.2 inches (41.3%)
• Weight: 10.3 lbs (30%)
• Head Circumference: 15.5 inches (86%)
• Diapers: Size 1 (going through about 130 a month)
• Clothes: 0-3 month

Sleeping

You continue to be the worlds best baby sleeper. At 5.5 weeks you slept for 8.5 hours straight! Then a couple days later slept for 10 straight hours!! I, however am not getting that much sleep as I never go to bed when you do and always wake up before you because I’m worried about you not breathing or some other irrational thought and my boobs hurt. With that said, you still do have a couple nights a week where you sleep 5-6 hours and I’ll  get up in the middle of the night to nurse but you always fall asleep right away. All in all, no complaints on the sleep front and haven’t even needed a nap since your first week home. High-five baby girl!

Your naps are all over the board and are nowhere close to being on a schedule, but have started to develop a routine. Most days you cat nap throughout the day from to 20-60 minutes and this usually happens between every feeding. You eat, play (lay or walk around with me) and then sleep and then rinse and repeat 6 more times throughout the day. Naps are usually had in one of three places: your carseat, the rock n’ play or the bouncer. If I’m really lucky you may take one 2-hour nap at one point in the day.

Eating

Nursing continues to go really well. You have a good latch and nurse on one side about every 2.5 hours or so. I can always tell when my milk is gone or has really really slowed down as you bop your head around and latch on and off. I’m not sure if you’re still hungry or you just want to nurse/sooth yourself, but as long as I put a pacifier in your mouth after you start bopping around, you seem fine.

Spit up has decreased this month, it still happens, especially if you’ve gone more than 3 hours without nursing and I have more milk, but you’ll spit up maybe once or twice verses every feeding in your first month of life. I rarely burp you anymore, just put you upright and you’ll burp by yourself. I have been pretty lax about pumping this go-around and only do it if you’ve taken a bottle or you slept completely through the night and I’m super full in the morning. A mid-day session will give me about 3 ounces and the morning I’ll get 5-6 ounces (especially with righty!)

There were a couple days were you had some angry painful cries so we popped an ounce of apple-prune juice into a bottle and it got you pooping again. However, when I mentioned this to the Dr, she said babies can go as long as 14 days without a poop as breastmilk is just so efficient your body uses everything up and there isn’t much left to poop out-crazy!

Development

You do pretty well on tummy time–assuming we time it right and you don’t have a full or empty belly. You’re lifting your head well and if you have your pacifier, you’ll often fall asleep, so clearly your pretty comfy on the tum-tum.

I’ll probably write this same thing for the next 3 months, but you get more and more alert everyday. You have HUGE eyes and you love to look around at everything. You’ll open your eyes so big, they look kind of bug-like! We’re starting to get lots of comments about how you look similar to William and I think the eyes are a big reason. He’s got some big beautiful eyes (not to mention killer eyelashes, so if you inherit those you’ll be a lucky girl)

Around 6.5 weeks we started to see a very little smile/smirk sneak out of you. It doesn’t appear very often, but we’ve seen it sneak out a couple of times. In fact, the low frequency made me pretty nervous and was worried there may be something wrong with you as Lexi and William would light up every time they saw us. But the Dr. (and your wise Daddy) told me to chill out.

You may have a fell in love for the very first time, with a pacifier. You love this miracle piece of plastic like nobody’s business. It really soothes you and I love it because it helps you be this calm, innocent little nugget of love that we just can’t get enough of. I would say the pacifier is in your mouth 90% of the time you are awake, and even often while you sleep (side note: which may be why you don’t smile as much, as your so busy sucking ?!?!). I’ve questioned myself a couple of times on if we’re giving this too you too much and building this dependency, but then I read William’s 2 month post and he had a small love affair with his as well and he vetoed it by himself at 6 months. I also decided, that even if you do become dependent on it, I’ll deal with that later and enjoy you as a sweet mellow little babe with this magnificent invention.

Other things you like: the bath, snuggling, blankets wrapped around you–especially by your face. If you’re sleepy or fussy, but fed and changed, I’ll wrap a blanket around you, hold you close and you drift off into lala land. It is a trick of the trade for you sweet one. It’s kind of humorous to watch this unfold. You can be crying pretty good and I’ll wrap you in a blanket and your eyes will look at me and almost say ‘thank you’ as you can see the relief on your face. You also love going for walks–although we don’t go that often as you’re big brother and sister never want to go.

This month, you also made your first trip to the cabin. You did awesome on the 3 hour car ride and slept most of the way. You loved the fresh air and were just a gem!

Auntie Beca got married this month, and you got to come along for the party. Again, you did so good and slept your way through most of it. You had the cutest little dress on, and of course I didn’t get a pic of just you alone in it, but did get one with you and Mommy and Daddy. The big kids were at the cabin and it was so strange to just have one kid again–it felt so easy!

Sibling love

You are one loved little girl! Lexi is straight up obsessed with you. She requests to give you a hug and a kiss every morning when you wake up. ‘Mom, I wanna see Beatle. I wanna give her a Kiss. Ohhh Hi Beatle!! You’re so cute and sweet!’ The moment you start to cry, she runs over to you to put your pacifier back in or cover you with blankets. Total mini momma. With that said, she is a little rough with you. She tries to give you hugs while you’re sleeping and often wakes you up and will squeeze you pretty hard when she wants to snuggle. I struggle with this, because my first instinct is to yell or scold her for being too rough, which always makes me feel bad because her intentions are so good and pure. She just loves you so much and always wants to be with you, but just doesn’t realize her strength or how smoothering she can be.

William loves you a lot too and is much more gentle. He loves to lie next to you on the floor and talks to you in his sweet little baby voice. Overall he has shown very few signs of jealousy and I feel his transition to your arrival was much smoother than Lexi’s when William was born. He is much more concerned about Lexi and what she is doing.

 Post-partum

Overall things are really great. My mood is fantastic and haven’t shown any signs of post-partum depression. My hair loss is in full effect and you would think I was an animal shedding their winter coat by how much hair I loose every time I shower and brush my hair.

I’m officially back to my pre-preggo weight and can fit into jeans. They’re a little tighter than what I remember, but I can wear them. I even bought several new pairs as the dress code changed at work and we can wear jeans more frequently and my jeans were getting pretty worn when I got pregnant last fall.

I had my 6 week checkup with my Dr. and everything looked good. I have yet to exercise though. I know I should and I want to build up some strength again, but am not motivated enough yet to prioritize it. It will come, eventually.

That is it sweet Kate. You are such an amazingly good baby we are so lucky to have you. It is so hard to believe that you’ve already been with us for 2 months AND that you have only been with us for 2 months. You are the perfect little caboose to our family and am so excited to continue to watch you grow.

Love,

Mama