Sweet Baby Kate

I decided this week that is was time for Kate to start going to bed without being rocked. I guess I have rocked her to bed since she was born. I knew if I didn't stop soon that I would be rocking her to sleep when she was 16 years old!! Will was a rocker but also a very hard baby to do anything with. Basically because he was the first and I didn't know what I was doing. The only person I had to get advice from at this time was my sister, her advice, I am glad I didn't take because she just said let him sleep with you. Lacey was 3 at the time and still in her bed!! I didn't sleep at all when Will did sleep in my bed so I couldn't imagine him there all the time! Then 13 1/2 months later Drew came along and he was not a rocker. He wanted his bottle and then he wanted the bed. Easy enough!! He was a great sleeper still is...I swear it is because he had blue walls in his room!! Ben was not a rocker either. He was pretty much like Drew was but he liked to be held. I would sit on the couch with him and watch TV while I fed him and sometimes he would go right to sleep and other times he would just lay there after his bottle and eventually doze off. With all 3 of them, by the time they could hold their own bottle at about 8 1/2 - 9 months old I would lay them in the bed with their bottle and let them watch TV to go to sleep. I know...not the best plan but when you have 2 babies and then 3 babies at time and your husband works at night you have to break some rules!! Kate on the other hand is my last. (I promise, we are out of the baby carrying business. It has surgically been taken care of!!) Kate is a rocker, loves to rock maybe too much. Some naps and nights I might rock her for an hour. She also loves to fight sleep. She can stay up with the best of us and never let you know she is tired. All of my kids were really like that but the boys never fought sleep. Sometimes it would come to me having to hold her so tight she couldn’t move so she would give up and go to sleep. Some nights while I sit and rock her I think I have to do this forever, she is my baby. I guess I was trying to make myself believe if I kept rocking her she would stay a baby forever and then Monday night I decided you know...she is going to be my baby forever no matter if I rock her or not. If I don't stop before she gets out of her baby bed then making the transition to a toddler bed or big girl bed would be harder. So, I laid her in her bed, gave her some juice(normally she has milk but she has a bad cough and milk makes it worse) and I turned on Barney. She stood in her bed and cried for a minute (well more than a minute really) and then she was quiet and soon asleep. So now for 3 nights and 2 naps Kate has gone to sleep all by herself! Tonight when I went in to check on her she was laying in the same position I laid her in. It was the sweetest thing I ever saw I had to take a picture and so this is why you are getting a blog update!! I so love my boys but this little girl is something special. I am so glad God Blessed our family with her. She brightens everybody's day including the boys. The looks on their face when they see her first thing in the morning or when they get in the car from school is what warms my heart daily. I look at all 4 of them and I thank God...for I am truly blessed.