Really??

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celeb - Collage - Morph

To cry or not to cry??

Lincoln doesn't fall asleep on his own. Now, I have heard all the advice about "training" your newborn to fall asleep by laying them down in bed when they were partially awake so that they can learn the fine art of going to sleep by themselves. Prior to actually having a child I fully subscribed to these ideas but then Lincoln actually came into the world. My sweet baby boy was not the quiet child I had pictured in my mind, instead I was handed a big sack of crying and fussing. The colic kept him crying for hours at a time and the only way to calm him down enough so he would sleep was to rock him until he finally dozed off. So the first 12 weeks of Lincoln's life came and went and now the colic is gone and my baby has no ability to go to sleep on his own. Now, I have no problem rocking him to sleep and then putting him in his crib- this is pretty much our routine now. The problem is that Lincoln is also a baby that wakes up 45min into every nap (something about sleep cycles). Since he has no ability to put himself to sleep, he also has no ability to put himself BACK to sleep when he awakens. I have told our pediatrician about this problem and her advice was to let him cry for 20min before going in to comfort him. We tried this, he cried for an hour and still wasn't sleeping. Normally I would perservere (sp?) but for three reasons I have not been able to. First- my husband cannot stand the sound of crying babies- I think he is ten times more sensitive than a normal human being. I can only let Lincoln cry for about 5min before Nathan is asking when I am going to pick him up. Second- we live in an apartment and for fear of being a bad neighbor, I just can't let my child scream for an hour at 3am- I would have the entire building hating me! Third- in a week we are moving in with my in-laws (who I love) and the thought of subjecting them to nights of a baby crying just seems like cruel and unusual punishment. Lincoln has yet to actually cry himself to sleep so my question for all of you out there is this...
Do babies actually cry themselves to sleep?
Should I let him cry it out and risk my husband,neighbors, and in-laws hating me?
Has anyone ever taught their child how to fall asleep on their own without letting them cry it out?
Any and all advice would be appreciated...

Are you going to have a baby?

Ok, I know that Christa and Greg will hate me for sharing this story but it is just too funny. We got to stay with the Reid's for New Year's, which was a blast, especially getting to see Sydney and Austin. They have gotten so big and absolutely adorable! So the last night that we were in Utah, we were all sitting around and I stood up to walk Lincoln around the room and ended up having an interesting interaction with Sydney. My conversation with Sydney went something like this:
Sydney: Michele- are you going to have a baby? (as she pats my belly)
Michele: No
Sydney: But your stomach is big like my mommy's and she's going to have a baby
Michele: Well, that's just left over from the last baby
Alright, so I get the point, my holiday eating got a little out of hand! I guess my New Year's resolution will be to get on the treadmill a little more often! I love the honesty of children!

Christmas, New Year's, HE CAN ROLL, and, oh yea, we're moving!!

Ok, so I haven't blogged in a long time and so much has happened that this may be a long post, so sit back, relax, and enjoy your update of the Devlin family... The holidays were wonderful, they started with the joyous celebration of Hanukkah I don't think Lincoln enjoyed his mennorah shirt quite as much as we did! Then came Christmas- we spent the day with my parents who showered Lincoln with gifts As you can tell, Lincoln is just overjoyed about all his presents- I don't think he understood what was going on and why all of us kept taking pictures of him. He recieved books and toys from Grandma and Grandpa and, in a true mom moment, I bought him a six pack of socks! I think we enjoyed opening the gifts more than he did but we always have next year to look forward to. A few days after Christmas we jetted off to Utah to spend New Year's with Nate's family. We woke up at 2am on New Year's Eve to be to the airport by 4am for our 5:30am flight (who said flying cheap isn't fun?). Now we have never traveled with a baby before but we had gotten some good advice from others and I thought I had it pretty under control, until we got Phoenix. Since our layover was a couple of hours we went outside the terminal to meet Nate's sister Kim who lives in Phoenix and who we haven't seen in quite awhile. We had a great time catching up and she got to meet her cute nephew but the problem came when we tried to get back through security to get to our flight. We underestimated how much time it would take and only left ourselves about 30min to get to the gate. Well, long story short, our line took FOREVER, I almost punched the lady behind us for her snide comments about our predicament, and the funniest part of the whole trip was the site of me sprinting down the hall (I literally started having an asthma attack- that's how out of shape I am), with Lincoln in his carrier, clutching the diaper bag, my purse, and our tickets with 5 minutes until our flight was taking off. Luckily we made it but I don't think we will ever make that mistake again. So we got to Utah and had a great time with the family. It was so fun to see all our nieces and nephews- they have all gotten so big! We only took one picture the entire trip (sorry- I am not a picture person) but it's a cute one so I'll post it That would be Christa's new sink- I turned around for a minute and Nate put Lincoln in it- it was too cute to not take a picture! We got home from vacation and about three days later, Lincoln rolled over all by himself! Here is the progression in pictures- one of these days we will get a video camera.


Ok- so if you have bravely made it to the end of this post than you will be rewarded with the exciting news that we are moving to Clovis, California on Jan. 30! I don't really know anybody who reads this blog that doesn't already know that but on the off chance... I now have three weeks to pack up our entire apartment (which I will remind you I just did 6 months ago) and move across the country! I'm so overwhelmed right now I don't know which end is up so please keep us in your prayers and we look forward to seeing you all soon...