Major developments!

Wow, Devin has really grown and developed by leaps and bounds this week! Here are some of his the recent developmental milestones he's hit and some other noteworthy accomplishments:

**He FINALLY figured out how to roll over from his back to his belly. He'll only roll to the left but is working really hard on rolling to the right, too! He also rolls from his belly to his back, but still struggles with that because he doesn't have the opportunity to do that as much as rolling from his back to his belly (he spends more time on his back because he really doesn't like tummy time much at all!).

**He started baby food with his cereal for dinner each night! The first food he tried was bananas and the first night he literally gagged and cried about them (I think it was more the new taste and texture than the actual bananas)! The second and third nights, though, he wolfed down the 1/3 jar of bananas and was somewhat disappointed when they were all gone! Last night he tried sweet potatoes and loved them right away. I think the next food we're going to try (after a few more days on sweet potatoes to make sure he doesn't have any allergies or reactions to them) will either be squash or applesauce...

**He has slept 6 nights/days now without being swaddled! We did the first couple of nights (and naps) with one arm out of the swaddle to kind of "wean" him from being snug and secure, and then we moved onto leaving both arms out but still swaddling his waist (and the blanket covers his legs, too, but he can wiggle them around). He had a couple of nights where he woke up a few times but just fussed some and then went right back to sleep on his own. We're going to probably continue to do the swaddle around his waist for a while because it keeps him warm and he seems to like that snug and secure feeling around his body even though his arms are out. He has always kind of gotten into "sleep mode" when we've put the swaddle blanket on and it still works even though he's not technically swaddled anymore.

**He's working on adjusting his nap schedule but is having a rough time. He knows that he doesn't need to sleep as much or as often as he used to but he's reluctant to sleep at ALL during the day right now! There's so much going on and he doesn't want to miss a minute of it! He's fighting naps really badly and when he finally DOES go to sleep he's waking up after only 30 minutes or so...which is NOT a sufficient nap for him, and it shows! Usually when he wakes up too soon I can just rock him back to sleep right away and he'll take another nap which ends up making his total naptime a good 1 1/2 to 2 hours...which IS a sufficient nap for him. This has been going on for the past few weeks so I don't think it's because we're not swaddling him anymore...I think he's just trying to consolidate his 5-6 catnaps into 2-3 bigger naps but he's used to napping for just short periods of time so it's hard for him to adjust! He's also had so much going on with development, the holidays, Tye and me being home from work more than normal (because of Christmas break and such), eating new foods, etc. that he's probably just stressed out and that's showing in his napping habits.

We've decided that we're going to go visit Devin's birthparents in Georgia over spring break rather than summer break, because I can't and don't want to travel in June when I'm 9 months pregnant OR go after the baby is born (taking one baby on an airplane will be stressful enough, but TWO babies?!?!?!). So we're going to go for a few days towards the end of spring break, which should work out well. Devin will be 7 1/2 months old and should be doing all SORTS of fun things like crawling (hopefully!), definitely sitting up, playing, and eating fun foods! We're just staying 3 days because it will be quite a new and probably exhausting experience for him to fly on an airplane, live in a hotel (oh, wait, we lived in a hotel for the first 10 days of his life!! Ugh...thankfully he'll never remember that!), visit lots of new people, and be away from home for 3 days and 3 nights.

We are supposed to go in 4 weeks (when I'm around 20 weeks pregnant) to find out if Devin is getting a little sister or a little brother. We are just praying for another healthy, beautiful, happy baby (although Devin's pretty hard to top!) and don't care if it's boy or a girl--as long as there is only ONE baby in there! That will complete our family and give us the 2 kids we've always wanted...but who ever would have imagined that this is how our family would end up being formed!! Two babies in less than a year, but both WONDERFUL blessings and surprises from God! :)