Not quite 6 months...

Hunter turns 6 months old today! Yay! Happy half-birthday Hunter. This last week has been very interesting and important. It started off as an average week, with a happy Hunter. We went to the Farmer's market and played on the bed at home.
On Wednesday we went to the gym and then Mommy n Me, as usual. Afterwards we went to lunch with Bridget and one of her friends (and their babies). Hunter was a little bit more fussy than normal,, but I didn't think much of it. The night before we had started the "Ferber method" of sleep training.

The Ferber method preaches that you can go in and visit the baby when he has cried for a certain amount of time ( 5 minutes, then 10 minutes, then 20 minutes, etc). This is so that the baby knows that you will not come in the middle of the night to play with him, pick him up, or nurse him. However, it also doesn't leave the baby feeling abandoned. Anyhow, Hunter did very well with this training on Tuesday night, only waking up 3 times for 5 minutes each. Once he realized that I wouldn't pick him up, he calmly went back to sleep.

On Wednesday night, after he had a fussy day, I continued the Ferber method, not picking him up at night but I went in to visit him. It was unlike Hunter, but he cried for the entire night. And when I say "the entire night" I mean that he cried from 11:30 pm, after sleeping for 3 hours, until 6 am. When I finally picked him up at 6 am I realized that he was very hot. I took his temperature and it was 101.8. By 6:30 it was 102.6. I called the doctor and he didn't call me back immediately, so at 8:30 I went up to the office and brought the still crying baby with me. He hadn't eaten since 8 pm the night before and was refusing to nurse. I was crying because I felt so bad about not picking him up while he was sick. The doctor looked him over and then had another doctor come in to consult. They took blood. They figured it must be some kind of virus and it would take 3-5 days to go away. When the doctor called me the next day he said it sounded like a stomach flu. I certainly agreed with that. The saddest part of this was his whimpering. The constant, sad whimpering. But you know Hunter, he was smiling part of the time that he was whimpering because he so badly wanted to be in a good mood.



Here are pictures of Hunter trying to play, but still being in a somewhat sick mood. Poor baby.


While trying to get him to eat (which was a constant battle), I gave him peas for the first time. He seemed amused by them, and believe it or not, he got more in his mouth than on his bib.

Thor is keeping a watch outside for anything unusual.

Here is Hunter's cute little tushy before he got another bath to help bring down his temperature.

The weekend was slow and relaxing. We went to South Coast Plaza and had dinner with the Parker's. Hunter was still not feeling well and I wish that I had kept him at home. On Sunday we stayed at home and relaxed all day. By Monday, yesterday, Hunter was starting to feel better. He played with Nora a little bit but still felt pretty tired and achy (I'm guessing from his fussiness).

Hunter is posing with the Obama doll, so that Daddy could feel *SO* proud of him.

Hunter did not enjoy the ride in the wagon.

Hunter and Nora are at pretty different stages in their development, despite being only 2 months apart. Maybe when Hunter is crawling he will have a better chance of standing up to her! They are such good friends though.

Today is Hunter's half birthday, but Daddy is home sick - I think he has what Hunter had last week. I hope that we will all feel better later in the week.