Cuter each day!!! 24 weeks old!

John Harrison has been over his infection for about a week now.....we are all quite relieved. It is quite pitiful, though, because he still has a hoarse sounding cry and coughs occassionally.

Right after getting over being sick, John Harrison started teething. Last Monday, he cut his front bottom left tooth and then lo and behold, cut the front bottom right tooth a day later. Needless to say, this past week was a bit rough in the midst of the active teething but nothing compared to the two weeks prior. He is much happier now that both teeth have fully cut through the gums. His new little teeth are so cute.....sharp, but cute:). I was pretty concerned about starting sleep training all over since his good sleep habits had completely gone out the window while he was feeling so bad. David and I agreed that we needed to respond quickly to his cries at night the last few weeks since he was so sick. I don't think I would have slept well had I been as sick as he was! He has done fairly well adjusting back to sleeping in his crib and only feeding a few times each night. In fact, last night he slept from 8:30 pm to 2:30 am without a peep! That may be his best stretch of nighttime sleep ever. I am really hoping that the long stretch of sleep will continue and he will adjust to one nighttime feeding soon. My mom took these pictures of John Harrison this weekend. What a cute boy!!!! Ok, I am a bit biased, but still, who can resist that adorable smile?!

Rachel's Wedding

Rachel's parents, Rachel, and Scott

Rachel's beautiful wedding day hair

David and Catherine at the rehearsal

Bachelorette Party: Catherine and Rachel with bustier cake

The cake above is the inspiration for the cake I made.

Here is the bustier cake that I made. My friend Rachel's wedding was 2 1/2 weeks ago, but I am just getting around to posting pictures. I hope to post pictures soon from my sister's bridal shower.

"The World Ontime": Right into our backyard . . .

Last Wednesday afternoon, we received a delivery from FedEx Ground. I signed for the package, said "thank you" to the driver, and went back inside the house. A few minutes later, I heard a knock that sounded like it was coming from the side door. I looked out and saw no one. I figured the FedEx man may have forgotten something, but I figured that if he needed something, he would knock again. A few more minutes passed and the FedEx man rang the front doorbell. I went to the door and the delivery man informed me that there had been "an accident." I was talking on the phone to David at the time and told him the situation and that I would call him back when I determined what was going on. Several thoughts were going through my head, "Has he hit the house?? The car??" I walked to the side yard with the FedEx driver. To both my dismay and relief, I saw that the FedEx truck had exited the driveway.....in the wrong direction. At the front of our backyard, the truck had crashed through two sections of our new fence....including mowing down a substantial 6 x 6 post sunken in a 2 ft hole set with concrete. The runaway truck came to a halt at the back of our backyard when the front end crashed through one section of the fence. I couldn't believe my eyes: we had a FedEx truck sitting in our yard. The driver informed me that he had not been in the truck when it rolled down the hill. I was so relieved that he was safe and that other than the damaged fence, there were no injuries. The driver told me that he remembered placing the truck in park; the only thing he could come up with to explain the runaway truck was that he must have bumped the shifter into neutral while getting out to make the delivery. I called David and told him what was going on. John Harrison was also waking up from a nap at the time, so I put him in his infant carrier and headed back outside. David picked up his mom so she could watch John Harrison, who wasn't feeling well, while we sorted out the matter. David called FedEx to report the accident and find out how we get the damage repaired (the driver had been telling me that he would reimburse us out of his own pocket and we weren't comfortable with that). I called the police department to request an accident report. The driver contacted a tow truck to pull the delivery truck out of our yard; a tractor ended up pulling the truck out because the FedEx driver was concerned that the tow truck would crack our driveway.

The FedEx driver was a really nice guy. I know he will probably cringe next time he sees a delivery for our address. He said it was ironic because he remembered seeing the progress on our fence back in June.

Wednesday just wasn't our day. In a matter of one hour's time, the FedEx truck crashed through our yard, John Harrison started getting even sicker and threw up all over David's mom, David's parents got some bad news, and my mom was involved in a car accident.

As I write this post, John Harrison is still sick, unfortunately. Some of his symptoms are improving, but he is still pretty sick. John Harrison got quite dehydrated on Friday (after throwing up over 13 times between Wed. and Fri.) so we took him to the doctor. Our doctor was quite concerned about John Harrison and gave us a prescription for a strong anti-nausea medication and directions on hydrating him using a 10 ml syringe (John Harrison does not take a bottle well and was not wanting to breastfeed). Our goal was to stay out of the hospital. Our pediatrician is awesome and very caring; he even called us at 9pm on Friday night to see how we were doing. We worked very hard Friday afternoon through Saturday morning to keep John Harrison hydrated and he did improve, but then he started to throw up again. We took our precious son to the ER on Saturday morning where he received IV fluids, IV antibiotics, and a battery of tests. We still do not have a clear answer of what is wrong with John Harrison and are concerned as he is continuing to throw up several times a day and wakes up frequently during the night sounding and seeming as if he is in pain. He has been sick for 10 days now, which is taking a toll on us. Please pray for his recovery and for us to find out what is wrong with him if there is some underlying problem or condition other than an infection. Thankfully, John Harrison has given us a few smiles and has been taking good naps during the day the past few days. Hopefully, he is on his way to full recovery. I want my sweet, smiling, happy, well-rested son back.

John Harrison turns 5 (months, that is:)

Happy to be 21 weeks old!

Hanging out with Great Grammy (20 weeks old)

Enjoying our newly fenced backyard!

20 weeks old--having fun playing with Dad!

John Harrison is 5 months old today!! Here are some pictures from the last few weeks. Sadly (for Mom, Dad, and John Harrison), John Harrison, is sick on his five month birthday. He has been sick for three days now . . . with a fever, GI, and respiratory symptoms. We are thankful that our precious son has not been sick before this point, but nonetheless, having a sick baby in the house is not fun. The biggest challenge has been trying to get John Harrison to hold down his medicine and hold enough milk down to stay hydrated. So far, he has lost 2 out of the 3 doses of his antibiotic as well as several meals. John Harrison's eyes are puffy and red from crying and lack of sleep :(....poor little guy! Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day! The timing of John Harrison's infection was especially upsetting because we were supposed to fly up to CT for one of my best friend's weddings this weekend. We were actually supposed to have left this afternoon, but decided yesterday that we would not be going based on the pediatrician's recommendations. Today, with John Harrison having fairly rough day that got worse as the day progressed, our decision was confirmed---flying with such a sick baby would have been next to impossible, incredibly frustrating, and unfair to John Harrison (and our fellow passengers).