Commercials...

Apparently keeping up with a blog isn't our thing here in the Knutson household.  I don't even know how long it's been since we've updated this.  Oh well.

Parker is growing bigger and smarter every day.  As soon as he figured out how to crawl, he almost immediately took off and started pulling up on, (and falling off of) everything.  It will be a miracle if he makes it to his 2nd birthday without a broken bone or concussion.  He is ALL BOY!  If it can be climbed on, pulled up on, crawled over, eaten, or pulled… he's done it.  This includes, much to his dismay, Mac's tail.  Out of everything in the house to play with, Mac's tail and collar are Parker's favorites.  Mac is a good sport about it all, and I think he secretly likes the attention.

Parker has continued to grow tall and skinny.  His weight stays around the 40th percentile while his height is usually just below the 90th.

Since Parker has become increasingly active, a few commercials have jumped out at us that I wanted to share.  These commercials very easily could have been Parker under the right circumstances.

This one takes the words right out of his mouth, although Parker hasn't gotten in trouble for it, yet.

This is why Parker will never have a walker…

Hope everyone is having a great week and enjoying the cool, fall weather.

Update

So it's been another two months since we've updated this blog. It has been a crazy two months.
We went on our annual trip to Riverbend on the Frio River. Parker had a blast playing in the water and took a nap every day down by the river.
Then after 36 hours at home we left with 5 families from church to go to Colorado. We spent a week in a cabin on Oleo Ranch in the rockie mountains. We drove into Creede one day and Lake City the next. Spent some time out fishing for trout in a couple of ponds.
All in all it was an awesome week to be there with high temperatures in the 70s and lows in the 40s while Cleburne was a nice 110.

Yesterday we took Parker in for his 6 month shots and checkup. He weighed  17 lbs and 11 oz and is 28 inches long. He got 3 shots, but handled them pretty well. Other than that he's healthy and eating like crazy.

He's learning how to roll to get somewhere and starting to push up onto his hands. So it looks like our days of an immobile baby are pretty much done. Here are a few pictures from the trip.

Brushing off the dust.

Well the first half of Parker's life so far was well documented. As time has gone on, we've let this blog get a little dusty. So let's brush off the dust and see if we can keep it a bit more current...

Since last time, Parker has...

• Had a 3-month "birthday", weighing in at 14.7 pounds and measuring 25 inches
• Gone to the zoo for the first time
• Gained 2 new little cousins making him not the youngest anymore on Mommy or Daddy's sides of the extended family. They'll all have so much fun being so close in age.
• Started smiling and laughing when we make faces at him.
• Learned to noticeably recognize Mommy and Daddy's face and voice when we enter a room- especially in the nursery at church. He looks up and looks around until he finds us and smiles.
• Become mesmerized with his rainforest mat. He lays on it as much as we let him looking up at the birds and elephant toys over his head and hits them with his hand.
• Started to grab onto things- toys, blankets, Mommy's hair and earrings, etc.
• Continued sleeping through the night. He goes to sleep around 8-9pm and wakes up at around 7am, only to drink a bottle and go back to sleep.
• Finally learned that he has a puppy. Parker has started to pat Mac on the head and likes to lean up against him. Mac is somewhat skeptical, but I think with time they'll be best buds. Mac has also decided to acknowledge our new family member and will run to his room to make sure he's still here when we let him in. He also looks at us when Parker starts crying as if to say, "Are y'all going to make that stop, already?"
• Was dedicated on Mother's Day. We had most of our family here, too.
• Had his first shots. :-(
• Had his first fever. We're blaming that on the first teeth that we think may be making their debut soon.

Having Parker is a somewhat surreal thing. It's strange when we see people that we haven't seen in a few months and they say things like, "I can't believe you have a baby!" because I want to say, "I can't remember what life was like before him!" It's strange how well he fits into our little family, further showing us that families must be appointed by God, because he couldn't fit any more perfectly. Just looking around our house things are completely different than they were just a few months ago. There are bottles in the sink and cabinet, there is a swing and bouncy seat in the living room next to a rainforest mat- all dedicated to keeping Parker happy and entertained the few minutes a day his mom puts him down. A room that used to have a twin bed and was decorated with dolls and beanie babies now has blue painted walls, a crib, and is safari themed, and pacifiers have been showing up in the strangest places. Life is so different and yet, so perfect. We're so blessed to have this little boy in our lives and pray that his future is bright and full.

When I was pregnant, I got a lot of the same comments from people over and over and over and over. Some were nice, some weren't so much, some were ignorant, and some were just flat out inappropriate, (although that could have been a mix between my hormones and private personality). The comments that we get now that Parker is here are a lot more fun. Everyone seems to have an opinion, though, of who Parker looks like. Some people will say he looks just like me. Others will say he looks just like Tyler. Occasionally, someone will tell us that they can see both of us in him. We usually just see Parker. :-) However, he definitely has traits from Mom and Dad. For example:

• Parker got Tyler's bright blue eyes. This is one of the things that attracted me to Tyler almost 5 years ago and I'd always hoped that when we had kids they would get his blue eyes. So far they're holding strong and staying a beautiful dark blue.
• Although his eyes are blue like his Daddy's, they're shaped more like mine.
• He got Tyler's blondish/ brownish/ redish hair. Depending on the light, his hair is a different color every day, just like Tyler.
• He has my chin. Almost everyone on my Mom's side of the family has a dimple in our chin, and Parker has it, too.
• Parker is laid back and chill. He definitely got that from Tyler.
• Parker would sleep all day if we let him. That's from me.
• Parker goes to bed early like Dad and wakes up late like Mom- the perfect combination.
• Parker smiles ALL THE TIME. That's from us both, too.
• He could be an olympic burper... I'll let you guess on that one. :-)
• Parker loves his baths. That's from Mom.

Parker also has things that are totally unique to him, too. For example, he loves car rides. We do not. We love destinations, but do not enjoy hours in the car getting there. (He's allowed to sleep in the car, though. That may make the difference.) He doesn't like it very much outside yet. He doesn't like the wind in his face and gets sunburned very easily, so it isn't a pleasant experience for him. He also doesn't seem to mind strangers, yet. He'll let anyone hold him, but always finds either me or Tyler if we're in the room. We are neither one super excited about being around new people.

Anyway, if you made it this far down, you're probably either really bored, killing time at work, related to us, or any combination of the above. Either way, props to you. :-) Hope you enjoyed a not-so-brief update on our happenings. I'll try to add a few pictures for your reward, but I've never done this before, so no promises.

This was when he was dedicated.

First Rangers Game

Trip to Galveston and Moody Gardens
"Riding" a Horse on the Strand in Galveston
3 Month Birthday Pic with Edgar
This makes Parker laugh every time.

New Floors and 2 month birthday

So we have been busy the past month. Parker has been growing, and we have done our first major home update.

I spent the weekend with my dad, grampa, and father-in-law putting in new floors in our house. I'm not sure what they were thinking by volunteering to help me, but I am super grateful. We have laminate floors throughout our house now and are loving them.

Parker had his 2 month check-up on Monday. He weighs 12 lbs and 11 oz and is 24 inches long!!!
We knew he was growing, but he is 74th percentile in weight and 84th in height. He is doing great and sleeps good.

Other than that theres not a whole lot to update. Here's a couple of pictures.

1 month birthday

So Parker has already had his 1 month birthday. Time is flying by.
For those of you who are interested, Parker was 21.5 inches and 9 lbs 11 oz at his check up.

We spent his birthday in the car. We went to Burleson for his appointment and then to Arlington for Ashlee's first postpartum checkup. Thursday Ashlee's friend Jennifer came to visit and helped us with Parker. She brought her beagle so Mac and Bowden had a lot of fun wrestling and playing in the back yard. Yesterday Ashlee's parents came up to visit. They are going to watch Parker while Ashlee and I go to an Awards banquet for the fire department this eventing.

Otherwise there is not much to update. Our plan is to take a picture of Parker every month with his stuffed elephant (Edgar) so that everyone can see how much he has grown. Here are the first two pics.

Growing like crazy

The thing I forgot to update last week after Parker's doctor's appointment was how much he's already grown. He was 7 lbs 2 oz at birth and back to that at his 1 week check up. When we went in last week for his two week check up he weighed 8 lbs 7 oz and was 21 inches long. Thats over a pound and 2 inches since he was born.

I went back to work this week and just got off this morning after my second shift back at work. Again, most of you that have kids already know this, but its crazy to me that he is bigger when i get home after 24 hours. But we are enjoying my days off. We have had company most days and we went out to the state park for some fresh air on Saturday.

Life as we know it...

One of the things that we heard countless times as people found out Ashlee was pregnant was "Oh your life will never be the same." We would usually just laugh and say "Yeah that's what we have heard." We would talk about it when we got home. We have also learned that expecting a kid makes you a magnet for unsolicited advice. Some of it was helpful, but a lot of it was just common sense.

So if anyone out there is lacking common sense, I will attest that Yes, having a baby does change your life.

First trip to the park.

We went to the park today and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

Parker and Ashlee are doing great and we all liked getting out of the house for a couple of minutes.

More snow and more doctors.

Yesterday we were supposed to go back to the doctor to recheck Parker's bilirubin counts, but the doctor's office called early and told us to stay home because it was too cold to get him out. So yesterday we stayed home and enjoyed a day of relaxing.

Today we went to Arlington to do a blood screening for Parker. Then we went straight to Burleson for the pediatrician appointment. Parker's bilirubin is down a little bit, and he is looking a lot better. He doesn't have to go back for another week.
This evening, we had some company. Some friend's brought us dinner and my Mom and Dad came by to visit.

It has been a long day for everyone, but we are home for a few days and have some naps on the agenda for tomorrow.

Sleeping and Eating.

This probably does not shock anyone who has kids. The last few days have consisted of sleeping and eating. Oh and a lot of diapers.

Parker was a little bit jaundice when we left the hospital. We had been putting him in sunlight and feeding him every 3 hours. Yesterday we went to the pediatrician for his 5 day well child check. The pediatrician said his bilirubin counts were still a little bit high, so we needed to try and feed him every 2 hours. Last night Ashlee and I alternated feeding him bottles every two hours and he is eating like a champ.  We are fixing to leave to go back to the pediatrician so they can check him out again.

Thanks to everyone who is praying for us and the little guy. We cannot express our gratitude.

So we had a baby...

We have been overwhelmed with the number of people asking about Parker and the number of prayers we have received on his behalf. I decided I would set up a blog where we can update you on whats going on.
This week has been a whirlwind of a week (and a blizzard).

Parker's due date was on February 9th, and about January we remembered that the Superbowl was on February 6th. When we realized that, we talked to the doctor and set a date to induce. This may not seem like a big deal to most people, but Ashlee's doctor is in Arlington about 4 miles from the Cowboys Stadium. We knew that traffic would be bad and wanted to make sure that we did not have a baby on the Interstate because traffic was going to be a nightmare. So we set up a date with the hospital.

The plan was to go up February 1st so that the hospital could start ashlee on some medicine that would make inducing labor a little easier. The day before we found out that they were calling for a little bad weather so we planned on spending the day in Arlington, then going into the hospital at 8 p.m. On the morning of the first is when all of the sleet came down and turned into a sheet of ice over the roads. We woke up and got a few last minute things done around the house before we set out for Arlington.

On the way to Arlington, the roads were terrible. We were as careful as we could be and drove anywhere from 5-30 miles per hour the whole way. A few slides, and about two and a half hours later we arrived at Ashlee's parent's hotel. They got there about the same time as we did after spending 7.5 hours in the car coming from Houston. We got a few Subway Sandwiches and had lunch in the hotel room. As we were eating, we got a call from the hospital saying that they were canceling all elective procedures at the hospital because they werent sure if they would have the staff available to take care of regular labors. Ashlee explained to the nurse that we had driven up in the ice and asked if there was anything we could do before we spent another 2 and a half hours on icy roads. The nurse said she could call the doctor and make sure enough nurses would be able to make it in.

We waited for about 2 hours (seemed like 10) for a call back from that nurse. She finally called back and told us that the doctors were ok with doing the induction. She said that there still had to be enough nurses at work for us to come in. So we waited until 7 o'clock for a phone call. The verdict was that there were enough nurses, but we would need to wait until a few rooms opened up before we went in.

We got to the hospital about 12:30 a.m. and made it to a room shortly after. Neither of us slept much that night. Early the next morning the induction process began. To make a long story a little shorter, we waited a lot during the day, but were very impressed with the nurses and doctors. At 7:47 p.m. our baby Parker Ryan Knutson entered the world. We were immediately in love. He was weighed and measured and I spent the next hour holding him and looking at him. After the delivery, Ashlee was still bleeding more than normal. The doctor discovered that a small part of placenta had not detached and told us that he was going to take her to the OR. I took Parker to the Nursery while they wheeled ashlee into the operating room to perform a D&C. The next few minutes were nerve wracking, but after about 10 minutes the Doctor came out and said it went well and she would be in shortly. Another long night of nursing the baby and checking vital signs followed. The next day, my parents and grandparents made the icy drive to come see Parker (and us). Thursday night it snowed.

Friday we came home with better roads than we had seen all week. It felt amazing to bring Parker into his room and to be home as a family. We relaxed that evening and had a few more visitors before going to sleep.

I have heard people say this, but the love you have for your new baby is just something completely new and unlike any other love. I have a better understanding of God's love(John 3:16) this week than ever in my life.


I know this was a long one and I'll try to keep it shorter, but this is a summary of our days, thoughts, and emotions from the last few days.