Family Photo Shoot

When Parker was 4 months old we had a family photo shoot in West Laramie.  Tish Hill, a local photographer, volunteered to take our family pics.  She did a fantastic job.  I know these photos are now 5 months old, but we love them.

 

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Time has gone so fast!

First of all we want to apologize to all of you who faithfully followed our journey to parenthood. You watched us struggle through matching and unmatching, then an ectopic pregnancy, and finally the pregnancy and birth of Parker John. We've let you down by not letting you be part of his life and see how he is growing and how our lives have changed. Life has changed so much and we LOVE it. We wouldn't want anything else, because having Parker in our life is absolutely amazing. He made us the family we have always dreamed of having.

It's hard to believe, but Parker John will be nine months old on Thursday, Feb. 16th. He is so much fun right now...he's interactive, playing with his toys, and it seems as though he is learning something new every day. Recently he's learned how to click his tongue, clap his hands, say "anya" (who knows what this means), he is starting to wave, and he is starting to hold his own bottle. Oh, he also scoots backwards and spins in circles when on his tummy. He just can't quite get his legs going to help him go forward. He is growing up so fast!

Below are some pictures taken a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy!

Great Moms...Bad Bloggers

Hello everyone!

Sorry we haven't been updating very often. We've been busy enjoying our little man. He is the best and just to prove it watch the video!

Eviction Notice

Parker John was evicted from the womb on Monday, May 16th at 10:29pm! He came out at 8 lb and 1 oz with a head circumference of 38cm.

It was a long day of being induced, but both Mama Kara and Parker John came out well. Thankfully Mama Kara was already dilated to 4cm or we would have been waiting even longer for Parker to arrive. She began receiving Pitocin at 9:45 am and began pushing at 9:50pm. Throughout the day the doctor kept telling us Parker had a big head which made both of us think that a c-section may be in order to get little Parker to meet the world. However, he kept descending and allowed his Mama Kara to push him right out. The doc had prepared us that it would take a couple hours to push Parker out, but Mama Kara was a Rock Star and did it in only 40 minutes! After the first contraction the doctor made me look and you could already see Parker's head and cute little hair. The doctor then put on his sterile gown and stayed for the rest of the labor. No one was expecting Kara to push out her first baby in only 40 minutes.

He is the sweetest little boy and is making his Mamas so happy. We have waited a long time for him to arrive and now that he's here it has all been worth it. He's perfect with his button nose, long fingers, and even longer toes. He seems to have gotten his little monkey toes from his Aunt Ashley.

We were discharged from the hospital on Wednesday afternoon and were settled in at home by 1:30pm. As we were leaving our nurse told us Parker is one of the few healthy babies to be born at the local hospital within the past week. I knew we were lucky that he was healthy because we'd see other babies receiving extra care in the nursery, but I didn't realize just how lucky we were. We were even luckier that everyone treated us with respect in the small town of Laramie, WY. No one in the hospital or involved in the delivery had any problems with the fact that we are a same sex couple. In fact, the nurses fought over coming into our room because Parker was healthy and his two mamas were fun. The nurses even crossed out "daddy" and put "mommy" so that Mama Jen could be included on his name tag that was in his little bin (that's what we called the hospital's version of a bassinet).

Unfortunately Mama Jen's name can't be on the birth certificate in the state of Wyoming. Only the biological parents are allowed to put information on it. So, our birth certificate will show Parker as not having a Father which is perfectly fine because he doesn't, he has a sperm donor.

The dogs are already adjusting to Parker, but they still don't like it when he cries. They also can't figure out why he gets to go everywhere with the Mamas and they don't. Nakai is his protector and checks on him whenever we set him down to sleep. Pseudo is the licker and cleans his feet and hands.

Now that the Mamas are getting rested we are hoping to update the blog at least once a week. Thanks for being patient and keeping all of us in your thoughts and prayers during our long journey to becoming parents and a family.

Stubborn Little Boy

Parker is now three days overdue. He decided he didn't want to make this Mother's Day extra special for us. Instead he would like us to wait a year to be able to truly celebrate Mother's Day. The little stubborn stinker!

Kara went to the doctor on Monday and was 4cm dilated. At this time she is still not experiencing any contractions. We are waiting for labor to start spontaneously. If it doesn't then we go to the local hospital at 7am on Monday morning to be induced.

Kara only worked until noon today and then she started her maternity leave. She came home and slept for three hours. Wasn't much else to do since it snowed here in Laramie today.

Don't worry, there is free WiFi in the hospital so Jen (that's me) will be posting pictures while we are still in the hospital.