Parker's Nursery

Our Seattle Home

 We went house-hunting in Bellingham a few days ago - just a rental until we have spent a little time in the city and can decide which area we want our family to settle in.  So much more to consider now, like proximity to parks and which school district we'll be in!  Plus we are feeling a bit gun-shy after our Seattle home's value dropped considerably in 3 years. 

As we look at places and imagine them filled with our own stuff, one of the things I miss the most is Parker's nursery.  It was so much fun to nest while we were pregnant, both of us spent hours looking for ideas online and the perfect items in stores.  Our crafty sides came out (probably last seen 3 years ago at our wedding!) and together we created a warm, cute, cozy room for Parker.  We knew he would only enjoy it for a few months, but it was definitely worth our energy. 

We were originally going to go with a Narnia theme, but that proved to be a bit difficult.  Aslan was most important, so we ended up with a few common jungle animals - lion, giraffe, and elephant, with a few others mixed in.

 We found a comfy armchair from Ikea on Craigslist, then when my dad was out for a visit he transformed it into a glider.  Definitely made a difference in how quickly Parker went to sleep after a 3 am feed!  We searched long and hard for a crib & dresser set we liked, and finally found this crib, almost identical to the Pottery Barn Kendall crib, with a dresser we really love.  Thanks Grandma Christie and Papa for the crib and Pottery Barn bedding!

 The dresser (thanks Nonna and Pappi!) we decided on had lots of drawer space, but was too high to be a changing table, so we did another Craigslist search.  Then I painted this one off-white to match the glider.  Add in some baskets with liners hand-made by Grandma Christie and Parker's diapers had a home!  Daddy came across the lanterns from our wedding and hung them, and soon after Parker was staring at them instead of screaming during diaper changes!

This chest is the one item of furniture that traveled from the East coast to the West coast with us, in the Uhaul trailer attached to my Honda Accord.  My father made it for my mother as a wedding gift, and now their grandson Parker will have a home for his toys!  Until he starts playing with those toys it will house the endless supply of swaddle blankets and burp clothes an infant needs...

This was my favorite project.  We came across these paintings online somewhere, then Tyson figured out how to print out the shapes to use as stencils.  A few canvases and some paint later and I had made my first "paintings" for less than $10 - apparently they go for at least $20 or $30 each!

We came across this alphabet train at a children's consignment shop (Childish Things, my absolute favorite!) and had to get it to spell the baby's name.  We hadn't chosen Parker's name yet, the look on our faces was comical when we went to put this on the shelf after he was born and realized we needed 2 R's.  A nickname is born!

We discovered the Goodwill this year and spent MANY hours scouring many stores for nursery items.  We found these great animal figures as well as this lamp.  I recovered the lampshade to match the basket liners.  The little felt elephants on the dresser will one day hang from a mobile when Parker's room is put back together.



Hopefully our house-search will reward us with another room to set up this nursery in, though it will never be quite the same as our beloved Seattle home.  I had tears in my eyes as we drove away at the end of a long, desperate day of preparing the house for our renters.  It will always be our first home together, where we started our family.  But we must move on and the house can't come with us, so onward to Bellingham!

Parenting - Month #2!

As I look back over the pictures of Parker's second month of life, I recall a few moments where we both thought "Hey, we've got this.  We can have a baby and still have a life."  Those moments did increase in frequency, thankfuly, but that was in large part due to all the help we had.  Our families stepped up to the plate for the first several months of Parker's life, which was a huge blessing.

As Tyson's 4 weeks of Paternity leave came to a finish (which was actually when Parker was 3 weeks old, as one week was used while I was in the hospital), we decided to take advantage of our freedom from work.  One morning we realized that help didn't have to come to us, we could go TO help, and enjoy some other parts of Washington at the same time.  Mid-week no less, not just on our carefully hoarded and protected one-weekend-off-a-month!  So we packed up the Rav with baby gear - and I do mean packed!  Bassinet, vibrating seat, bouncy ball, box of diapers, several bags of sleepers, onesies, burp clothes, and blankets... plus our own outdoor gear... and off we went to Nana's (Tyson's mom's) cabin on Lake Cushman, out by Hood Canal.  Parker had some great cuddle time with Nana, and Mommy and Daddy were able to get a few more hours of sleep after he decided he was up for the day at 6 am!

We took Parker for his first "hike", which was actually a relatively flat trail several miles long along the lake.  Unfortunately an every 3 hour feeding schedule means you really only have about 2 hours to do something, as 1 hour is spent feeding!  Daddy took the 2nd shift, which meant he had a brisk run with Parker sucking on his finger when we hit the 3 hour mark about half-way back down the trail.  At least we had some fresh air and sunshine!

A few days after Tyson went back to work, my parents arrived in Seattle for 2 weeks - the "second wave" if you will.  Pappi had his first cuddle with Parker the second he woke up.  It had been a while since I saw my father holding a baby, but he did very well.  Just like riding a bicycle Dad!

Nonna had of course been fortunate to experience Parker's 1st week of life, and she was shocked at how much he had already grown.  As Parker is very advanced (we wouldn't have it any other way!), we will say that he remembered Nonna and even smiled at her a bit.  Tyson and I had our 1st baby-free evening while my parents were in town - my sister-in-law Jacqueline threw an amazing party to celebrate my brother-in-law Josh's graduation from Surgery residency.  We all survived the evening with very few tears on anyone's part.  The rest of the visit we even went to a few happy hours with Parker in tow, just to make sure he had a lasting memory of all Seattle has to offer - Ivar's on the water, Agua Verde, Uneeda Burger!

Though much of Parker's time was still spent like this....

He finally started to have some awake times where we could put him down and watch him start to interact with the world...

And we even got in the occasional "Activity Time" on his Baby Einstein mat.  This was generally VERY brief (on the order of 5 minutes or less), but it did give Mommy a chance to make a cup of coffee while he had some play time!

This is a great example of the faux-hawk Parker developed all on his own.  As his hair fell out like all newborns, a strip of longer hair remained on top.  It curls when washed, and doesn't want to be tamed.  No gel, we swear, but Daddy does try to give him 50 strokes a day with the hairbrush...

 The end of Parker's 2nd month coincided with a lot of end-of-the-year/end-of-residency events for us, so it was a great chance to show Parker off to our friends.  This created a bit of havoc with the sleep schedule Mommy was working on, but it turns out Parker actually does very well in large groups of people!  Lucky for me, I had a month to spend on a Reading Elective at home, and what is more applicable to Pediatrics than Infant Sleep Schedules?! Some light reading...

 4 of the 5 babies born in our class during our 3rd year.  From left to right, Parker, Wil (Tim & Rebecca's daughter, born October 2011), Josie (Eric & Elizabeth's daughter, born September 2011), and Rafa (Melisa and Jason's son, born just 2 weeks before Parker!).  Missing is Dave & Cori's son Cody, born in December, who left us early for Cali.  

 We had such fun watching these 4 "play" on the couch!

 One of Tyson's classmates organized a Mariner's game for the R3 class, which happened to be on Tyson's 32nd birthday.  A birthday and Parker's 1st Mariner's game, quite a celebration!

Looking a bit like Benjamin Button

The Mariners have not done so well in the past few years, and June 12th was no exception.  Though in the end the score wasn't awful, we did lose, and Parker insisted on hiding under his jacket so he wouldn't be seen at the game rooting for the losing team.








My graduation was on June 15th, with a lovely Grand Rounds that morning where a faculty member speaks about us, and a formal dinner/award ceremony that evening.

Graduation Grand Rounds

My good friend Sarah

My mentor through residency, Heather McPhillips

For our graduation dinner, our R3 class decided to surprise everyone by decorating the room 80s prom style and showing up in true 80s prom dresses.  Parker was lucky enough to be one of my dates ;)








Parker had his first long stretch of sleep on June 15th, after the graduation dinner.  After a nap during the dinner, he slept from 11 pm to 5 am!  Thanks for the graduation present Parker!

Well that concludes Parker's 2nd month of life, in a nutshell.  One more month to go before we are fully caught up and can actually blog as we go!  Thanks for following along!

Parker has arrived!

Most of our blog readers already know the saga of Parker's arrival. For those that don't, I will again give the "one-liner" as we often say in medicine. The majority of the pregnancy was super fun - I first felt Parker move around 17 weeks and he never stopped. Family and friends threw me a lovely baby shower in February with yummy food, wonderful conversation, and the cutest baby gifts! Then around 33 weeks I began to have terrible full-body itching and my blood pressure began to rise. I was ultimately hospitalized for 10 days and induced at 37 weeks for cholestasis of pregnancy and pre-eclampsia. Tyson and I were constantly worrying about all the possible complications, especially since we knew way more than most and feared the worst. However, on April 19th at 9:39 pm, after 45 hours of labor, the most beautiful, perfect, HEALTHY baby boy arrived - Parker Jackson Hawkins.

 5 lbs 12.5 oz, 19 inches long. 

Since Parker came early and we had a somewhat planned induction, my mom was able to fly out early and arrived just a few hours before Parker's arrival!  We left the hospital the day after Parker was born as we couldn't take another second of being patients, and we had tons of help at home. 

 Proud Daddy!

 Mommy's second cuddle - the first was skin-to-skin as soon as Parker came out and gave a nice robust cry.  Peds was waiting, but we kindly sent them away :).  Thanks friends!

 Nonna's first grandchild!

 Parker was borderline SGA (small for gestional age) and he seemed to disappear in his carseat.  A few blankets were required to secure him properly.

For the first week or so we thought we had an Angel baby - Parker fed and slept like clockwork, a continuous 3 hour cycle.  Around day 10 or so, he woke up and proved to us that he could, in fact, CRY.  Mommy and Daddy quickly realized they needed some soothing techniques: 

For a while this was the only place we could get Parker to nap without being held.  As much as we loved holding him, there are certain things that just can't be done while holding a sleeping baby - unless you borrow his diapers...

 Nana's birthday party - perfect opportunity for a Hawkins' Guys photo

 Parker visited the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival when he was just 1 week old!

 Papa and Grandma Christie get a cuddle at Tyson's cousin's wedding

 Parker's first bath - a few tears until we figured out that he needed more water!  And then again when he left the warm water...

Sleeping. Eating. Ergo for a walk. More sleeping and eating.  The occasional open eyes and alert face.  That about sums up Parker's first month of life!  But I think you can see a glimmer of excitement in this last photo - more to come!  You'll just have to keep following our blog ;).