Three weeks went by quickly!

I cannot believe little E is already 3 weeks old. It went really fast. We're tired and still getting used to this whole "being parents" thing. We're getting more comfortable going out but we still have to time it right so she sleeps the entire time.

We're ordering a bulk order of her cloth diapers soon so we can start doing it full time. Since we were unable to use the diaper service, we're depending on the cloth diapers we have already to sustain us until we're able to afford an order. They're expensive, but the good thing is that we can buy them once and never again... One size fits all BumGenius 3.0 diapers seem to fit her well, so we're going to order 24 and call it a day. They're adorable on too :)



Eliza had her first pediatrician appt and she had gained over a pound. They weighed her in at 8 lbs 6 oz. She varies in weight because I weighed her at a breastfeeding support group meeting and she was 8 lbs. 3oz. So either way, she has gained a ton! She is looking bigger to me each day. Obviously she is doing really well with her feeding. I just feed her whenever she shows signs of being hungry. Seems to work for both of us.

The dogs still adore her and Slappy has really taken to being a big sister dog. We weren't at all concerned about Slappy. She has a very maternal instinct.



Eliza took her first bottle and I felt entirely useless. I was a little sad, but its good that she is able to take a bottle. It will make it a lot easier for me to go back to work knowing that she is comfortable. She is still drinking mom's milk so its not like she is losing any of the nutrition!



Grandma and Grandpa Hanses we're in town to visit with Eliza this weekend. For some reason all of the pictures taken are on grandpa's camera, so we'll update this when we have some. Everyone had a nice weekend even though it was cold in KC! Auntie Rachelle will be here this weekend.

We're officially tired beyond belief. I can barely get myself out of bed on a good day, and the thought of going back to work this tired is daunting. At least I have an amazingly good baby.

Mark passed his part 2 & 3 boards and takes part 4 this weekend. Once that is all over, he coasts until graduation in August. I have one more paper to turn in and I will be done with my MLS degree. I am ready for our lives to start and this transition period to be over!

More pics are posted on Flickr if you're interested.

Eliza is a week and two days old!

So far things have been going really well for us. She is pretty easy going and she sleeps a lot. Lately she has been waking a lot in the night and being fussy about going back down, but it gives me some time to spend with her alone, which is nice albeit exhausting.

We were able to have the 100% natural birth that we wanted. No drugs other than some antibiotics that I was required to take because I was a type B strep carrier. Eliza came out happy and very alert. We had her nursing from about 20 minutes into her life, and she has been a champ ever since. The birth center was amazing, and took great care of us. After she was born, Megan one of the RNs made us breakfast that we were able to eat in bed while they did the newborn screening in our room. She passed her hearing test perfectly and we declined all of the other things like the Hep B and vitamin K shots. We both took a short nap, I was able to get up and shower, and we were home exactly 6 hours and 30 minutes after she was born. It was so nice to be able to recover in my own bed with my mom cooking for me. My mom was able to come out on Saturday after my water broke. She was here for the birth and was able to care for our dogs while she was born. We came home and she got to meet her grandma for the first time. Having my mom here was a life saver and we could have never done it without her. Thanks mom!

I am feeling really good at this point. I felt great from the get go because I was un-medicated. Most women who have pain meds cant even walk for a while after the birth, and are groggy for days after. I didn't experience any of that. I also had a pretty easy recovery.

Eliza had her first play date with our friends Becky and David's son Ardun. He is about a week and a half older than her. We met Becky and David in our Bradley birth class and have become good friends.

Today we fed her, got her in her carrier and took her to lunch, Target, Costco and the post office. She was a champ the entire time and let us do everything we needed. We got her home and fed her, cleaned her diaper and took her for her first walk around the neighborhood with the dogs. She was great.

We were pretty convinced she looked a lot like me until we found a picture of Mark as an infant sleeping and its very obvious how much she looks like her dad too. She has his mouth and head shape. We're still not sure about the nose because both of our baby noses look almost exactly the same.

We posted a ton of pictures on our flickr account: www.flickr.com/runaroundrachel if you care to look at them.

Elizabeth Dema Hanses

Glad we're not in a hospital!
Originally uploaded by Rachel and Mark H.

Born 4/18/2010

7lbs. 3 oz.

21" long.

We're in love!

Spring has sprung!

Finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Ugh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Our yard is turning green. These pictures are from last weekend, and its 10x more beautiful this weekend. Maybe we'll take a walk and take pictures of all the glorious magnolias blooming and all of the colors KC offers us in the spring and summer!

Honeysuckle:


The "garden"


Topsy turvy take 2


This yard needs some grass!

The Abbi-gator got adopted!!!!!!!!!!

Her new people drove straight here from Pittsburgh, PA to pick her up, turned around and drove straight home. Holy cow, they're great parents.

They are amazing people that Mark and I would gladly hang out with if they lived closer. They asked great questions, brought us an amazing gift and sent us a text message picture of Abbie on the road.

We feel truly blessed that we knew and loved Abbie. She was a solid friend for me after Beanie died, and made me smile every morning with her gator bombs in bed (she jumped on top of me every morning for 2 straight months).

I cried after she left, but they were tears of happiness that she will know the love that we give to our two girls.

What a blessed weekend!

Melt!

Melt!
Originally uploaded by Rachel and Mark H.

So its 54 and sunny today. Tomorrow is supposed to be 64 and sunny.... Weird weather here in KC... Im ready for our normal summer of hot hot hot and sunshine :)

Gator is almost adopted!

Gator.
Originally uploaded by Rachel and Mark H.

We're waiting to hear the final word, but its possible that my little Gator could be going home to Pittsburgh, PA with an amazing couple this next weekend. They're planning to drive out to get her :)

YAY FOR GATOR!!!!!!!!!!!

Why won't winter end?!?!?!?!?!

Snow in March.
Originally uploaded by Rachel and Mark H.

Kansas Citians are blessed with a pretty amazing midwestern winter. We have warm weather until late November, usually, and it starts warming up in the beginning of March, normally... We have between 4-10" of snowfall annually and its generally sunshine and blue skies getting us through the frigid temps of winter.

This winter we had NONE of that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Its been cold, we have gotten 44.3" of snow. Its the 4th snowiest winter on record. ON RECORD!!!

#1. 1911/1912 with 67.0"
#2. 1959/1960 with 58.5"
#3. 1961/1962 with 55.0"

Yep... a co-worker of mine remembers the 1961 winter because it was the year he moved here to start teaching at Rockhurst. He said it was awful.

Just two days ago, I had all the windows in the house open, the dogs were out side lounging on the deck and Mark and I took multiple dog walks outside because it was over 60 degrees. Today its 33 and cloudy, with possible snow tomorrow!

SO SO SO OVER IT! Canada needs to take their damn winter back!

Our first child: Slappy

We adopted Slappy from Reunion Rescue in May of 2003. We're going on 7 years of love with our little brindle girl, and I thought it would be a nice time to remember her first milestones with us, since she is going to be a big sister soon!

This is the second time I met Slappy. I went to visit her at the emergency vet after her spay opened up and she ended up eating part of her intestines and stomach. She required a lot of surgery to repair her. The end result was an alive dog, a fired shelter employee (who drove her to the emergency vet) and a huge ordeal with our rescue being banned from pulling from San Francisco Animal Care and Control... its a long story!




Slappy's first Christmas card:


Her first picture with Santa:


The first time she met her grandpa... who was hesitant to meet his pit bull granddaughter... it was love at first attack kiss!




First trip to the Lake:


First camping trip:


Her daily walk up on the road:


Three generations of Hanses:


Slappy and her BFF Biggie. I guarantee you they got in trouble for this one:


and this one:


Our first foster dog ever, the Dingo:


One of my favorite pictures ever:


Another favorite:


Slappy's favorite toy ever, her eel... Pokey killed it.



Slappy's first appearance in the PBRC calendar:


She used to love sitting in the sun on the grass and helping her dad work on the ford.



Slappy and her cousin Bella:


Slappy's first taste of Missouri snow... check out the look on her face!


One of the first pictures of Slappy and Pokey... I think they love each other:


So far Slappy has visited 13 states, been to beaches, lakes and bodies of water all over the US. We're proud of our little girl.

The floor... a compilation... what a mess!

So here is a pictorial of what we went through with our bedroom floor. It started out as a kitchen, and had an ugly white vinyl flooring on top of this hideous brown flooring. There were 6 layers of flooring before we were able to even get to the bare wood. Also, there were huge nails every 4 inches from each other throughout the entire floor. We walked around with socks to get them snagged to figure out where the hidden nails were... it was gross!

Mark scraped the glue up by hand in the entire 10x10 room.

After 3 hours of Mark and his dad removing the previous 5 layers of hideous flooring:



This floor was filthy, stinky and probably full of asbestos.

Mark chipping away the old floor tiles before he has to scrape up the glue:


The beautiful wood with a top coat of disgusting old glue:


After soaking the glue in water for 30 minutes, Mark used that scraper attached to the pole to scrape up what he was able to of the glue to reveal a severely damaged wood floor:


The entire floor scraped:


First round of sanding:


Final sand:


Stain and poly:



Tada!

So... we're trying to teach Slappy how to use the treadmill...

It isnt going very well because she is just too treat motivated.

Sorry its dark, and the room is an absolute mess. We're still trying to organize after moving our bedroom.

Oh Abbi-gator, why won't you get adopted?

DSC00276
Originally uploaded by Rachel and Mark H.

I truly love this dog... I just wish the perfect home would swoop down and adopt her.

If you know anyone who wants a sweet little girl, she is available!

32 Weeks tomorrow!

We're officially 32 weeks tomorrow. I have started visiting the midwives every two weeks now. So far everything looks great and very "boring."

Its been freezing cold here in Missouri and we're setting records for the most amount of snow they have seen since 1962... :( We also tied the record low yesterday for 9 degrees. The average temperature for yesterday was 46... which would be really nice about now.

We still have Abbie, our foster dog. Its a little discouraging that we have given the rescue about 7 months to find her a new foster home and we haven't heard anything about it. If you want a really sweet, cuddly little dog that is completely potty trained, let me know! I warn you she is a female pit bull which means she is a total brat, but we love her like our own.

Sassy is still going strong. She has a growth on her eye that doesnt seem to be giving her any pain. I am hesitant to take her in to have it looked at because she cannot survive a surgery and we're really just letting her live out her life until she is no longer comfortable. She seems pretty happy to me!

Mark takes his part 2 & 3 of his boards in March. Then he takes part 4 in May. We didnt really plan this stuff very well... but we'll get through it! He is very ready to be done with school and really enjoying his time in the student clinic. If anyone wants an adjustment, he is taking new patients!

Back to baby stuff:

We're getting so close its almost insane. We're starting to get things ready for her arrival. We are attempting to cloth diaper so we can avoid waste, landfills and cans full of stinky poop in our house. We received a really wonderful gift from a friend yesterday of 3 super nice cloth diapers. We have a few others that we found discounted online. My aunt also bought us a diaper service for a month after the baby is born so we don't even have to do our own laundry!

We had another friend loan us a ton of stuff that she had leftover from her little one who is now 2. She saved us a ton of money, and we're super grateful!

I have gained 25 lbs so far. Which sounds like a ton, but I really havent gained anywhere other than my belly. Here is to hoping it continues that way!