Sadness on Super Bowl Sunday

On February 6th we had to put our basset, Miss Molly Moose, to sleep. We came home from grocery shopping and her back left leg was no longer working and she had to scoot around the house. By the time the Super Bowl started she wasn't even trying to scoot around anymore. At half time we made the decision to have her put to sleep since she couldn't walk and she was 12 years old.

After the Super Bowl the vet came to the house, talked to us, and then put her to sleep. I had never done this before so I asked lots of questions and was assured it would be quick and painless. Kara, me, the vet, and his wife sat around her as she was put to sleep. Then we all pet her for awhile before they took her. They had her cremated for us.

We have the best vet in the world. It was so important that he be the one to do it (a different vet was actually on call). He has so much compassion for animals and likes how we care for our pets.

So now we are down to only two crazy critters. A Nakai and a Pseudo. They seemed to miss Molly at first because they were looking around the house for her. Now there is only one blanket that still smells like her and they regularly sleep on it. It's very cute and I don't know when I will be able to bring myself to wash that last blanket.

The two dogs have adjusted to being without their other sister and Nakai has become much more loving. She's usually a loner but she's been asking for love a lot lately. That makes me happy that she's adjusting so well to not having Molly around. If only I was adjusting as well as the dogs.

Parker's Room

Kara and I are getting super excited for the arrival of little Parker John. We have 11 weeks to go, but the nesting has begun!! This past week we finished painting, put up the wall decals, rearranged the room, put up new curtains, bought a new lamp, and bought a rug. We had everything finished by Wednesday. That was a good thing because we had lots of company on Friday night (Kara plays Bunco with a bunch of ladies). They all loved his room. The only thing missing is a chair, but there's no room for one in Parker's little room. However, we have two rocking recliners in another room upstairs and that is where we will spend lots of time rocking Parker and soothing him so he will go back to sleep.

I guess we aren't quite done with his room. We bought a shelf yesterday and haven't put it up yet, but it is so close to being done that I wanted to post pictures. I think his room turned out absolutely adorable and suitable for a boy.

The night light my mom made me when I was little. Kara hates it, but it will be staying in Parker's room.

BOY, OH BOY!!!

Well, we had our 19 week ultrasound today. And yes, Baby Mo is a BOY! His name will be Parker John Gade Hansen. Whether he likes it or not his nickname will probably always be Mo. We've told friends and family and they are so excited for us. It's a great feeling.

Kara was pretty funny at the ultrasound. She made the tech look twice to verify that he really was a boy. I think she was kind of in shock, her mommy intuition told her she was going to have a baby girl. Oh well, boys are just as good. And the good news is that everything the tech looked at was normal meaning we have a healthy boy growing in Kara's tummy. Woo hoo.

We will post pictures of the ultrasound soon. Promise.

Pictures from Week 10

Hello all. Sorry, I'm a little (okay...a lot) slow at updating. I didn't want to do anything during the first trimester. I was so tired, and I just wanted to sleep. Thank goodness for the second trimester. :) Here are some pictures from Week 10.

The head is on the right and the legs are on the left. But I think it just looks like a bunny.

Currently I am at Week 16 and on December 14th we will have another ultrasound and find out if its a boy or a girl. For now, the name for a boy is Parker John Gade Hansen and for a girl Kennedy Grace Gade Hansen.

We are calling it "Mo" (for now).

I thought I would share the first ultrasound photo. Mo is between the arrows and the dot is his/her heart. (Hearing the heartbeat was so incredibly amazing.) The circle is the yolk sac. Disregard the info in the lower right hand corner. It's wrong. I'll have to have a talk with the doctor about this! :)

Thanks everyone for your well wishes.

Kara

Kara is Pregnant

That's right folks, the little swimmers did their job. Kara is pregnant and we couldn't be happier! We had an early ultrasound last week due to the previous ectopic pregnancy. The baby was too small to measure, but we did see and hear the heartbeat. It was going at a rate of 120 beats per minute. The baby is just now seven weeks.

Our family and friends are very excited as well (and so are the nurses at the doctor's office). Between the failed adoption over the 4th of July and the news of this pregnancy we are relearning just how valuable and caring our friends are here in Wyoming. The support is just amazing and we are so blessed to have all these people in our lives.

We have our next ultrasound on the 14th of October. At that time they will be able to measure the baby. I don't know what else they will do then other than tell us the due date. However, since we know when Kara was impregnated it's pretty easy to determine the due date. It should be either the 8th or 9th of May. This is perfect timing for us due to Kara being a teacher. She will be able to take the last month off from school (thankfully she has that much time saved as long as she doesn't get sick) and then she will have three more months due to summer vacation. That means she will get to spend 4 months with our little one before returning back to work.

We hope everyone is as excited as we are. This has been a very long process. It has been four years since we first began the adoption process. It is a very good feeling knowing that our family will finally be expanding and will include a little one.

Thanks for all the prayers and support! We truly appreciate it. Keep coming back for more updates on the pregnancy.

JUST KEEP SWIMMING!

Here we go again. Round 5! Fifth times a charm???

Jen is ordering swimmers today. Thanks B772 (whoever you are!)
Tomorrow we have a follicle check and I get a shot in the ass! Yay!
And Saturday and Sunday we "Think Romantic Thoughts" as one of our doctors puts it. :)

Wish us luck (AGAIN!)