We are out of the first trimester!!

So we have completed the first trimester and I must say that things are going great!! we had our 12 week appointment on 7/24 and got to hear the babies heartbeat that is good and strong!! We did find out that I scored low on the Down Syndrome test they like your numbers to be atleast 2,000 mine was 1,790ish...So on Wednesday we will be having a special ultrasound done called a Nuchial Translucency Scan where they will measure the thickness of the skin on the back of the babies neck to measure if the baby has a normal or greater than normal chance of having some birth defects. We are feeling pretty good about it and just staying positive that everything will be just fine!! We have had several family members/friends score way lower on their blood work and everything turned out just fine! Plus we get to see our baby!!

I am finally starting to look pregnant!! I have put on about 4 pounds so far which isn't a lot but it is something that I need to keep an eye on since I'm already a little overweight. Attached is a picture of me somewhere between 4 and 6 weeks and then the other one is 11 1/2 weeks...2 weeks ago. I will take another picture on Wednesday night of the belly and post it in my update on the NTS as well as any ultrasound pictures that we get (hopefully a few!). I felt the baby move for the first time last week it ws the most amazing feeling I have ever felt! The strange little flutter in my stomach that made me go "what in the world was that???" Anyways I just wanted to stop in and give you all an update!! I will talk to you on Wednesday!!

somewhere between 4 and 6 weeks:

11 weeks and 3 days! It's a big difference!! I'm starting to get that Pregnant belly look! :)

8 weeks and 2 days!

Today we had our first official OB appointment! We did get an ultrasound done at 5 Weeks and 5 days because I was having a lot of pain on my right side so after calling the advice nurse she decided that I needed to get an ultrasound to rule out an ectopic (tubal) pregnancy. The ultrasound showed that everything was perfectly fine and we even got to see the heartbeat at a good strong 107 beats/min!! So for today's appointment we did the intake with our OB...we went over my history A.J.'s history decided if we wanted to do any genetic testing and then we got to have another ultrasound so we could see the baby and the heartbeat again! Our little munchkins heart was beating very well and is growing right on time! We got to see the beginning of the spinal cord that is growing and the munchkin was moving around and trying to hide the heartbeat from us!!



The last four weeks have been pretty uneventful! I have had some pretty good nausea, thankfully no throwing up though! I have been exhausted as heck and moody at times but all in all I am loving it!! I'm trying really hard to not complain about how I'm feeling because I am so happy and blessed to finally be pregnant!! I am going to do better about trying to post once a week, a lot more frequently than the once every four weeks that I have been doing!! Here is one of our ultrasound pictures as well, the baby is the big white spot on the right hand side of the smaller circle!

A true blessing!

Well as I mentioned in a previous post I was going to be starting a fertility drug named Clomid. Well I started it a thte end of April and took it for five days, and wouldn't you know that the medication worked!! It made me ovulate but on top of all of that we got pregnant!!! We found out last Thursday night that I was pregnant and it was confirmed with a blood test on Friday. We are both so excited and in shock we were hoping that the Clomid would work quickly but we never expected the first month out of the gate for me to get pregnant!!

This has been a long three year journey for us with many emotional ups and downs, many procedures on my end to check and see if it was my "equipment" that was blocked, turns out it was and I had to have a minor surgery done to unblock my tubes, then once we got that problem fixed we realized that I was not ovulating on my own so our fertility doctor gave us the Clomid and gave us a 6 month time limit, if I was not pregnant in 6 months she was going to refer us to a Fertility Specialist and for IVF (invitro-fertilization) which costs thousands of dollars that we really do not have!

So as of today I am 4 weeks and 4 days pregnant and I am loving it! Yes I have lots of nausea, I'm exhausted and have heart burn but I am loving it!!! It is all worth it to me because I finally get to be a Mom and I get to make A.J. a Dad!!! He is going to be a great dad and I can't wait to meet our little one! I just want to thank all of you who have re-assured me through all of this that it was all going to work out and for standing beside us through the struggles that we have had!! We love you all and I will keep you guys posted as I progress and yes I will include baby bump pictures!

The 2 week countdown is on!

AJ and I will be goin gto Las Vegas in two weeks! We are going down for the Southwest Airlines Spirit Party AKA Southwest Sponsored Drinking Fest! We will be headed out on Tuesday May 5th after I get off work and coming home on Thursday May 7th, time to be determined by what time we finally roll out of bed LOL! So far there are only 8 passengers actually booked on the flight that AJ and I and a few other employees from PDX will be taking to Vegas, so we plan to start the party the second we can in the air and just keep on going when we get to Vegas, our hotel there The Golden Nugget is throwing a pre-party party for all Southwest employees and then of course the big event is Tuesday night and then the Golden Nugget is throwing an after party for us again!

I am so looking forward to our trip! Not so much just because we are going to be drinking but mainly because we are able to get out of town and go and do something! We don't honestly get a lot of time together to do things like this so when we do it is something that I really look forward to!

Mini Spring Break Vacation

Well AJ and I got to go on our mini vacation. We went to our home town and got to spend some much needed time with our families!! It was a great time we suprised both of our parents and my grandparents, we told them all that we were going to Reno!! We had a great time though and it jsut reminds me of how much I actually miss it there.....Yes it is a very small town but if AJ and I could have the jobs or atleast the pay that we do now and live there, we would be back there in a heart beat!! there are also a lot of downsides to living there as well; forone eveyone knows you and your business and two if you do not have one of the popular last names in town you may as well be a nobody....(no matter how smart or talented you are) your not going to get the scholarships/recognition. The picture above is looking at Elgin from the mountains.

Any ways that is it for my rant.....

While we were home my Grandfather (on my mom's side of the family) gave me two older film cameras, a vivitar and a pentx (the pentax used to be my great-great grandfathers camera) they both work perfectly, my grandfather also gave me a tripler (3x zoom lens) that fits both cameras. I am so excited about the cameras and learning how to use them so I can go out and get some great pictures, many of you may not know this but I have a huge passion for photography I have for almost 10 years and this just helps feed that passion even more and I can not wait to get out and take some photos along the scenic highway and get them developed to show them to my grandfather!

Well that is it for now, I have to get to bed, my vacation is over and I have to be back to work early tomorrow morning!

About me

Well where to start....My name is Nikie Hansen formerly Thompson I am 23 and married to the best man ever A.J. Hansen. We have been married for 2 years and 9 months but we have been together for almost 7 years in July. We grew up in a small town in Eastern Oregon but moved across the state after Graduation and now live in the Portland area. Life has been really good for us! We don't have any kiddos yet but we are hoping and praying for one soon! We have been trying for 3 years and recently found out from my OB-GYN that I am not ovulating on my own so I will be starting fertility drugs next month so hopefully soon we will finally have our own little miracle!!!

In these tough economic times A.J. and I are both blessed to have very good stable jobs, him at Southwest Airlines as a Ramp Supervisor and I at Kaiser Permanente as a Medical Receptionist. His job allows us the freedom to fly and go where ever we want for free or very very cheap so we have been doing a lot of traveling and seeing the sights while we are able to!!

Today we are getting ready to head out on vacation for a few days, we are either going home to see our families or we are headed to Reno for a little "US" time...I'm not sure which we are doing yet but I need to go change over the laundry and get things ready to go!