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!)

Tomorrow the doctor will attempt to impregnate me!

Hehe...I think its funny that my doctor can go home and tell his wife that he tried to get me pregnant! :)

The birthmom changed her mind.

What else is there to say? We are very, very sad.

BIG NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!

We were contacted by our homestudy agency in Cheyenne on Wednesday night. The social worker on the other end of the phone said, "I think we have a baby for you." And I thought but didn't say, "Who is this? Where did they get this information? And this is NOT funny!" After I realized that it wasn't a joke, Jen got on the phone too and we made plans to meet the potential birthmother the next day. She is due July 29th but is having contractions. She will probably have a c-section any day now. And...it's a boy! :)

If all goes well, our next post will have pictures!

Kara and Jen

Update

Well, we had good news for a few weeks. Kara did get pregnant with the third round of artificial insemination. Unfortunately, the pregnancy was ectopic and we had to terminate it. Kara has had tons of blood drawn and is now a real pro at it, as long as she is in a reclined position. Her hormone levels have finally started to decrease so this is good news. Means the possibility of having to have surgery to terminate the pregnancy is extremely low. She will continue to get blood work done once a week until her hormone level returns to zero. Also, due to the fertility meds she has cysts on one ovary. So, once her hormone level is at zero and the cysts shrink we can then try artificial insemination again. Unfortunately, it looks like we won't be able to try at all this summer. Bummer!

Thanks to everyone that had their fingers crossed for us. It almost worked.

GEARING UP FOR ROUND FOUR!

Here we go again. We've only tried three times and I feel like we've been trying forever. I am so sick of doctors poking and prodding me! Well, that's all the news I have for now. Please send us some baby dust, good baby vibes, and prayers.
Kara

Hoping...

...that the third times a charm. Thursday and Friday we go to the doctor for the third attempt at artificial insemination. Please say prayers and/or keep your fingers crossed. We can't wait to be moms and are hoping it happens soon.

Ugh!

It didn't work. *sad*

Inseminating cattle seems to work...why doesn't it work for me?

Swimmers!

Well, after the disappointment with our "unmatch", we decided to try artificial insemination again. Originally, I thought that we should wait until Jen finishes her dissertation because I thought she might be a little overwhelmed. However, after our unmatch I decided I couldn't wait anymore (so Jen would just have to suck it up). Anyway, on Monday morning AND Tuesday morning, I was inseminated. We inseminated twice this month to increase our chances of pregnancy. We should know if we are pregnant by March 29th.

Side note: Living in Wyoming, the only experience people have with insemination is with cattle. So I've heard lots of stories about inseminating cattle! *rolling eyes*

Unmatched

Well, after just a few days of bliss our match is over. The birthmom found someone to help her raise her child and has decided to be a mom afterall. Our hearts are crushed right now and we are relying on each other to get through this tough time.

Not sure where we are gonig with adoption at this time. We are more than likely going to persue artificial insemination though. Feels like something we have more control over and that's important to us right now.

Thanks to everyone who was keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. It really does mean a lot to us knowing we have so many wonderful people thinking about us and hoping things work out and we have a child in the future.

Thanks again.

Officially Unofficial

We are unofficially matched with birthparents (A&B)! Yay! This means that they chose us to adopt their baby and we have agreed to proceed with the process. We hope to meet them over Spring Break and have an official match meeting. A is due June 12th and we are super excited! She finds out if its a boy or a girl on February 16th. Please, please cross your fingers, cross your toes, and pray pray pray that this is our baby.

Kara and Jen

MAYBE BABY!

Well, we are not pregnant! :( Very sad! However, we are talking to a potential birthmother. We are very excited about this "maybe baby." So we have decided to hold off on more inseminations until we know more about this situation and/or until Jen finishes that darn dissertation! It's all just too much right now!

So cross your fingers, cross your toes, send out good vibes, pray, etc., etc. that this is our baby! We are so excited to become mommies!

Task Complete

Well, we did it. We went to the doctor on Sunday and Kara is now insemminated. There is a 25% chance she is pregnant. Not a very high likelihood, but we're still hopeful and staying optimistic.

The insemination was quite the process, but it went very quickly. First we had to wait for the sperm to thaw (never thought I'd say that!). Then it was time for the procedure. Jen (that's me) was the doctor's assistant and got to hold the sperm twice. Yippee or is it yucky? Anyway, the doctor used a small catheter to insert the sperm into Kara's uterus after dilating her cervix. That's when Kara seemed to be in the most pain, during the dilation. After that we were done. We just had to sit with Kara's behind in the air for 20 minutes.

We got back in about a week to have a blood test to make sure Kara did ovulate and then if she doesn't get her next menstrual cycle (everyone keep your fingers crossed and the good vibes coming!) we do a pregnancy test on the 31st.

Tomorrow is the day...

that we have our first insemination. The doctor says that we have a 25% chance of getting pregnant tomorrow (depending on the quality of our swimmers). SCARY! EXCITING! CRAZY! Keep your fingers crossed!

How we are bringing in the new year...

Kara started taking Clomid, a fertility drug. We will go to the doctor soon to find out if Kara has a mature egg. Then...after we finally choose a donor (which is way harder than it sounds)...we will go back to the doctor to be inseminated. Wish us luck!