Yankee Doodle isn't coming to town. . .but our little girl is!!

Today was our official ultrasound. . . we are having a girl!!! Just one :) We are excited!! Kyle couldn't wait for the appointment to finish to tell EVERYONE!! After the ultrasound, I went to the bathroom, and half the people in his address book knew before I was done. I dropped Kyle off at work, went to the store and ran into a couple of the girls he works with and they already knew because he had posted it on Facebook!! We are both excited to have her here. Next task, pick a name :) Too bad for Kyle. . . It's not a boy so he can't try for Yankee Doodle any more! We are due July 4, 2009 so Kyle's still rooting for a patriotic name. Any suggestions??

I am feeling much better. I haven't thrown up in a week, but now I have an insatiable appetite!! If it keeps up, I will easily gain back the 25 pounds I lost at the beginning of the pregnancy!

Our first ultrasound

Today I went for my 16 week checkup with the doctor. While he was doing the fundus check (where he presses his fingers into my belly to feel where the top of my uterus, the fundus, is) he had a funny expression on his face. He then asked me, "Are you sure of the date of your last menstrual period?" I said, "Yes". "Did you say multiples run in your family?" "Yes." "We need to do a quick ultrasound. Your fundus is where it should be at 20 weeks not 16." So off I went to the waiting room to wait for the ultrasound tech to have a quick break. While in the waiting room I called Kyle and told him what was going on. He informed me he was on his way over. (My doctor's office is across the street from where Kyle works.) I was called in to see the ultrasound tech just as Kyle got in the building, but she didn't have time to wait for him to come up to the 3rd floor. She did a quick ultrasound and said, "Sorry I'm so rushed!" Handed me a piece of paper and showed me where I needed to wait for the doctor. When I looked at the paper I realized I had a picture of our baby in my hand! The doctor came out a couple of minutes later, looked at my chart, and came up and said, "I was wrong. Just one baby, and you are right at 16 weeks according to the baby's measurements." We had a brief conversation about what could cause my uterus to be how it is and set an appointment for next month for the "real" look at the baby's anatomy (heart, brain, lungs, etc.) and find out the baby's sex if the baby will cooperate. I walked out into the waiting room, handed Kyle the ultrasound, pointed out the baby's parts, and shared what the doctor told me. As we walked out of the building Kyle turned and said, "I'm glad we are not having twins." When I dropped him back at work he was excited to take the pictures of our baby with him to show off.
Looking at the top image you can see the baby lying on it's back with knees and great big belly sticking up in the air with it's little arm down the side of the body. The bottom image is a face on shot. You can see the outline of the skull and it's knees.

I am excited for this new little one that will be joining our family!! We are starting to look for furniture and baby supplies. Wow!! They can be expensive!! If you know of anyone getting rid of some or selling some let us know. . . if we can't use them, I have a couple of friends in the area that are looking for baby stuff too.

A chance to post details has finally been found!!

We have been blessed tremendously in the last 6 months!! A great job for Kyle, a new dog, an awesome house, a baby on the way, and a better job for me!!

Kyle is working for LasVegasSun.com as an online editor and for the Home News covering hyper-local news. Kyle really likes his job because he gets to do a bit of everything. His primary job is editorial work and loading the stories and work of others on-line. He also has covered and written stories, taken photos for stories, and done some video work. (Click on the blue word stories and video to see samples of his work.) We live about a half a mile from his work, so quite often he enjoys walking to work. One of my favorite things about his job, is that I have RARELY heard him complain about it. Usually he comes home with stories of the work he is doing, or his awesome co-workers.

As I have shared in the past, after moving to Las Vegas we adopted a second dog, a Yellow Labrador Retriever, and named him Casey. Casey was a lot of work, especially at first. After a couple of months with us he is much better at following commands, behaving, and not jumping up on us. He still has his moments, but he is a quick learn. Koko, our Australian Shepherd is a great teacher!!

Also as previously shared, we bought a house and I think we are almost settled in. We are enjoying our home, and though we have found a few dead scorpions upstairs, we can't find much to complain about. (Really I think the scorpion idea has become more of a topic of conversation than a concern.)

We are pregnant and expecting on July 4, 2009. Kyle's parents are excited to tell people that they will have a grand baby and not just grand dogs =) I would occasionally get sick during my first trimester, but basically felt as if I wasn't pregnant. The first few weeks of the second trimester have been a little more difficult. I have found my stomach is sensitive to some of Kyle's favorite foods (garlic, melted cheese, Togos, greasy foods), and I have had days where nothing will stay down. All in all I'm doing well and Kyle says I'm starting to show.

Job wise for me has been a bit of a roller coaster. We were blessed for me to find a job very quickly, which offered a generous sign on bonus and relocation reimbursement, which was an awesome blessing at the time. The job seemed great at first, but the more time I have spent at this particular hospital, the more I realize they are about the money and not the patients and staff. (The patients are taken care of and get better, I've just seen better care at most of the other hospitals I have worked in the past.) Nurses at this hospital have been laid off and nurse to patient ratios have been climbing. I've watched as nurses are burning out, they are more frequently calling in sick, and rarely have I seen the hospital find appropriate coverage for sick calls. They say they call the agencies to get additional coverage, but I have never seen an agency nurse working in this hospital. I just don't feel like I'm in a place where I can give the care to patients that I want to give and I know they deserve. So I started looking for something that will make me feel like a nurse and that I am giving the patients I am caring for the best care. I start orientation next week for a Per Diem float pool position working for another hospital, while working part time where I am, until we see how things go. The new position pays more money, has more flexible scheduling, is closer to home, the hospital has set nurse patient ratios which seem appropriate, and seems like it will work better with our lives once the baby comes. Only time will tell.

All in all we are doing well, we are greatly blessed, and don't have much of anything to complain about. There are days I wish we had the cockroaches back, because with two dogs there is a lot of poop to be scooped, but chasing the cockroaches back out the door. . . .I'll keep what I've got!!

Update to the maiden name/middle name drama

The week before Christmas I decided to take another chance trying to register my car and see how things panned out with the maiden/middle name drama. I had contacted California to get my name updated on my registration, but had not seen the new registration. I decided to take my chances and went to a different DMV. I walked in, got in line, and waited. When it was my turn to go up to the customer service representative, I handed her the required paperwork, my drivers license, my California license plates, and my California registration. I then asked her if she needed to see my marriage license or my social security card to verify the name change since California had not sent me an updated registration. She said that would be a good idea, took them verified the name and birth date, and as an after thought said, "Since your drivers license has Suzanne Hansen on it, I can go ahead and put that name on your Nevada registration." She then finished the paperwork and handed me my Nevada license plates and registration.
So much for hard fast rules that can't be flexible and not taking names from social security cards :)
As I was leaving I told the woman that I had been told I couldn't have my maiden name as my middle name in Nevada, even though I had it legally changed with the Social Security department, and asked if she knew why. She told me there was a law or ordinace passed a year or so ago that only last names can be changed in Nevada and the only middle name that can be accepted is the middle name listed on a birth certificate.
Moral of the story is . . . if you don't give your daughter a middle name with the idea that her maiden name will become her middle name. . . don't let her move to Nevada or it can't happen!!

Exciting News!!

Kyle and I informed family and close friends around Thanksgiving and are now making a formal announcement to everyone we know, WE ARE PREGNANT!!! Our baby is due July 4, 2009 and Kyle has it in his head that we should name the little one Yankee Doodle. I am sure that won't happen!! Name suggestions are welcome :) The holidays and transitioning from one job to another have kept me very busy. I'm posting this quick note. . . with details to come in the near future!!

Thanksgiving fun

Kyle's parents, two brothers, sister, my sister with her husband and four kids, Grandpa and his wife Ann came over for Thanksgiving. We spent the morning finishing up preparation and cooking and ate around 4 pm. It was fun to have everyone here. Brenda, my sister, and family came in from St George, where they had been visiting her in-laws for a week. Kyle's family drove in from San Jose CA that morning and stayed till Sunday morning. I love having people here!!! Why I love the chaos for a period of time, I'm not sure, but I enjoy it.
The day after Thanksgiving we headed out to do some exploring and shopping mid morning (I don't like the chaos of the shopping rush). The girls headed one way and the boys another. We met up later and ended up finding light fixtures for the house (the ones that were here were UGLY!!!) In the process we also found two chairs for the living room. We ended up spending more money than we planned, because we had just planned on buying light fixtures, but it was all things we needed.
I worked Saturday at the hospital 7am to 7pm, so Kyle took the family and showed them sights around town. They aren't gamblers, so they explored some of the shows in the Casinos and explored the cactus garden decorated for Christmas. They also helped start decorating our house for Christmas and did a great job!!
All in all it was a great Holiday. I'm just kicking myself for not breaking out the camera.

It's been too long!!!

So I posted last almost a month and a half ago. . . we had just found out we got the house that we fell in love with and had put an offer on. So every spare moment from then till now has been spent packing, moving, unpacking, shopping for furniture, getting settled, working and sleeping. Grandpa Hansen has been a tremendous help in doing little this and thats to help us get to where we are. We moved in October 18th, and I can't believe it's been a month!!!
People have been asking what the house looks like. . .well here are some pictures. . .but please remember we are still unpacking and finding places for everything. We still have a few more pieces of furniture to buy, and pictures that we haven't put up on the walls yet. Our house has lots of funky angles that make it hard to get good pictures of the rooms, so I did the best I could!!

Our house from the street.
The back yard.
(This photo was taken when the previous owners were still here.)

Another view of the back yard.

This is the stairway leading upstairs,
just after you enter the front door.

The living room, across from the stairs shown above.

The kitchen

The Family room, just off the kitchen.

The dining room as seen from a glimpse
from the kitchen photo and across from the Living room.

AND NOW FOR UPSTAIRS. . . .

The office at the end of the hall (still in progress)

The other end of the office/library
(was two bedrooms that the previous tenants had
knocked down the wall between. Thank you
for saving us some work!)


The hall bathroom. . . yes the outhouse theme survives :)

The other bedroom/guest room/someday to be a nursery/
put stuff in it for now/next to the master bedroom room.
The master bed room
(it is bigger than this picture makes it look.)
The master bath with a walk in closet, a wall closet
and separate "toilet room" that you can't seen.
Koko and Casey patiently waiting in the hall
for me to finish this post :)
They are not allowed in any of the rooms upstairs except
our bedroom at night, so they have adopted
the blanket in preference to the hard wood floor.

It has been a grand adventure that we hope not to repeat in the next couple of years. I'm glad it's done. I'm glad we are getting settled.
Kyle is LOVING!!!! his job.
I love what I do for my job, but I'm not sure I see a long future in the hospital I am at. They are letting the economy influence how they take care of their employees, so we are being very understaffed even thought there are people wanting to work. I am a nurse to take care of patients and keep them safe while they get better, so I have put some feelers out to see if the staffing ratios are Las Vegas wide, or just something this hospital is doing to save a penny.