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You've got to live the life you love. You've got to love the life you live.

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Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Busy busy busy

Whew! These past four weeks have been super crazy. We've for sure been through a roller coaster of emotions.

We had a pretty scary experience when Gavin decided to come two weeks early -and SUPER fast.
Because I tested positive for Strep-B and wasn't able to get the antibiotics before labor Gavin had to have an IV in his tinny little arm. Broke my heart.

Two days later the pediatrician explained to us why she decided to run some blood tests on Gavin because he showed some physical features of down syndrome. -But told us not to worry about it because he only had two signs.

The poor little guy had to go under the bili lights for his jaundice.

We got to take him home! Home sweet Home :)

Grandpa Gardner came to visit!

At a week old I had to take Gavin to the doc to get the strep-b results and ended up having to go to the hospital because he was looking too yellow. And ended up having to put him under the lights at home for two days. -NOT fun.

Gavin rolls over!! That's my boy :) so proud.

The blood test results came back positive for down syndrome. Not the easiest thing to hear. Needless to say I cried -not because I was disappointed or sad, I just keep thinking of the struggles my baby is going to have throughout his life. It's going to be the hardest thing, but I I'm up for it all.

The whole experience made me realize how much love and support my family has for Nathan and I. I truly am blessed.

Grandma Gardner came to visit! And even took me shopping :) it was a nice break.

We had to take two different trips into Primary Childrens to examine Gavin's heart. A lot of people with downs have heart problems too.

The first trip came with good news. The EKG showed no problems. (we're still waiting on the results from the ECHO)

We we're referred to a geneticist who was also at Primary Childrens. It was pretty stressful having to go into salt lake three different times, a lot of different appointments and other things to remember. But good news followed this appointment too. The doctor said he has good muscle tone. Its common for downs babies to have low muscle tone so I was happy to know that his was good. She didn't have any other concerns and said we didn't need to schedule a follow up.

We had the DDI Vantage program come and evaluate Gavin. It was yet another thing going on -piled on my plate, but it ended up being a good thing. Its good to know that there is a program that can help Gavin as he begins to learn and develop and provide extra help if he needs it.
Now its Christmas! The best time of the year. I love the spirit of Christmas and all the happiness and love it brings. Having a new baby, I think about Mary and her giving birth in those circumstances, and it humbles me. I'm reminded that Jesus Christ went through experiences such as being born in a grungy old manger in order to succor his people. I know that having a child with a disability isn't going to be easy, but I also know that I have a Savior who is going to be with me every step of the way.
I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!




p.s. My little boy is SO cute! I just had to add some pictures

Friday, December 18, 2009

3 Weeks Old

Gavin is three weeks old today! Each day he is awake a little more, which is fun. The last time we had him weighed, he was 6 pounds 15 ounces and he is finally starting to fit into his newborn cloths. He is a super good baby, he hardly ever cries and I usually have to wake him up during the night to feed him.
Here are a few picture of my sweet boy.
Playing on our bellies. He doesn't like it too much -the reason he rolled over at a week old :)

But he loves his bath.

Monday, December 14, 2009

I Love It Here In Holland

I don't really know what to say, only that I feel so blessed and privileged to have Gavin in my life. I've felt Gods love for me more this passed week than I EVER have. I truly know that I am a special daughter of his, and he knows me personally; he has a special plan for Nathan and I on this Earth.
Last Wednesday we found out that little Gavin is an EXTRA special little boy. He has what is called Mosaic Down Syndrome. Its a rare type of down syndrome -only about 1% of people with downs have Mosaic. Basically, with Gavin, only half of his cells have the extra chromosome. So technically...he's only half downs :) which is why he doesn't look like he has it.

We were given this little poem by Gavin's Dr. I like it a lot. :)

WELCOME TO HOLLAND
by Emily Perl Kingsley.

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......
When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."
"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."
But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandt's.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.
But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Happy ThanksGAVIN

Well, now that I have a free second I thought I would post our eventful Thanksgiving weekend. We went to my parents house for Thanksgiving, we had lots of yummy food and all shared what we were thankful for. I said "I'm thankful for this tinny baby inside my tummy...Oh and Nate" :)

I decided I wanted to go Black Friday shopping with my mom and sister in-law early the next morning. We left around 3:30 to get to Kohl's 4:00 a.m. door buster. We had pretty much planned out our trip so that we could make it back in time for the infamous "preg-check."
While in Wal Mart is where I started getting backaches. We figured it was just because I had been walking around for a couple hours, luckily we were just about done with our shopping.
Once we got back I took a long nap at my moms house, while I waited for Nate to get home from work. Even after my nap I was still getting backaches. My sister in-law said they could be contractions....
When Nate got home from work we had some dinner and decided to run to Wal Mart to look for a few gifts I didn't get earlier. And I was still having back pains. Again we figured it was just because I had been on my feet walking around all day, so we decided to go home and relax and watch a movie. The movie Nate chose was Big Daddy. My "backaches" were still bothering me, even to the point I couldn't sit down, I just kept walking around the house. By this point I knew something wasn't normal, but I didn't really know what was going on. Finally I took a shower to help relax. To make a long story short I was having really painful contractions, so I called my mom to ask her how you know if your in labor. She said to time my contractions, and if they were close to call my doctor. This was a little before 9:00 p.m. While I was on the phone Nate started putting a hospital bag together just in case. We timed one contraction and then...... MY WATER BROKE!! (around 9:05) So we rushed to the Tooele Hospital* We arrived at the hospital at 9:15 and Gavin was born at 9:20. The on call doctor didn't even make in time to deliver the baby. It was a super crazy night, and has continued to be a crazy week and a half, but I'm so happy to have my wonderful, beautiful baby boy here.
*The hospital I had been going to for prenatal care was in West Jordan, about 40 minutes away from our house. Nate was for sure inspired to take us to the Tooele hospital. Otherwise we would have had the baby on the side of the road.
Here are a few pictures. We don't have a lot from the hospital only because we didn't have our camera. We took a bunch on our phones but I cant figure out how to put them on the computer.
This is the last picture taken of me preggo belly. I'm so glad I don't have that thing anymore :)

Gavin under the bili lights for his jaundice.


Gavin's first bath at home.
More bili lights at home. Poor guy did NOT like it in that little case.
Some how he ended up with the pillow on his head.

Playing with daddy.
Silly face :)

Another bath with daddy. My sweet Boy. Isn't he the cutest little thing? I cant get enough of him.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

The joys of pregnancy.

Swollen phalanges, sore ribs, weak bladder, backaches, sleepless nights, and "gain-the-weight-osis."
I just love being pregnant. Good thing its all going to be worth it! But in all seriousness I actually feel really good, I cant complain too much. I'm just to the point where I'm ready to get my big belly off of me. Luckily I have an awesome husband who has really stepped up to help me.
One more Month!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Halloween

Happy Halloween!
This year we got invited to a Halloween dinner party, which was a lot of fun. It wasn't too hard to decide what we were going to dress up as -Juno was the first thing that I thought of. Nate's costume was my favorite. He was such a good sport for dressing up like a goofball.


These are the treats I took to the dinner party. They were pretty good until the cookies got soggy from the pudding. :(




The dinner party was Thursday night, so on Halloween we went to my parents house to hang out. Of course all the grandkids who live in Granstville come trick-or-treating to my moms. It was fun to see them all dressed up. I wanted to take pictures, but forgot. Afterwards Nate and I doubled with my sister and her date. We just went to dinner, but it was still fun.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Birthday Dad

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!
I have the best dad. He is such a great example. He is, by far, the hardest worker I know. His love for working hard is the thing I admire the most about him. I remember when I was little thinking that my dad was the smartest person EVER -I still think that, he always has the answers to my questions.
I am so grateful and blessed to have him as my dad.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Weekend Fun

This past weekend Nathan and I did some fun stuff, or I could say we actually did something. We usually don't do much because Nate prefers to just relax from his busy work week.

On Thursday Nate had is very last softball game, which he did really well, as usual. But, as usual his team lost.
On Friday we went to a pumpkin patch and picked out some pumpkins. Nate picked two; he said he needed an extra one in case he messed up the first one while carving it.

I picked a momma size pumpkin, and then we got a baby one for "Baby Gardner."

Yummy! Pumpkin guts :)

We bought a pumpkin carving kit with stencils.

The finished products! We tried to light our faces so you could see who's-is-who's. Nate's is on the right (the little monster guy).
p.s. my face looks chubby. -I guess I have an excuse though :)

On Saturday we went and watched my nephew play in his little league football game. He did so good. I like watching him play a lot; makes me so proud. He's almost 11 years old and almost as tall as I am!

Later that day, my sister in-law brought her kids into Salt Lake to Gardner Village. Because we live next door, we walked over and hung out with them. The kids (that includes Nate) are looking at the tinny fish in the pond below.

"Get Bewitched." My niece loved this witch, she stood and watched it for about 5 min. The witch had a cat chasing a mouse under her dress.
We're practicing for when we go get our "pregnant pictures" taken.
On Sunday I went to my parents house while Nate was at work. Anyway, while I was there, one of the momma cows had her baby. I didn't stay to watch it all because it got too dark, but I just thought "Oh man, that's gonna be me in a little less than two months!"
P.S. We went to the doctor this morning and everything looks good, we're on track :) we start our "2 week" visits now. Let the count down begin!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

32 weeks

Quick update on our little rascal. He's more and more active everyday; I can tell he's getting really strong, because its starting to hurt A LOT whenever he moves. He's most active at night -when I'm trying to fall asleep of course! We have a war every night on who gets to occupy the space next to my ribs. He's just about as stubborn as I am, but I usually just let him win. :)31 weeks

Two of my favorite outfits I've gotten the baby. In the top picture the shirt has a pattern of airplanes, and in the bottom just a picture of a plane. Because his daddy helps airplanes fly safely, his grandpa fly airplanes, and his great grandpa use to fly airplanes, I knew I had to buy them.




32 weeks. I'm finally starting to feel pregnant. My belly is big enough now that it limits me in being as active as I'm use to, which is kinda annoying, but its totally worth it.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Excitement

This is pretty gross, but the truth: Nathan and I have been married for a year and a half now and have never owned a vacuum until just recently. -That's a LONG time going without vacuuming ha ha. But...for the first year we moved every three months so its not as bad as it seems. Anyway, we finally got a vacuum!!! I was so excited; as soon as I got home I put it together and of course used it. I was smiling the whole time I was vacuuming :) Nate was laughing at me and thought it was pretty funny. And the best part about it all was we got a great deal on it. It only cost us $180 instead of $400!My new favorite dance partner! ha ha jk I was just thinking about Ms Doubtfire.

29 weeks

30 weeks

Monday, September 21, 2009

Baby

We went to the Doctor on Friday and I had an untrasound. This first picture is of the baby's profile. I think his mouth is open and he's sucking on his fingers, super cute! We're thinking he gonna have a Bunderson nose :)


28 weeks

I have a small problem with the spacing between my utrus and cervix -or something like that. The doctor isn't super concerned, but is hoping it will just fix itself. I guess if its a big problem I would have to just get a c-section.
Last night Nate was playing with our baby. Nate would push on my stomach and the baby would kick back; it was super cute and fun. We're excited to get to play with him once he's here.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Nates Post

Nate The Great. Just look at my cute wife! She is gorgeous. I sure am lucky to have her. Overall I'm a pretty lucky guy, great wife, family, little kid, job. I would say athletically talented but my softball team is 0-5. ha. We lost another game tonight. I have fun playing but man I can't stand losing, I guess thats why I stopped playing baseball when I was 12, you can't win all by yourself. ha. So we found out tonight that our good friends Colton and Misty are pregnant so thats really exciting that one of our friends is pregnant at the same time as us. Brooke uploaded some pictures of whats been going on the last week or so.Brooke at 27 weeks prego.Brooke and our niece at the state fair. Notice the GINORMOUS pig in the background, it was by far the biggest pig we've EVER seen. It was as big as a cow -with sort legs of course.Brooke at 27 1/2 weeksMe up to bat, I forgot my cleats so I had to wear my grandpa shoes. Ha ha

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Baby Up-date

26 weeks....
Boy oh boy!
This kid better have some bulging leg muscles by the time he comes out, cause he sure is getting some good exercise in here.Everything is going good though. We're getting anxious to meet our little rascal. I'm whining down on my second trimester, and I hear its all down hill from there, so wish me luck :)

Monday, August 31, 2009

Whats in a Name?

We thought this was pretty darn funny so, I figured I'd post about it. There are new people coming into our ward ALL the time and of course they always have to introduce themselves at the beginning of class. Well, this new couple stands up and the guys says "Hi, I'm NATE GARDNER, and this is my wife... so-and-so." -wait what!? (this is what I was thinking) I looked over to Nate and we both started laughing.
Nate went up to him after class and talked to him for a sec. come to find out his full name is Nathaniel, so technically they're not the same person ha ha.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Baby

I kinda feel silly posting a pic of myself. But....whatever
24 1/2 weeks (almost 6 months)
No baby name yet. With my 10 nephews, Nate's 4 brothers, and all our boy cousins; all the good names are taken. Here are a few of MY favorites.
  • Brock
  • Reese
  • Cole

What do you think?

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Dr. Check up

So I went to the doctors today for my 24 week check up. I was in and out super quick, the doctor just measured my belly and checked the babies heart beat -and that was it. But everything is good! I'll get an utrasound my next appointment and I'm pretty excited; mostly because Nate will finally be able to come with me. I think he's gonna love seeing this baby boy, cause he's felt him move a bunch, so it will be fun.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

For some reason my computer wouldn't let me upload more than five photos. So here are a few more from the reunion.

When I was little my family came to Kennecot and I remember this HUGE tire the very most.

May 24, 2008

May 24, 2008