Banjo Man!

Last Tuesday, Brett, Florence and I took the kids to Jammin Java to see Mr. Don preform again.

Sadly, Mr. Don was playing somewhere else, however we did get to see a new act - The Banjo Man. The Banjo Man was also very entertaining, and got the kids up to dance, shake marocas, and sing for the entire hour.

Aaron slept the entire time, not at all bothered by the music or several kids who came to see him. Peter LOVED shaking his marocca, and playing with the other kids on the dance floor. Brett even got to help out, by passing out toys to the kids!

Plus I met another mom who just moved to the area and has a 2 year old and is due for her second in September.

Nana comes to visit!

For the next 6-8 weeks, I am not supposed to be picking up anything over 10 pounds... unfortunately Peter is about 22 pounds so Brett and I had to call in the help of friends and family to assist while I am recovering and Brett is working.

The first helper was Brett's mother, Florence (or Nana to the kids).

We asked that Florence help with meals, and caring for Peter so that we could focus on chores, adjusting to Aaron being home, and resting. Since she lives in North Carolina, it was a great time for her to bond with Peter and to also meet her newest grandson.

Homecoming for Baby Aaron!

Last Sunday, despite doctors telling us that he would be in the hospital for up to 2 weeks, Aaron came home to see his new home!

Home waiting to welcome us, friends Alex and Troy Goode were babysitting Peter.

Peter's reaction to Aaron was confused. He seemed interested, but a little more excited to have mom and dad home again.

Later that evening Aaron's God Parents, Mike and Sarah Merrill stopped by and we all ordered pizza and hung out with the babies.

That night Aaron slept for 5 hours straight before waking to eat, so we think he likes his new room lots!

Romance Dinner

After you give birth at Virginia Hospital Center, they gift you a "Celebration Dinner" on your last evening with them. For some reason, when we were in the hospital after Peter's birth I started calling it the "Romance Dinner." Since we always seem to have guests visiting in the evenings during our hospital stays we opt for the "Romance Lunch."

The food is amazing! They bring in a nice table with linens and real plates/silverware (we had been served on paper and plastic the rest of the week), and they include a bottle of sparkling cider. Both this year and last we ordered steak and potatoes with fresh steamed vegetables.



Such a fun little treat before you get to go home!

Thank you for being a friend...

The past week Brett and I have gotten the great honor of seeing first hand that we have been blessed with the best friends and family that one couple could ever ask for. The time, generosity, support, love and prayer that we have received have left us tearful and in awe and we feel it very necessary to personally thank some very special people in our lives.

When Aaron was born, help was needed on all kinds of levels. I have half way through with our laundry, Peter needed to be watched at home, we needed support people to sit with us in the hospital, and we needed food so we wouldn't have to cook and could concentrate on our new family when we arrived home.

These needs were met ten fold.

Our team of hospital support, those people who stayed with us for hours and hours (even over night sometimes) as a shoulder to cry on when Aaron wasn't doing so well and to make us laugh when we needed a distraction were...
Mike and Sarah Merrill
Andy Spray
Heather and Morgan Witherspoon
Alex and Troy Goode

Additionally, we had many visitors...
Matt Spray
Tony Witherspon
Iain Lawn
Mike Pritchard
Dwaine and Jackie Darrah
Ron and Shirley Furgerson
Josh and Sarah Burnett
Mary BeVard
Florence Gardner
Steve Gardner
Shellie and Hannah Kelly
Katelyn BeVard
Meghan McCluskey

Peter, who was our biggest concern, had lots of support as well. My mother had him the first night, and then my cousin Shellie and her daughter watched him for 5 days until the morning we left the hospital. On the last day, Peter's God Parents, Troy and Alex Goode, stayed with him until we made it home from the hospital.

In addition, there has been an over pouring of gifts, flowers, food, and cards sent to welcome Aaron into the world and celebrate our growing family (I would name names, but if you could see my "thank you" card list you would understand that it is too many to list). Not to mention those relatives who are too far to travel and have kept in touch diligently via phone and email correspondence.

There aren't words to describe how much all of you mean to us, and how thankful we are to have each of you in our lives. We love you all and will be there for you when your time of need comes!

Whats in a MIDDLE name?

So, you might be wondering why we had a survey of 4 potential names for Aaron and then not only didn't listen to our readers, but also picked a completely different name.

Survey results were as follows:

What should baby Aaron's middle name be? (66 votes total)
James - 30 votes (45%)

Christopher - 22 votes (33%)

Edward - 6 votes (9%)

Steven - 10 votes (15%)

However, when it came to Brett and my "game day decision" it was Aaron MICHAEL that we entered on his birth certificate!

The name actually was chosen about a month ago when Brett's best friend from college said that we should name the baby Aaron Michael because his name was Michael Aaron so therefore Aaron would be the opposite of him... Really social, good at sports, have a chin (you kind of have to know Mike to translate the humor there).

Anyway, days later we got to thinking... Aaron Michael... that actually sounds good. Plus Aaron's God Father was Michael Merrill, so it also meant something.

So, sorry we didn't listen to all of you, but we hope you agree with our decision... cause really you have no say in it ;)

Miracle baby!

Aaron Michael Gardner was (as previously posted) born on July 30, 2008 at 3:13am. He was 5 weeks early, and within hours of his birth we were hearing bad news. Our baby's lungs were under-developed, we were going to be staying in the hospital for a week or two, and he was also jaundice. I have should have known then not to worry though, because we have gotten scary news since being pregnant with Aaron, and against all odds the kids just powers through.

At our 18 week doctor's appointment during my pregnancy with Aaron we were told that there was a complication with his cord that sometimes causes birth defects, and that he had a strong change of having growth restriction issues in utero. After a couple months of praying Aaron had grown to being over 6 pounds with 6 weeks to go in the pregnancy. I was told that he was healthy and if he went full term he would be upwards of 10 pounds at birth (thank goodness I was scheduled for a c-section!).

Post-birth Aaron continued to shock us, by taking to every medication, machine, etc. that he was put on to help him mature to the strength of a "regular" newborn. When I was finally able to feed him he latched to my breast right away, despite the doctors telling me that premies are usually too small and not strong enough to feed from their mothers.

Between a fast recovery, high birth weight (for a premie), and being such a good eater, Aaron was released from the hospital only 5 short days after his birth. To make matters seem that much more miraculous you should know that day 1 of his life my doctor told me (and I quote) - "It will be an act of God if he leaves the NICU before 7 days."

Not only that, but Aaron some how passed his miracles on to mommy! I had been expecting a long and painful recovery after what I went through with Peter's birth, but with Aaron I felt better leaving the hospital then when I was admitted (it was a tough pregnancy). Sunday was the last day that I had to take narcotic pain pills (I was on Vicodon in the hospital), my energy is high, and with the exception of a little back pain I feel like a million bucks.

The best part about that is that I have been able to get tons done that I hadn't taken care of around the house before Aaron's arrival, and (because I am not taking pain meds) I am allowed to drive! I am still napping in the afternoon to stay rested (since I am getting up to feed Aaron at night), and sticking to my doctor's rule about not picking up items over 10 pounds (this includes Peter, which is heart breaking), but other than that I am not the least bit affected.

A healthy family is all we ever wanted, and right now it seems like we have that and more!

Songs with Mr. Don

Last Tuesday, Hannah and I took Peter to see Mr. Don (from our church) preform his origional and classic childrens songs at Jammin Java.

As always, we throughly enjoyed the music, Peter got to play with a bunch of kids, and I think it is something we will probably do on a regular basis (Mr. Don plays there every Tuesday at 10:30am).

New toy for Peter?

Last Tuesday morning Peter woke up a little early, so I was not completely finished doing my hair and putting on make up. After breakfast I brought him up to our room and put him on the floor to play with some toys while I finished.

Next thing I knew Peter had found a new "toy" to play with...



I guess I haven't had use for them in about 2 years, so I can't be too upset; and although I probably shouldn't encourage that behavior, it made me laugh.

Peter's visits the zoo!

I have a few blogs to catch up on before I get to all the birth stuff, so here it goes...

On Monday July 28, my cousin Hannah and I decided to take Peter to the Reston Petting Zoo. I had "googled" petting zoos in the area after seeing how much Peter loved animals earlier in the summer, but due to being so tired during the pregnancy I hadn't made it yet.

The place turned out to be cooler than we expected!

When we first arrived we found a barn full of pigs, goats, lambs, sheep, and lamas. There was food you could feed the animals and they were very friendly with the children.

At that point I thought we had seen everything, but after walking around and finding a couple little places for photo ops (pictures below), we stumbled upon a place to buy ice cream, ducks, geese, and swans roaming around, some caged animals, and a safari hayride.


The safari hayride was the coolest part of the whole trip! They had zebras, deer, camels, ostrich, bison, and more! All the animals came right up to get fed, and were very friendly (we were told they have never bitten, but it was a little nerve racking at times).

This is definitely an activity we will be doing again in the future, and I am thinking that it might be a fun idea for future birthday parties too!

Special thanks to Cousin Hannah for helping carry Peter and show him the animals all day!