Long time no see

Long time no see, yeah yeah, I know. I just realized that it has been three weeks since I have made a post (excluding voicing my love for Cam Newton). Three weeks! I should be shot. Put down the guns, though, because I do have an excuse. My life has been quite boring.

Actually, it is still quite boring, which means this post will be quite boring, but I feel like I need to atleast give a couple of updates. Well, a few weeks ago I was hospitalized again for four nights due to the kidney stones. As it did during my pregnancy with Hayes, the pain gets much worse the larger I get (and baby I am LARGE) due to the baby pushing against my bladder and kidneys. When the pain gets to a certain level of intensity, I simply cannot keep my medicine or any fluids down, and that is when I have to be admitted. When I was finally released, I was put on complete bedrest for a week. I have never been on bedrest before with the stones and several people have asked me about it, so I am about to explain with the warning that it might be a little too much detail for some.

So, while I was in the hospital I started bleeding. That was one of the scariest moments of my life. I had a threatened miscarriage during my first trimester with this pregnancy, so immediately that is what I thought was happening, even though I was 19 weeks. Thank goodness for my sweet nurse, because I was hysterical and poor David ran to get her at the desk and basically carried her to our room. She reassured me that it just happens sometimes, but before she went to call the doctor, she immediately grabbed the doppler so I could hear the baby's heartbeat, and it was just a beating, so I felt better.

Anyway, I was put on complete bedrest for a week to see if the bleeding would stop and it did. Complete bedrest means only getting up to go to the bathroom, and I would normally cheat on something such as this, but I was determined to follow the doctor's orders for the health of the baby. With that said, I truly feel for people who are on bedrest for long periods of time, because it is pure misery! Sure lying around, watching t.v. sounds great, but au contraire! Of course, having a two-year-old didn't make it any easier. He would come home from the babysitter's and try to pull me out of bed, but eventually he just gave up and started avoiding me, which absolutely broke my heart. Between that and not being able to see the sunshine, I was getting pretty depressed and praying that I would be released from bedrest. Thankfully, after a week, I went back to have an ultrasound, the bleeding had stopped and she looked perfect. Finally off bedrest..yay!!

Speaking of that baby girl....she finally has a name!! Woohoo! Her name will be Ella Bailey Gardner, and we will call her Ella Bailey. I feel like we went through a trillion names and found a lot we liked, but in the end I just couldn't let go of Ella Bailey. It is just such a sentimental name for me, because my great-grandmother's name was Ella and obviously, Bailey is my maiden name. My only concern was it being too much of a mouthfull, but we will just make it work.

We are letting Hayes just call her Ella and that is his new favorite word! I know he doesn't really understand, but he is just precious kissing my belly and saying "I wuv you Elwa." If he accidently kicks my belly, he gets so worried and has to make sure she is ok, and of course he has to pray for her every night. So sweet! I am definately a little concerned how he will react when she actually gets here, but we will just take it one step at a time :)

Anyway, there are the updates and that is about as exciting as it has gotten around here lately. We have all been fighting stomach bugs and colds, so we have been hanging out indoors and watching a lot of movies. Besides a boring life and not blogging, I have also been severely lacking in the photography department lately, but that will all change next week. I have FINALLY ordered a Nikon D5000 and I seriously can't remember ever being so excited about a purchase. Needless to say, there will be a lot of picture taking going on in the Gardner house, which means lots of sharing and blogging, so get ready. Not to mention that we have all the family Thanksgiving and fun pre-Christmas festivities coming up! If I don't post again before going out of town for Thanksgiving, I hope you all have a wonderfully fun and safe Thanksgiving. I know that I will definately be counting all the amazing blessings that God has given me to be thankful for!!