December Updates

Merry Christmas. This was on Christmas morning. Both of our kids were sick during the Christmas break, and to make matters worse, Lori Got sick too. Despite all the sickness in our home, it was the best Christmas ever! Avery is so appreciative of every single gift, and she loves watching others open gifts. Garrett and Avery love each other so much. It is so amazing to watch them. Avery is so concerned about her little brother. She always wants to help in any way possible, and Garrett's joy when he sees his sister is priceless.

Kids at Papi and Nana's house.

Avery and Garrett with their Great Grandmother.

On a side note, Thank you so much for all the prayers that you have said for our family this last year. We found out a year ago about Garrett's Spina Bifida on December 22nd. We decided that we would make December 22nd a positive day for us, and call it family day. Unfortunately this year on family day both kids were sick, so we all hung out at the house together. The important thing was that we were together. Lori and I are so grateful of all the thoughts and prayers that were said for us and more specifically Garrett.

Garrett is such an amazing boy! He is right on track developmentally. We think that he will start crawling soon. He gets up on all fours and rocks. His PT believes he is doing well too. Garrett can also lock his legs and stand too!

As always thanks for all you thoughts and prayers for Garrett.

November Happenings

November was a great month. Who doesn't love Thanksgiving? Aunt Heather and Uncle Will came over to visit from Wales. Aunt Heather brought over Dr. Pepper Zero. For some reason we don't have that here. She also came with us to Avery's Thanksgiving Feast at her school. Thanksgiving was great we had Thanksgiving at Uncle Keith and Aunt Meghan's new house, and then we went over to my Dad's house for Thanksgiving.

October Updates

Thank you so much to Aaron and Kathryn for running in The Washington D.C. Marine Corp Marathon (Aaron) and the Portland Marathon (Kathryn). Kathryn and Aaron raised over $2500 for the national Spina Bifida Association.

Thank you Lori for taking me to Austin for my birthday. Lori surprised me with Longhorn tickets to see Iowa State play Texas. I guess the real surprise was how crappy Texas played this year. Anyway it was a great weekend in Austin we stayed with Kathryn and Chance. They were excellant hosts. We went to an excellant Italian restarunt Friday night, and we had a room all to ourselves in the restuarant. There were also chicken bones on the ground.

For Halloween, Avery was Minney Mouse and Garrett was a Cheeky Monkey.

Garrett and his Papa. G-Man didn't actually get to go Trick or Treating he hung out at the house and passed out candy with Mama, Nana, Papa, Uncle Kee Kee, and Aunt Meghan.

Avery helping me carve the Jack O Lantern. Didn't realize how cute this pic was until now.

Avery right before her Trick or Treating started.

Spina Bifida Awareness Month

October is Spina Bifida Awareness month, and in honor of my son, Garrett two people very dear to our family are running marathons in honor of Garrett.

Kathryn, one of our best friends, is running the Portland Marathon on Sunday, October 10th. If you would like to make a contribution in honor of Garrett please follow this link:

https://www.kintera.org/site/c.liKWL7PLLrF/b.3876151/k.68FB/Tribute__In_Honor_Of/apps/ka/mt/createCard.asp?c=liKWL7PLLrF&b=3876151&en=6oJFLLNkHaJLKNMkG9KEJHOjGaIPI2OwEbKLJVMALmJUL3OIGOn

October 10th I will be running the Portland Marathon. I decided to raise awareness and money for the Spina Bifida Association (SBA) in honor of a very special family. My dear friends Lori and Adam had a son born May 2010 with Spina Bifida.

Because of Garrett, I’m inspired to support the vital work of the SBA. If you don’t know what Spina Bifida is, it is the most frequently occurring permanently disabling birth defect. Every day about eight babies born in the United States have Spina Bifida or a similar birth defect of the brain and spine. To learn more visit http://www.spinabifidaassociation.org/

Now I would like you to join the cause. Would you please consider making a flat donation or sponsoring me $1 per mile ($26), $2 per mile ($52), etc. Please complete the attached reply form and send back to me (email or mail) with cash, check or credit card.

1306 W. St. Johns Ave

Austin, TX 78757

Thank you so very much.

Best,

Kathryn

Aaron, my brother, is running the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C. please see his write up. If you would like to make a contribution in honor of Garrett please follow these directions too.

26.2 Miles through
2 Non-States for
1 Very Special Kid

On October 31, I will embark on a 26.2 mile marathon to honor my nephew, Garrett, born with Spina Bifida and to benefit the Spina Bifida Association of America (SBA).

The goals of this event are to:
Honor Garrett

Raise awareness for Spina Bifida

Fund the important work of the Spina Bifida Association (SBA)

I will be running the Marine Corps Marathon (winding through the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Virginia).

Please help make this a memorable run and support an organization that will be supporting my family for many years.

Goal: to raise $5,000
Yes Aaron! I want to support the SBA.


Please follow the steps below:

Go to http://www.sbaa.org/
Click on – Contribute to SBA
Next click on – Send a Tribute Gift
The contribution process involves two steps.
In Honor of
First Name: Garrett
Last Name: Douglas
Note: you can send a personalized card with your name and a message if you would like

Underneath, please populate the First Name Field (Aaron), Last Name Field (Douglas) and Email (aaroncdouglas@yahoo.com)
On the next page – please enter information about yourself (name / address/ credit card info)
Click Submit!

Spina Bifida Association4950 MacArthur Boulevard, NW, Suite 250, Washington, DC 20007 (800) 621-3141

As always, thanks for your thoughts and prayers for our son. God is great and has blessed Garrett. He is truly amazing!

September Updates

I'm Getting really big!!!

Okay, so the Weekly Douglas Digest should really be renamed to the monthly Douglas digest.

Garrett is now 4 months old! He is doing really well. Eating and sleeping like a champ. He is up to 15lbs and he is in the 67th percentile for height and 30th percentile for weight. In comparison to Avery at about this time she was maybe 5th for height and 3rd for weight. Garrett had a check up this week for his kidneys and bladder, and everything looks good. Thank God.

Garrett is getting very vocal. He makes all kinds of sounds now. My favorite is his laugh, but he also makes this funny Tarzan yell.

Avery is learning so much in school. She is starting to trace letters now. I can't believe my little girl is getting so big! She is doing great in Gymnastics right now. I let Lori know that club Volley ball starts at age 5, and she laughed and said we should probably stick to Gymnastics, since Avery's maximum possible height will probably be 5'4" tops.

Garrett started sitting in a high chair this week. He is trying the rice cereal. His PT is very happy with his development. He seems to be still falling in the average range for development.

Garrett is such a hard worker. His PT wants him to get at least 3 hours of tummy time a day.

3 hours is pretty tough to get especially when Lori and I are both at work on the same day. Fortunately Garrett has a great babysitter on days that Lori works. She helps us out with his tummy time.

Well gotta run, but before I go gotta post a cute pic of Avery.

I'll try to be better about updates, but before I go thanks again for keeping our little boy in your thoughts and prayers. He is definitely a real life miracle. God listens.

August 2010 Updates

It has been a while since I've updated the blog. We've been pretty busy. Lori and I are both back at work full time. This is a pic of Garrett with his uncle Zach. Garrett is now 3 months old. I can't believe it. Like I said, we've been pretty busy. We had a good/bad surprise this week, Garrett had to go in for a shunt revision. The bad is surgery, the good is he is back to playing around and sleeping through the night (knock on wood).

As far as I'm concerned, he's beyond hero status for me. He had a little pain after the surgery, but he was eating about an hour after the operation. He had the surgery Monday night and we came home Tuesday night. Normally they like to keep kids a couple of days after a shunt surgery, but I guess Garrett was ready to come home. He is such a trooper. I'll have to say my daughter is amazing she stayed with him all day Tuesday from 8:30-7:00 in the hospital room.

This is a pic of Avery watching her first ever VHS tape. I had to explain to her that there was a movie on here. She keep crying and telling me that it wasn't a DVD so it wouldn't work.

Avery is showing off her medal to me and Garrett. Garrett is so proud of his sister!

Avery's favorite thing to do at the gym is the rings. Sometimes she thinks it's optional to let go.

Well I'm sure I've missed something, but these are the highlights. Really all this happened this week, except for the pic of Garrett and Zach. Things are going well. We have two amazing kids. Thanks again for keeping Garrett in your thoughts and prayers.

Family Vacation

We just got back from our family Vacation yesterday. We had a great time. We went to Acapulco in Galveston. We rented a beach house and stayed for 4 days. It was great.

Avery and I went down every morning and made a sandcastle and played in the water. Garrett and m0mmy came down one day to join us for about 30 minutes. It was just too hot for Garrett. This was the only thing he wanted to do on the beach.

Avery's Castle.

Avery picking up shells at night with her mommy.

Garrett started to notice the TV.

Avery's Uncle Mark took her fishing for the first time. She absolutely loved it. Every time I'd cast her rod for her she would slowly start reeling it in yelling, "I think I got something!!!". It was so funny. Actually she was right, once. She then freaked out once the fish got in the boat.



We also went into town and got a great picture of Avery on the Strand and a great picture of Garrett in his stroller.

We had such a great trip, but now back to work for me on Monday and Lori goes back in two weeks. It was a great summer, and I wish we had another month together. Oh well, I can't wait for Christmas. That will be awesome too!

4th of July

Garrett has been full of facial expressions lately. I thought this one was funny because we started bathing him in the kitchen sink. We were using the bath tub, but this works much better. He actually loved this compared to the bath tub. I guess this is the deer in head lights look.

We had a great 4th of July. Lori's brother Keith and his Fiance' Meghan invited us over for some sweet BBQ, then we came home and took Avery outside to enjoy some Friendswood fireworks.

Okay... Seriously! She is just too cute. Avery is all about our new camera she's always posing. This was her watching Garrett's bath.

Garrett is so active now. He will stop in his tracks and find his mommy when he hears her voice. He is very active on the ground. He rolls on to his side, and he hits the rings and rattles on his tummy time mat. He is gaining more head control by the day. He holds his head up very well.

Garrett's bladder has been a little inconsistent lately, but he is only 6 weeks old. Mine is inconsistent and I'm 33. So with the recent inconsistency, we have moved from the once a day cathing to morning and evenings. Hopefully this will make it a little more consistent. ECI comes to work with Garrett on Monday. We will let you know how that goes. Last time she was pretty impressed with him. As always thanks for keeping Garrett in your thoughts and prayers.

Every Girl is crazy about a sharp dressed man!

This was such a good find by Lori. I know she couldn't wait to take a picture of him wearing his shirt and tie. I'll have to say, I'm a little jealous of the tie. Okay we have gotten some good pics of the kiddos, but first a quick update on Garrett.

We went to the urologist today and he was very impressed with how well Garrett has been doing on his cathing. He actually said we could probably quit doing it all together. We talked about it with him, since we were a little apprehensive with quitting all together, so we are just doing it once a day! We are so excited about this! Garrett doesn't really enjoy the cathing, but really who would.

Avery has been doing great in Pre School. She's talking in Spanish now. My dad is very fired up about that. Avery and I watered the yard the other day, and Avery had a blast! She loved it we sat in the hammock and got sprayed by the water. It was awesome. My mom came over the other day to see Garrett and Avery. Here is a good pic of Garrett and his Grandma.

Pic of Mommy, Garrett and Avery. Garrett is letting us know he's #1! I'm sure Avery would debate this...
That's about it for now. We will update again soon. As always thanks for keeping Garrett in your thoughts and prayers!

One Month Old!

Today is such a great day! I can't believe Garrett is one month old. Of coarse we have no pictures to post at this time, because we are in the process of getting a new camera. So we will take 1 month pics on the iphone. I know what you're thinking... Awesome!

Garrett is doing great! His caths have gone from 4 a day to 3, and we still are getting low levels of urine. We meet with ECI tomorrow to see if they will need to work with Garrett or just monitor him. Next week we meet with the urologist. Hopefully we can stop cathing or at least move to morning and evenings only.

Avery is doing great! They moved her to preschool 2 months early, and today was her first day. We have gymnastics on Wednesday and I think I'm gonna bring the video camera.

Lori and I are doing well. We cooked dinner for ourselves tonight for the first time in like 2 months. It was the Adam special: Grilled chicken, mashed potatoes and steamed veggies, and don't worry Lori made dessert.

Thanks again for all the support. As always thanks for praying for Garrett!

First Week Home

What a great first week we have had at home as a family. Avery has been such an amazing big sister. She constantly helps and makes sure that her brother is okay. Garrett is doing great! He is such a big eater. He probably eats as much now as a 3 week old as Avery ate as a 3 month old.

As you know we had 2 Doctor appointments this week. The first one was with our Pediatrician, Dr. Q. He was very impressed with Garrett and it was great to see him treating Garrett like a normal child. Everyone else has been so careful with him, but Dr. Q was moving his legs all around and measuring him. We also went to see Dr. W, the neurosurgeon. He also was amazed with Garrett's leg strength. He said his back looks great and we can take off all bandages, and that his shunt looks good too. Garrett has a renal ultrasound on Monday to check his kidneys and bladder. His cathing is going great. They wanted his residual to be under 30 ml, and he is averaging 11! Here is a precious picture of how much Avery loves her brother.


We are so proud of Garrett. He is even rolling from his back to his side. This isn't a great picture, but as Shrek would say, "It'll do Donkey".


And a picture of me with the kiddos. I went from beard, to goatee, to clean shaved.
Another pic of Garrett.
Garrett and his Papi.

And our Princess. She's eating one of her main food groups.


As always thank you so much for keeping Garrett in your thoughts and prayers.

We're Home!!!

Finally after one full month in the hospital, Lori 17 days, Garrett 15. 3 of the days overlapping. We are home! It is such an amazing feeling to be home. We are so blessed to be so fortunate to have two wonderful children. Avery is such an amazing helper with her brother. She gets us burp clothes, blankets, bottles, diapers, basically whatever we need. She has even helped with the laundry and giving the cats water.

Garrett is such a good baby. He hardly ever cries. He loves his papasan chair. He got a great nap in it today. We have some really good pictures on the camera that I need to load on the computer. As soon as I do that, I'll get them on here. It has just been great being home.

Thank you Cindy for the chicken spaghetti and the baked ziti. Thanks Patrica and Larry for coming over to help us get resettled, and thanks for the steaks. Also thanks Dad and Carolyn for the BBQ and beer.

I also thank you so much to Dad and Carolyn for basically reworking their May calendar. They pretty much had Avery for the whole month that Lori and Garrett were in the hospital.

Garrett has a couple Doctor appointments this week. Tomorrow he meets Dr. Q. He is our regular pediatrician. Then on Friday we go see Dr. W. so he can check out his back and shunt. I'll give updates about those appointments. Our Strong Boy is doing very well. As always thank you so much for praying for our little boy.

Tough Tuesday... Surgery Wednesday

We found out yesterday morning that Garrett needed a shunt. It was really hard to handle. He was progressing so well. His head circumference increased quite a bit during the 24 hour period and spinal fluid was building up in his lower back. He had surgery on Wednesday morning at 8. Thank you so much for the support of our parents. Patrica was at he hospital at 6:30, and Carolyn took Avery to school again and then she arrived at 9 with Whataburger. My dad also got up there around 8:30. Also special thanks to Jodi and Brooklyn for dropping by to stay with us during his surgery.

Garrett came out of surgery around 1o:30. He is so strong and tough. He was back to his normal bed within the hour. He had no complications from surgery, and he was already ready to eat. The surgery has already made a difference on his back. To my non medical eyes, I can already see that there is no more swelling. We have some major shunt milestones that we have to get to. These things are really great. It is amazing how much it has already helped him. Hopefully he will never have another shunt procedure in his life. That's definitely what we are praying for. As always thanks for praying for Garrett.

Update... I'm okay. Actually I'm doing Great!

I know it has been a while since I have updated the blog, but apparently it is pretty hard to do when you are always on the move and you have 2 children. I thought this was an awesome picture of Garrett. He has had his own way of showing us all along that he was going to be okay. Whether it was kicking or wiggling his toes in an ultrasound, or this sign right here. Dr. W, the neurosurgeon is very pleased with Garrett's development. Right now he is showing no signs of requiring a second surgery. Thank God. Thank you so much for praying for Garrett. God is definetly shining through with our Son.

In other news, Avery's life is slowly getting back to normal. She spends every night with us now. We are at my Dad's house, but she's loving it. She went back to school on Thursday and Friday. She met her little brother last night and gave him a 3 kisses. Lori is doing well, as long as she doesn't laugh to hard. We had a good laugh the other day when we left the hospital, because there was a man that walked by us. He was dressed pretty decent, but he had Beyond B.O. I was so proud of Lori, because she said that and that is a total Seinfeld thing. Good job Lori! We gotta run. Everything is going good. We have some big ultrasounds next week. Please pray that they continue to look normal. As always thanks for keeping Garrett in your thoughts and Prayers.

Thursday the 20th

Garrett is doing very well. He is eating like a champ! Lori got to spend the whole day with him the last couple of days. Everything is still developing real well. We are still very hopeful that his head will continue to develop properly. His ventricles have gotten a little larger, but they are still not too concerned. He is a very strong boy. I'll put some more pictures on this evening of Garrett and some pics of Avery at gymnastics. As always, thanks for keeping Garrett in your thoughts and prayers.

Monday 17th

Tough day today. Not really for Garrett he keeps trucking along. He is such a trooper. Lori was discharged from the hospital today so it’s tough not being an elevator ride away from our son. The good news is, we are staying with my dad in Houston. He lives about 5 miles from the hospital, so we will be making multiple visits to the hospital. Avery is really happy that she gets to stay with her mom and dad again. She made sure last night that she had her hands on both of us when she was sleeping. Garrett is doing so well. He has doubled his feeding today, and tomorrow Lori will get to hold him, because they have taken off the bandages covering his surgery scar. As always thanks for your thoughts and prayers. Hopefully we will be home next Tuesday.

Garrett's 3rd Day

What a wonderful day today was. Garrett looked like a completely different baby. He looked as relieved as his mom and me. It was a great day. We had our favorite nurse for the 3rd day in a row. She helped (made) Lori feed Garrett. Poor baby this is a description of how his first ever feeding went... Lori held his head, and our nurse held his stomach and legs. Imagine the scene from Mission Impossible when Tom Cruise was suspended in the air above the "Lasers". That's kind of how Garrett looked, only he was eating from a bottle. He looks great and he was very active again today. Most importantly his back is healing great and his head still looks the same. Please continue to pray for Garrett's head to develop properly so we don't have to have any more surgeries.

Okay, I promised Emily that I would write some funny stories. I'll start with one about my brother Aaron. Aaron and I are what I would call rule followers, we don't speed on the highway, we are always honest, and we never cheat at anything, except maybe in sports, but that's not cheating if an official never calls a penalty or foul. Anyway, in hospitals there are "Staff Elevators". We were told we could use these elevators because it is the quickest way from Lori's room to Garrett's room. We take Aaron on these "Staff Elevators", and he starts freaking out. He has this panic look on his face and he's like. What if we get caught what's going to happen? How much trouble will we get in? So we are in the "Staff Elevator", and of course it's going to stop. We are coming from the 25th floor and going to the 4th floor. 21 floors, probably going to stop. It stops at like 21 and a Dr. gets in. Aaron looked like he was about to go to jail. He was so scared we were going to get in trouble. Then a man tried to get in with a bed at another floor. He was freaking out so much that on our way back from seeing Garrett we took the long way.

Next funny story. Today I got to go the milk bank by myself. Those of you unfamiliar with a milk bank, let me describe it for you. A milk bank is a proper name for storing milk. You take your milk into the bank and store it until your baby needs it. The nurse can get it or you can. Typically women only go in there, because the other activity in the milk bank is women pumping milk in rooms to store in the bank. Anyway as a man, this made me pretty uncomfortable. So I take the milk down there, and some equipment down to sterilize. I walk in and stop, because I'm extremely uncomfortable going in there and I can imagine that the women in there probably think that I'm like George McFly from Back to the Future, you know a Peeping Tom, only there's not going to be a car to hit me. So I'm standing at the front desk for like 5 minutes and nobody is there great. What am I going to do? I'm looking around in a panic mode, because if I walk back to the room with the milk Lori won't be too happy. Fortunately, I find a business card and I called the number. Good thinking Adam! Phones rang all over the milk bank and I got the phone to my ear. A lady comes out and says Sir can I help you. I of course say something like "Wife milk baby tit bank?" She says Sir do you want to store your wife's milk here again, What yes milk you put here later. So she takes the milk, then shows me where to sterilize the equipment. You have to put it in a microwave in there for 3 minutes. As I'm standing there like 4 women walk out from pumping. No problem for me. I'm sure I just had the horrifying uncomfortable look on my face. As I watched the microwave countdown from 3:00 to O. Pretty long 3 minutes as I left it was total tunnel vision out to the door. Now that's love for you wife and baby!

Okay, as always thank you so much for praying for Garrett, please keep Praying for our Strong Boy. He is looking Great and God is listening.

My Hero

Amazing!!!

Garrett just came out of surgery, and he did amazing. Dr. W was able to completely close every layer of skin. I thougth there was only the epidermis, mesodermis, and dermis. However there are many more levels and tissues that I am unaware of.

Anyway, Dr. W said everything went PERFECT! All of Garrett's nerve routes appear to be intact. Pretty much unheard of! He is definetly a Miracle. All praise to God. Thank you so much for your prayers.

Garrett will be monitored the next couple of days. There is a chance that he will need another procedure to help with the circulation of his spinal fluid. That procedure is called a shunt. Please pray that he will not need this procedure. Please pray that we can take him home with this as the only surgery that he ever needs to fix his back. The Doctors have done an amazing job fixing him, but God has helped, protected, and he is healing our son. Gotta go see him now. As always thank you so much for praying for Garrett.

Garrett just was taken to surgery

Garrett was just taken to surgery at 5:35. There's just something not right with seeing your 23 hours old son being taken to have neurosurgery. We have a phenomonal neurosurgeon and a world class team working on him. It was just really hard to see him go into surgery. Dr. W the neurosurgeon said that Garrett shouldn't lose any function. In fact he may gain some more function. Please, please, please continue to pray for Garrett. God is listening. As always thank you for keeping Garrett in your thoughts and prayers.

He's here!!!!!!!

6 pounds 8 ounces! Garrett came into this world last night at 6:28. It was a a whirl wind last night. At 5:15 or so Lori was being monitored and contractions were about 4 minutes apart. Dr. C ordered an emergency C-Section. I send a text to my brother Aaron at 6:16. I was in the OR around 6:20. I can't explain the pure joy that Lori and I had when we heard him cry. It was unbelieveable. At times I feel kind of bad that I didn't have these emotions with Avery, but there was nothing complicated about Avery's pregnancy. This one was tough. That is a complete and total understatement.

Enough sappy stuff. Garrett has good reflexs. He has flexion at the knees and ankles. His feet are tickelish. He has what's called an anal wink reflex, which is amazing. This reflex shows that the nerves should be intact down to S3 or S4. He is an amazingly strong boy! All these are miraculus movements. All thanks to God and everyone's thoughts and prayers. Please, Please, Please continue to pray for Garrett. He will have surgery later today or first thing tomorrow. The surgery does have some risks, since they will be moving his spinal cord and closing up the opening. God is listening and has blessed us with a very Strong Boy. We have one of the best neurosurgeons at Texas Children's working on him. Mom is in great shape and we are about to go see him now. I'll let you know how today goes. As always thank you so much for keeping Garrett in your thoughts and prayers.

Day 13 post on Day 14

Not much activity yesterday, Lori went down on her Mag. Her friend Rachel came by and dropped of some stuff. Rachel lives in Dallas, and she is about to become a Doctor's wife. Lori cried when Rachel moved. Lori's cousin Craig and his wife Sarah came by and they brought her a beautiful orchid. Poor flower... I give it a week. Lori has no green thumb. I'll make sure it lasts a little longer though. My thumb is a litter greener.

Avery came by to see her mommy. She made us some nice cards. We hung them up on the wall. Avery is doing great. We hung out for a while, then I took her to her Nana and Papi's house. That' about it. Lori and Garrett are doing well. As always thanks for praying for Garrett.

12

Today was the 12th day of Lori being in the hospital. Tommorrow Dr. C will cut her Mag down to 1.5 at 6pm. Then to 1 on Friday morning. If all goes well she will get to spend the weekend at home. That would be great for her, because she has been locked in here for almost 2 weeks. It has been tough, but she's a trooper.

Today, my work through us a shower. It is so great to work with people like I do. They are amazing. They pray for Garrett all the time and they have been so helpful and supportive this spring. The shower was wonderful we truly appreciated it so much. Avery was awesome. She opened all the gifts and said thank you after each one.

Tonight was great too. Avery came in with me and we got here about 6:30. Lori's parents dropped by around 7. They are stressed about leaving town this weekend for Meghan's graduation. Congrats Meghan! They are so worried that Garrett will be born and they will be in San Marcos. Lori has been telling them to go. I guess we will wait and see what happens after the Mag goes off. My sister, Heather and her husband, Will came in from England. They dropped by along with Aaron, Dad, and Carolyn. It was so nice to have everyone here. That was today. As always thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers. I know Garrett really appreciates it.

As Avery would say Day Leven

I got up extra early this morning to get Avery and take her to school. We had Shipley's for breakfast. It was nice to eat with her. I worked in Garrett and Avery's room and set up baby stuff in our room and the living room.

Around 2, Lori called and she was having contractions every 3 minutes. I called Carolyn immediately and she was ready to get Avery from me right away if needed. Fortunately the contractions slowed down on their own, and Avery got to come see her mommy. They hung out for a little while and watched some of Princess and the Frog.

Kris and Carrie came by to hang out with Lori. Kris was so impressed by the ice and water machine that he is thinking about installing one in his house. Carrie brought some bibs and blankets that her granny made.

Lori just finished getting monitored for the last time tonight and Garrett was very active. Lori's contractions are about every 8 minutes again. That's all I have to say about that...

As always thanks again for praying for Garrett.

The 10th Day

I left early this morning to do some work around the house to get ready for Garrett. I'll have to put some pictures up of his room and Avery's room. Both rooms look very good in my opinion. Keri, Jen, Jodi came by to see Lori this afternoon. Jeri also dropped by to say hello. Avery and I got back up here around 3:30 and she and Lori had a wonderful afternoon together. Lori watched her dance, say her pledge of allegence, and they watched Ice Age 2 together. My mom also came by and brought some spaghetti, salad and cookies.

Dr. C's visit was a pleasent surprise. He immediately fell in love with Avery, but who doesn't? The surprise was that he told Lori that he was going to take her off of medicine starting Thursday. So, Thursday starts the countdown. The last day Lori will be pregnant is the 19th, unless Garrett changes his mind and comes before than. As always, thanks for keeping us and more specifically Garrett in your thoughts and prayers.

Happy Mother's Day

The day began bright and early with Dr. C. He came by and did an ultrasound of Garrett. Garrett looked good. He wasn't very active this morning, but he is getting pretty packed in there at 37 weeks. His head is still small to normal which is a good thing. All organs still look normal as well. The lesion on his back is about 2 inches long, so that is on the average to small side as well. Dr. C said that Garrett looks really good, and he would not stop labor again. We have stopped it twice now. So if Lori goes into Labor before the 19th, then he will be here. This has been such a long journey, so we are so excited that he will be here in less than 10 days. Garrett wanted us to know that he was ok, so he gave us a thumbs up. This was Garrett's way again to tell us that we shouldn't worry. He's a strong boy, and he will be fine.

Lori's Uncle James and Aunt Roxie dropped by to visit this morning as well. Debbie and Alicia dropped by to say hi too.

Lori's mom and dad dropped by to hang out with us for a little while. They brought Avery. Avery has spent the whole afternoon with us in the hospital. It was great for Lori to have her here. The hardest part about being stuck here for Lori has been being away from Avery. Lori and Avery watched Ice Age 2, and they even got to take a nap together. Celeste and her little girl Abbey came by to say hi. Abbey and Avery ran and played all over the room. It was amazing to see how well they played together. Lori just came off from being monitored and she only had 4 contractions in 30 minutes.

Ocho

Lori and Garrett's status remains the same today. Leah and Tamirrah dropped by early this morning to say hi. Leah brought rice krispies treats. Leah is trying her best to help fatten Garrett up. Dr. C came by this morning as well and said that he would be back tomorrow morning to do the ultrasound.

I went home today to finish Garrett's room, and move furniture around. Lori's dad did an amazing job on refinishing Avery's new furniture. Avery has Carolyn's old bed from when she was a little girl. The furniture looks Awesome. Keith came over to help move the furniture around, so at least we got the furniture in place in each room. My mom and Lori's mom were very busy sewing together receiving blankets and burp towels. Garrett and Avery's rooms look awesome. The paint looks good and the furniture looks great.

Aaron came by and visited with Lori this afternoon. I think he was a little paranoid that Lori would go into labor with him here. She was having some contractions, and I think he was kind of scared that he would have to go in with her for the C-Section.

If you are looking for something specific to pray for tonite or any other night, please pray for Garrett's opening to be very small and very low in his sacrum. Also that his ventricles are within normal limits. We constantly pray for Garrett to have normal brain function, good leg function, and control of his bladder and bowels. Like I've said, we have seen a lot of good signs with Garrett, and we are very hopeful and optimistic that Garrett will be just fine. He is a very strong boy. As always thanks again for your thoughts and prayers.

One Week down in the Hospital

Lori has been in the hospital for one week today. Visitors today were Andrea and Suzanne. Kristi Cox brought some brownies, and Cristy Famulari came by to say hi. I think Lori has been one of the most popular girls on the floor. I didn't get up here until about 7:30. Emily, Terry, and Bella met me here. They brought dinner. Gringo's! I forgot how good Gringo's is. Unbelievably good! They hung out with us for a while. It was good times. Emily and Terry have been apart of Lori and my life for years. I've known Emily for almost half my life! I know that's crazy Emily, but do the math. She's like a sister to me and Lori. Her husband and little girl are just as awesome as her. Props to Terry, he just finished a Sprint Triathalon without training. Avery is doing very good. She is at our house with her Nana and Papa. So she is very happy to be home. Just had a break in blogging to see and feel my son kick and move. Nothing brings me more joy than seeing him kick and move. His kick just now was because of the mexican food. Has to be. He probably has my stomach. I know that I shouldn't eat jalopenos, but I love em. So I guess he was tasteing fire, and not too happy about it. News on Garrett and Lori stays the same. No news is good news. As always thanks for your thoughts and prayers. We can't wait to share our strong boy with all of you.

Another Day Down

Okay, It was pretty hard to go to work today with Lori hanging out in the hospital. We will try it again tomorrow, but we will see about next week. At least it was a crazy day at work. Thankfully, I always get taken care of for lunch. Amanda hooked me up with some Chick fil A, which I was fortunate enough to eat at about 3:15. The day ended with a flat tire. Terrific!

News on the baby front. Contractions are still about 8 minutes apart. He was pretty active today when the nurse was trying to monitor him and Lori. Kami and Lindsey came by to visit Lori earlier today. This evening, my Mom and Wes dropped by and brought some La Madeleine and movies. Cindy also came by bearing gifts for Lori, Avery, and Garrett. Dr. C came by and talked with Lori. We will have an ultrasound on Sunday to see Garrett. Dr. C is awesome and we really appreciate how much attention he is paying to Lori and Garrett. Thanks again for all you continued thoughts and prayers.

Cinco de Mayo

May 5th. We are hopeful that Garrett will come next week, but again Dr. C is the best of the best. If he says we are waiting until the 19th, then we are waiting until the 19th. Last night after the 2nd post of the day. I know, I'm such an overachiever. We got a surprise. Yep! Intense contractions. Dr. C ordered a shot of like liquid lava. Seriously kind of scary. Lori's heartrate increased and like I said liquid lava.

Today started out great Leah and Tamirrah came by to see Lori. Leah is like netflix, only she allows more than one movie out at a time. Then Tiffany and Megan came by and brought some flowers. We got a great laugh around 1 when one of my best friends' wife sent an awesome text to us. Wasn't suppose to come to us, kind of personal, so it was extra hilarious. I'll save them from the embarassment, this was probably enough.

At this time, we are just sitting here waiting for Garrett. Each day we wait is better for him. He needs to be as strong as possible for his surgery. Lori is sending me to work tomorrow and Friday, unless there is some surprise, but hopefully no more surprises. I do have plenty of time to take off like the next 5 weeks, but we need me to save some days for the next year. So right now, I know that I'll get to save at least 2 days. We will see how the weekend goes, maybe I can save a couple more days next week.

Anyway Garrett is still looking strong, and moving and kicking just as good as he always has. As always thanks again for your thoughts and prayers.

Dia de las cinco de la parte del hospital dos

No new news. Just sitting here. Avery came to visit us with Dad and Carolyn. Lori was craving decaf tea and mashed potatoes, so that's what we had for dinner. My dad makes a very unusual type of mashed potatoes. It's got kind of a Mexican flair with plenty of butter.

Wow I can't believe I just said that. Could I sound more like a blogger?

Lori is still doing well, and Garrett is as well. We are hopeful that Dr. C will cut back on the meds again, but I have a hard time seeing that happen. Everytime we monitor Garrett we are still seeing too many contractions. Again as I have said before, thankfully I'm not a doctor. That's why they do their job. They are the experts, and we trust these guys so much. They are the best. I am very thankful to know that Garrett really could not be in better hands.

Thanks again for everyones support and prayers. We have been so overwhelmed. Thank you so much for all the food and treats as well.

Dia de las cinco de la parte de un hospital

This morning started out great. Dr. C came by and was happy to see how well Lori was doing. He cut back her meds again, and at this time, 1:14, all is well not too many contractions. Garrett is doing so well that they have not been monitoring him today. Garrett has been so strong throughout this whole ordeal.

Also we had so many visitors this morning. Lori had many friends from work come by and see her today. Keri brought Shipley's! Then later in the morning, Jen, Jen, Kami, and Kristi Cox came by to visit. Kristi Cox is bringing Texadelphia! Sweet!

Cristy Famulari also came by and brought some candy and stuff.

Lori is doing much better today. She is actually wearing regular clothes. Keri just came in now with Katie. Anyway things are going better, but honestly I think we will be here for a while. We got to do whats best for Garrett.

Another Day... Another Contraction

Okay, so this morning started out pretty good. Dr. C backed off on Lori's meds, and then contractions started up again. She had some pretty good ones today, so they had to increase her meds to slow the contractions. Martha came by and hung out with Lori today. She brought some awesome cookies. Avery also got to visit her mommy and checked her vitals. She also showed off some of her dance moves to the Mamma Mia! soundtrack. I'll post a picture later when Jodi and her crew gets here. Jodi is a blog expert, and she and her family have been our role models through this whole experience. Her constant strength and belief have helped us more than I could ever say. Her little girl Brooklyn is so awesome, and her strength and joy of life is truly inspiring. I can't wait for Garrett to meet her. Jodi, David, Reagan, and Brooklyn are actually on their way up here to bring us some Olive Garden. Oh yes latest update... Garrett still looks good, mommy is exhausted. Dr. C is awesome, and he wants Garrett to stay put as long as possible. He said that he still would like to May 19th if possible.

Day 3 in hospital

No baby yet, but that is a good thing. Dr. C really wants him to wait a little longer. Garrett looks really good, lots of movement. Hopefully he can wait to the week of May 10th. Lori was excited because she got a good breakfast this morning. She said Garrett was pretty happy about that too. They have taken the monitors off of her for now so she can sleep. Baby and Mama look good right now. Avery got to come visit her Mama yesterday and that was awesome. She kissed all her mommy's bobo's. She ran all over the room and we entertainment for everyone. Thanks for all of our visitors so far. Everyone has been very good to us. Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers for our little hero.

Anniversary Surprise!

Today is our 6th anniversary, and we got a little surprise yesterday. Lori got admitted into the hospital yesterday. She had some pretty good contractions they got to be about 2-3 minutes apart. Fortunetly Doctor C was able to control them with Meds. We had a pretty scary Morning at around 7. We seriously thought that we were about to have a c-section today, but Dr. C got everything under control again. Garrett and Mom are both well, but we are at the hospital indefinetly. Dr. C really wants Garrett to get to 38 weeks. We are at 36 and 2 days. Basically he will be here sometime in the next 10 days. Don't worry Avery is at her Nana and Papi's house and Uncle Aaron is hanging with her so she is fine. Thanks again for keeping Garrett and Lori in your thoughts and prayers.

We have a Birthdate!

So much has been going on since our last post. Avery is now 3 and she had a wonderful purple princess party at acrosports. Pregnancy has been much better on Lori physically this time around. No swelling, no braxton hicks, less morning sickness, and low blood pressure. Garrett is still looking very stong. He is so active, especially when Lori has her vegggie juice.

Anyway, back to the big day. May 19, 2010 will be Garrett's birthday, unless he decides he needs to come sooner, hopefully not. From his last ultrasound, I guess everything still looks pretty much the same. We didn't hear much changing, so that's great. We can't wait to share our little guy with you. Thanks again for praying for Garrett.

Awesome 3D Ultrasound

We had a 3D ultrasound done of Garrett yesterday. It was great! He was making just as many facial expressions as Lori. He was smiling, frowning, squinting, everything! I know that I'm a little bias, but he's pretty cute too. Avery came and was excited about seeing him on the TV. She also wanted our ultrasound tech to look at her tummy. The ultrasound was great! He's a tough kid. He amazes me every time I see him. He was so active that the tech had a hard time getting good pictures of him, but overall she did great. Garrett was kicking and moving so much we were so unbelievably happy. We even caught him being a boy (playing with his dingy). I guess he will probably left handed based on that. So he would alternate from dingy to foot. In his defense, there's not much in there to do. Finally the best, best, best part of the ultra sound was when we looked at his foot and he was wiggling his toes!!!

Latest update on Garrett

Today Lori and I went to meet our new Doctor that will be delivering Garrett. Everything is still looking good. All organs are working like normal, and no water on the brain. He was also moving. All of this was very good.

Anyway I have saved the best news for last... Garrett's opening in his spine is pretty low. The Doctor did get a pretty good look at it and he said that the opening looks to start at S1 at the highest. This should mean that Garrett should be able to walk.

Strong Boy

Strong Boy. Our hero is our unborn son Garrett Maxwell. As you know Garrett has Spina Bifida, and he will require neurosurgery to fix the opening in his back within 24-48 hours after birth. We are expecting our little miracle mid to late May.

When we first found out about this on December 22nd, Lori and I were devestated. As you can imagine, Christmas was very tough. Needless to say the month of January was the hardest month of our life. To be honest the only things that kept us going was our faith in God, Avery, and of course Garrett.

The month of February started out tough as well. We had an MRI done on Garrett on February the 3rd. When nobody called us to discuss the result of the MRI, Lori and I decided to become Radiologist and interpret the results ourselves. Bad idea.... Lori got the results for herself and we interpreted them that weekend. Let's just say that me trying to interpret those results would be the same as me trying to do the surgery to repair my son. In other words like I said, BAD IDEA.

On February 9th, we met with Garrett's neurosurgeon, Dr. Dauser. His first words to us were this really isn't that bad. In my head 2 things happened at this time. 1 was great excitement, but the other one was if this guy is messing with me I will get arrested. Not something I needed to do. The good news was the Doctor meant it when he said this really isn't too bad. Garrett's opening is different when compared to practically all kids that have Spina Bifida. Garrett's opening is flat. Most kids have a buldging sac, but his is flat and small. The Doctor said that he could close his opening in about 1 hour when these surgeries typically take 4-6 hours. Also, he said all of his organs look normal, and their is no fluid on his brain. He also said that no further damage "should" happen to him. Should meaning that further damage could happen, but it would be unlikely. Like everyone says, we won't really know anything until he is born and can be properly assessed.

On February 17th, we went to Dr. Rowe. He was the Doctor that told us about the Spina Bifida. Our appointment was scheduled for 9:30, but we didn't get called in until 10:30. This was a blessing in disguise though. If you have to wait an hour of longer you get a free DVD. Results from this ultrasound continued to show all organs functioning normal, and a real exciting thing was Garrett was kicking the crap out of Lori. It also appeared that he was doing a leg press off her uterus, and to do leg press properly you have to have strength in your quads and hammys. Needless to say, we have watched this DVD about 20+ times. As you can imagine, this has been the most trying time of our life. Fortunately we have had a lot of good signs, so we are "Cautiously Optimistic".

Our next Doctor appointment is with Dr. Carpenter, March 15th. He will be the Doctor that delivers Garrett. We haven't met him yet, but he has come highly recommended by all of Lori's other doctors. Garrett will be in the best possible hands possibly in America with Doctor Carpenter and Dr. Dauser. Special thanks to Lori's boss Jackie for getting us in contact with Dr. Dauser and thank you to Dr. Rowe for getting us in contact with Dr. Carpenter.

We have had overwhelming support from family and friends, and we are truly grateful for the thousands of people that have been praying for Garrett. Please keep praying for Garrett, we truly believe that God is listening. We can't wait to share our little miracle with the world.

Our Family

We are creating a blog to share updates on our Family. Adam and Lori have been married for almost 6 years now. Avery is our beautifuly daughter. She will be 3 on April 2nd. Garrett is our son who will be born in May. Garrett will probably dominate most of the blogging, but we will also give several updates on Avery.