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!