5 Month Pictures at the Pumpkin Patch

A couple weekends ago we went out to a "Pumpkin Patch" in Spring with our friends Alycia, Turner, his daughter Kira, my parents, and Jane and her husband, Aaron. I use the term pumpkin patch very loosely because basically there were 2 huge mounds of pumpkins and I'm pretty sure they weren't even grown there. There were lots of other fun things for kids to do and a hay ride so regardless, I definetly think we'll go back.

Anyways! Jane took some awesome pictures and I wanted to share them...

He made a pretty cute dinosaur, don't ya think?

I just love the face he's making in this one. He's quite expressive...I wonder where he gets that from!?

Checkin' out his Gigi...

He was talking to us in this one...

Pics from September

Here are some long over due pics of our little man!

"Daddy just had to get me this A&M outfit...and document how freakin' cute I look in it"

It even has little elf booties to match! Kinda weird, but whatever...

I took these pics one morning before "school". I just thought he looked like a little boy...sooo cute! Thanks Aunt Brenda for the adorable outfit!

Who couldn't love this face?

He loves his exersaucer!

Aunt Kristi came over to hang out...

And our sweet boy feel asleep on her shoulder!

Gigi came over too and brought Garrison this *awesome* Longhorn baseball cap...

Labor day weekend we went out to Anahuac to hang out with Bryan's side of the fam. Here's Gran playin' with the little man...

Cousins Shelby and Charlotte...

And Perry was there too...

I seriously think he looks so cute all wrapped up in towel after his bath...

I'll post October pics next week!

Hello again!

So the last couple weeks have been quite eventful...several more seizure episodes, 1 more trip to the ER, and 2 appointments with new pediatricians. Can I please tell you that I am SO ready for a "boring" week?!? Garrison is doing well though, despite it all. He is happy as can be, developing completely normal, and just so much fun to be around.

Okay, so I'm sure some of you are interested in the results of Garrison's EEG. 2 out of 3 doctors that looked at it said everything appears to be normal. 1 doctor saw a slight abnormality - a spot where his brain activity sped up faster than normal. So who knows. I'd like to have a neurologist take a look at it and tell me what they think. We do have an appointment with Texas Children's seizure clinic on Nov. 13th, so hopefully we can get more answers. I just feel good that all the tests have come back normal so far. That gives me hope that this is just something weird that he'll just grow out of and it won't have any negative effects on him.

So the last trip to the ER, 2 Friday's ago, the doctor thought that Garrison may have Sandifer's Syndrome - this really rare thing that happens to some babies due to the pain of reflux. Bryan and I aren't sold on this diagnosis. We can tell when his reflux is acting up. This is totally different. But, hey, we're not doctors.

The doctor suggested we try to capture an episode on video so that we can show our pediatrician and hopefully figure out what's going on. Luckily we haven't had an episode to video in 8 days! Yay!

So we went to meet a couple of pediatricians and I really liked both. We decided to go with Dr. Margaret Payne because she seems really proactive with this whole seizure thing. A couple hours after meeting with her I got a call from her nurse with the results of the EEG and the direct line to the appoint guy at Texas Children's Neurology. I really appreciate good nurses and doctors.

Here are a few *new* things about Garrison:

• He's becoming very verbal, except it's more squealing than anything else!
• He's reaching for everything - cell phones, paper, earrings, bottled water, you name it - he wants it!
• He has started sucking his thumb and it's SO cute.
• He has found his feet and loves reaching for them.
• His favorite song is The ABC's. If he's crying and I start singing it, he stops to listen. I'm glad I figured out that trick!
• He's started teething, but no signs of a tooth yet, just lots of drool and knawing on things!
• He's really started laughing now. I'm trying to get it on video because it is just the best sound ever!

I'll post some new pictures this week. It's long over due!

Update

Thanks for all the support and prayers. Sorry that I haven't updated y'all in a couple weeks. I'm finding it so hard to find time to blog. I've decided that there just isn't enough hours in the day to do everything that I want to. I feel like with working full time that I get such little quality time with Garrison and Bryan as it is, the last I want is to not be present when we are hanging out

But, I digress...let's get to the important stuff! Our little man is doing great. No more episodes so let's hope that was a one time deal. We take Garrison in this morning for his EEG at Texas Chrildren's. I'll definetly let you know what the results are.

I did find out that the decongestant our pediatrician so quickly prescribed our sweet boy probably lowered his threshold for a seizure. Apparently the American Academy of Pediatrics firmly states that no child under the age of 5 should take a decongestant because there are too many side effects and risks. Garrison is not even FIVE MONTHS. He should NEVER have even been given that damn decongestant. Oh, don't get me started. So we are *clearly* looking for a new doctor. I've gotten some great referrals so I feel like we'll pick a good one.

Okay, off to the hospital. Have a great day!

Scariest day. Ever.

So we had a very scary and emotional weekend. Here's the story...Saturday morning Garrison got up late (8ish), I fed him, we played for a while. He was running a low grade fever (upper 99 to low 100) as he had been since Wednesday. I was feeding him again around 11 when all the sudden he started having a seizure. Okay, even typing this makes me have a sick feeling in my stomach and tears in my eyes. So I start freaking out and telling Bryan what happened. He comes and sits down next to us and Garrison has another one. Bryan picks him up and Garrison stops and then falls right to sleep on Bryan's shoulder. We call the pediatrician's office, throw our stuff together and head over to Texas Children's Hospital. We then spend the next 10 hours there seeing several doctors and getting lots of horrible tests run. I say horrible because they were very painful for Garrison and excruciating to watch. Because Garrison's so young and the fact that he wasn't running an "official" fever (over 100.3 in infants) the doctors were not sure if it was a Febrile seizure or something else, like menengitis. So they had to take a blood sample - putting an IV in my poor baby's hand, urine sample - they had to stick a tube up his you-know-what (ouchie!!), do a CT scan (Which doesn't sound all that bad, but they had to wrap him up so tight he couldn't move and it was clearly very scary for him. I'm just glad Bryan and I could be right there with him.), and finally a Lumbar Puncture where they took 3, yes, THREE vials of spinal fluid. I have never seen my baby cry so much and so hard in my life. I'm just so sad he had to go through all that.

So the test results all came back normal. The doctor came in to talk with us and the deal is that they are really not sure what caused it. It could have been a febrile seizure but just to make sure it's not something more serious we have to come back and do an outpatient EEG.

Garrison was acting pretty much normal, so the doctor released him and we finally got out of the hospital at 10 PM. WHAT AN EXHAUSTING DAY. Once we got home I fed our sweet boy and put him to bed. He hadn't really slept all day so he was sooo tired. We thought for sure that he would sleep for like 12 hours. Boy were we wrong. He woke up at 1 AM and was basically awake screaming on and off the rest of the night. The only way he would sleep was if he was laying on me and then if I moved, even just alittle, he would wake up and scream and we'd start all over. It was horrible because we didn't know what was going on - we just knew something was not right. He NEVER cries like that. The next morning we called the pediatrician on call and she said it's because he's hurting from all the procedures. DUH! So we gave him Tylenol the rest of the day and he did much better.

So that's the story. Pretty terrifying. Hopefully it will never happen again.

P.S. I'm not going to proof read this before posting because I just don't want to get upset all over again. Excuse the typos.

Seriously y'all, he's exceptional

So I know I'm partial, but Garrison is one special kid. Today he rolled from his back onto his tummy. Wow! He's still 3 months old! They say babies don't master that until they're 6 months old but I saw him do it 5 times today. He's been rolling from his front to his back for the past 3 weeks, but that seems to be an easier task that his new trick. I'm just a proud mommy, what can I say?
Here's a pic of another new trick of his...
I came to daycare to pick him up a couple weeks ago and Laura, his AWESOME teacher, was holding him while he was HOLDING HIS OWN BOTTLE. She was like "Look at this!!" And I was like "Is that normal?!?" And she said "No! He's advanced!" So see, it's not just me. Pretty much everyone that meets him thinks he's awesome and special :)

Some pics of guess who?!

Here are some pics from the end of July and August. A lot are already up on Facebook, but there are some new ones too!

Playin' with Gigi...

Here Garrison is doin' some tummy time on his cool dragon blanket...

"Eww, look at theses horns"

"Hey Mom! Look how far I scooted off the blanket!"
Garrison got his first cold and shared it with Mama. Here's a pic of the sick duo...

Bad parenting or genious? Don't judge us :)

Daddy dressed Garrison up in his preppiest outfit...

And put the matching bib on like a cape...

Bryan gets this look a lot...

And this big gummy smile too!

Kathleen had the Fleetie Sweeties over for August Birthdays (Happy Birthday Jamie, Rachel, & Carrie!) and to celebrate Rachel's engagement to Christian...

Garrison fell asleep on his buddy, Jamie. Note the drool on her shoulder...

After the party Bryan and I put Garrison in Luke's cool swing...

Wanda and Garrison at Terri's bridal shower...

I love the look on his face in this one...

He gets this cute little intense look on his face when he's on his jungle mat...

On the weekends I like to wake Bryan up by putting Garrison in bed with him...

We love the Bumbo! Yehaw!

Gigi and Pops went to Reno and brought this cute hat back for the little man...

"Check out the baby mohawk that Daddy gave me!"

"Check out my muscles!"

My little cutie all clean and happy after his bath..."Oooh, my hands are sooo interesting"

He's pretty cute, don't you think?