What we've been up to......LOTS OF SWIMMING!

We have done a lot of swimming lately. We have gone swimming at friend's houses, swimming at Grandma & Pawpaw's house, and today we went swimming at the Noah's Ark pool! The kids had so much fun playing today. I think they all took record long naps! We have had so much fun! Here are lots of pics from the past two weeks. James Thomas got another blood transfusion last Monday, he is LOVING drinking out of a big boy cup, he had a melt down on our five hour drive to Nach so we had many stops so he could stretch his legs, and lots more! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

James Thomas will be 1 next Friday. We are very excited to celebrate in Galveston with lots of family and friends! I can't believe my baby is almost 1! Where does the time go?

Where has the time gone?

This is a picture of the prayer quilt Austin Heights Baptist Church made for JT.



Hands Free....I am walking!





This is Dr. Bertuch (our hematologist). We LOVE her!

My sweet boy and me on Mother's Day!

Family picture on Mother's Day before church.


Last pictures of JT in his duck tub. He uses the big tub now! He is so grown up.


It has been so long since I have posted. We have been staying busy with play dates, parties, and more. I have more pictures I need to upload off my camera. We spent Mother's Day in Austin and had a wonderful time. Sarah cooked us a great brunch and we got to visit all together. James Thomas got his 15th blood transfusion on Tuesday. He was amazing and all the nurses love him. Our nurse this week told everyone that James Thomas was her boyfriend. It was really cute! We joined Gymboree and have been two weeks in a row now. He LOVES it. I have been waiting until he was more mobile and I can tell he really gets a lot out of the classes. Most exciting news is......we have a walker. He is walking and doing a fabulous job. He still uses his knees as his primary mode of transportation but any chance he gets he is on those feet. I am so proud of him!
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Great weekend

We just got off another great weekend! We started it off with an unexpected blood transfusion. James Thomas was scheduled to get blood tomorrow but I had been noticing that he was getting pale again. He was also sleeping a lot. Every day last week he took several long naps. In fact one day he had two naps by noon. Well, Friday morning he had a low fever so I called and they told us to come on in. Moms most always know because sure enough, his hemoglobin was 7.6. We try not to ever let him drop below 8.o and we transfuse once he gets to 8.5 so I am very glad we went in. Daddy was able to join us later that afternoon and provide some entertainment. It is getting harder to get through the transfusions but we made it through #14!

Nancy came into town on Saturday to watch James Thomas for us. I feel bad because we hardly saw her at all. James and I were very busy but we appreciated her help. James Thomas has a lot of fun playing with his Grandma! I was able to see a lot of old friends from Baylor this weekend. I went to Sarah's baby shower and to Elizabeth's wedding shower! I am very excited for both of them, CONGRATULATIONS! On Sunday I got to go to Sunday School and Church! It is hard to do both because James Thomas usually has a melt down in the nursery. So, yesterday was awesome! Our Sunday School class had a baby sprinkle for Denise and Eric as they prepare to welcome Hunter! James and I also went over to the Gips house Sunday afternoon. They had James Gips in late March and I had not met him yet. He is absolutely adorable and we are very happy for our great friends. At the Gips house we got to visit with some of our besties from law school. Now that they have graduated and are working we don't see them as much as we use to. It was great to catch up!

The get togethers haven't let up! This morning Melissa and I met Ashleigh for lunch at the park. It was great to catch up and take pictures of the boys. Gage is a cutie and the this summer when they come back, the boys might be old enough to actually play a little bit! Tomorrow James Thomas and I are having lunch with more friends. We are staying busy!

Everything else here is good. We don't go back to clinic until next Tuesday!

Histeroscopy and follicles

Today was my first procedure on the PGD journey and it went great. I have had blood drawn twice but never anything else. Dr. H was fabulous and it was not a big deal at all. We got really good news! Dr. H said my uterus looked good but that my ovaries were fabulous! I had 26 follicles. He said anything above 20 is awesome. We are really excited because these follicles are what can turn into eggs which could become embryos. We assume James and I do not have any fertility problems but this is an area that could cause a problem for the PGD even if you don't have fertility problems. The more embryos we have, the more HLA matches for James Thomas! I feel like we are learning so much every day.

We now have to wait for our probe to be made by Genesis. We talked to our genetic counselor today and they have everyone's DNA sample but still need our consult with Dr. Hughes which is not scheduled yet. Everything seems to be going smoothly so far. We are thankful and don't take one little success for granted.

Melissa was going to watch James Thomas today but Luke has been very sick. We hope he feels better soon. Mandi and Avery stepped in and watched him while I was gone. James Thomas had a blast and I feel blessed to have such great friends when we don't have family in town. We left Mandi's house with a new toy. James Thomas is walking around the whole house. Thanks Mandi! James Thomas also tried spaghetti for the first time today. He LOVES it and got it everywhere! It is a blast watching him try new things.

Good luck to all my teacher friends and mom who are going through TAKS this week! I know your kids will do great. I can't lie, I don't miss the stress of TAKS.

Love,

A bunch of posts rolled into one!

Things are going well around the Garrett household. I have been meaning to post these pics as three different entries but somehow the time just slips away and I never get around to doing it.

Ever since James Thomas starting eating regular food he REFUSES to take food off of a spoon. I have been very frustrated with eating time. I worry that he is not eating enough and not eating good foods. So, the other day I thought we would try Velvetta Shells and Cheese. We have a winner! He LOVED it. So I stirred in strawberries and carrots and he ate the whole thing up!

James Thomas is also very curious these days. He is constantly in something or crawling around looking for who knows what! The other day I happened to have my camera when he started pulling out the toys from the toy chest. This boy is determined to get those toys!

We had a wonderful weekend at the lake. We have never taken our Houston, Baylor friends (plus the Chambers) to the lake. We had a blast. Little Luke was sick but he was still able to give us a few smiles. We missed the Coles but we were thinking about them as they participated in the March of Dimes walk. Kim (Julie's sister) gave birth to twins at 25 weeks. They are currently at Texas Children's growing bigger every day.

Hope you enjoy all the pictures. James Thomas is so much fun and a joy to be around. He is an amazing, little guy!

Transfusion #13

Last week was transfusion #13 and it was very special. James Thomas' grandma and pawpaw had come down for the weekend so they decided to stay until Monday and go with us to Texas Children's. Pawpaw had never been to clinic and he got to see exactly what a transfusion day is like. It was awesome to have the help and someone to talk to the entire time. Monday is a great day for transfusions because there was lots of live entertainment. Here are some pictures from that day.

Grandma brought Daddy's piano from when he was a baby and James Thomas is in LOVE! He may have a music career in his future. More pics of him banging on his new toy! Mimi and Papaw came this past weekend to watch James Thomas and Luke while we had a garage sale at the Jones' (which was very successful). They got lots of performances from James Thomas too. Hopefully, I can upload a flip video of it soon too.