My baby is 7 today! Happy B-day Garrison!

It is hard to believe that my little guy is 7! He is very special to me (both of them are). But with Garrison it is a little different. You see, Garrison has Williams Syndrome. I knew from my 6 week ultrasound something was different. I thought from his profile he looked like he had Down Syndrome. Everyone told me I was crazy, but a mother knows. I felt the whole pregnancy that something wasn't right. At 16 weeks I had my triple screen and the Down Syndrome test came back negative. Everyone told me "see we told you". Ok.

Garrison came into the world on 11/16/2001 (ten days exactly after my mom had her stroke). After he was born I thought he looked like he had DS, the pediatrician on call told me I was crazy. Garrison didn't cry like the other babies in the nursery, he barely cried at all. But I loved him, he was so damn cute. My mom was still in the hospital and she was the first person I took Garrison to meet.

When I took Garrison to his 2 week check up his pediatrician listened to his heart and then told me he wanted to run some tests for DS. Thank God, finally someone believed me. Then he dropped another bomb, Garrison needed to see a Pediatric Cardiologist, WHAT?

So we went to Children's Hospital in Omaha, NE (wonderful hospital BTW). I was told by this Dr that he was 98% sure by just looking at Garrison he had WS. My first question was, "what is the life expectancy of WS?" He couldn't say. So I went home and looked up everything I could on WS, wrong thing to do. I cried. We continued to see the PC every 6 months and then the day came two years later when he told me Garrison would have to have open heart surgery. My husband was gone getting ready to deploy to Iraq. I met with the surgeon and I was told Garrison would need to surgery soon or he could die a sudden death. WTF!! I am glad my sister in law was with me, I was in no shape to drive.

My husband was able to come home the day before his unit left for Iraq. On Feburary 2, 2004 (Ground Hog Day) Garrison was scheduled for surgery. My sisters came down from Wisconsin for the surgery and I was really glad for the support. The hardest thing to do was to give my baby to the nurses and watch him go into the OR. Garrison came out of the surgery great, there are no guarantees he made need another surgery. Garrison was discharged on Feburary 6th and my husband left for Iraq Feburary 9th. We see the cardiologist every year (I hate going there).

Garrison is a busy 1st grader and I wouldn't trade him for all the money in the world. He is doing great in school and is right where he should be academically. He is the kindest person I know and he loves everyone. I love you baby.