Merry Christmas to All

Hello Family and Friends,

The Spiess household is very blessed this Christmas as our little boy, Jackson was home for the holidays. We know that he was able to make it home prior to his due date because of all the prayers that were out there for him. Plus please keep in mind at the beginning we were told due date or after...so this is truly a miracle to us to have him home.

We can't thank you all enough. We continue to pray that he stays healthy for a long time but especially through the RSV season and at least the next six months which is why mom and Jackson are in isolation for six months.

We want so much to have him meet everyone who has been praying for him and let everyone hold him but we have to stay indoors with only mom and dad in contact with him until June and then we will see what the doctors allow us to do. Right now that was the doctors orders and whatever it takes to keep Jackson healthy is what we will do.

We hope that this Christmas is as blessed for you as it is for us. We hope you realize that we wouldn't be where we are today if it wasn't for each and everyone of you. We will keep Jackson's blog going as he grows as we want to keep you all included in his progress as you will always be apart of our family.

Dec. 17th to today status...
Jackson has been home for a week and as we left the hospital we thought we had everything undercontrol. Well, famous last words....Jackson's feeds were changed up a bit upon discharge and he had difficulty adjusting as he started to have reflux extremely bad this past week. He didn't sleep and cried these shreaks that we hadn't ever heard before. We have since started him back on 1/2 formula and 1/2 breast milk every feed which helped a little and now he is on prevacide for the reflux and that is finally starting to take effect. We are thankful he wasn't getting sick as his parents were extremely scared. We know how very important breast milk is for babies and hope to eventually get him back on just breast milk but for now 1/2 and 1/2 will have to work.

In fact we went to Children's Hospital ER on Friday night to have him looked at. Fortunately, the rasp mom was feeling in his back was due to reflux and not congestion-thank God. Our baby is now acting like his old self...at first we thought maybe he likes the NICU better which is all he knows. We even started making beeping sounds like the monitors to see if that would help but the spitting up and the bubbles in his mouth told us otherwise. We apologize for not updating you on his homecoming sooner but he did keep us extremely busy this past week and worried.

We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

We can't thank everyone enough for the prayers. We continue to pray that he stays infection free and we pray that this blog update finds everyone happy and healthy.

We have many many many people to thank and we are EXTREMELY APPRECIATIVE to have all of you in our lives.

We love you all!
Jackson, Kyle and Erica

JACKSON COMES HOME!!!!!

We just wanted to let everyone know that Jackson came home on Sunday, Dec. 17th. We are so glad to have him home, and we appreciate everyone's prayers over the past few months. As you can imagine, he keeps us quite busy at home so we will update the blog with more detail and pictures in a little while.



Love,

Kyle, Erica & Jackson

Jackson's Journey during December

Hello Everyone,

I would like to take the chance to update you on the sequence of events that has taken place up until he came home. We are very thankful for the St. David's medical teams which include respiratory therapists, nurses, doctors and the cleaning staff. We know that they do their best everyday to keep all NICU babies safe and help them get better. We are glad that God has blessed them with the knowledge and courage to be apart of the NICU environment.


We last left off around November 17th...

On November 17th:
Jackson's feeds were stopped then restarted due to residuals. He was started on Prilosec for reflux and he continues to poop on his own!

On November 18th:
Jackson was 3 lbs and 13 ozs. He went to feeds over 1 hour vs the continuous feeds. They increases his thetholen and he hangs out on 25 O's and sometimes room air!

On November 19th:
Jackson is 3lbs 15 oz!

On November 20th:
Jackson makes it to 4lbs! He starts on eye drops today due to goobers in his eyes they think it is a clogged duct not an infection- phew
Temp is 99.1 and he sats around 24 to 26 O's.
Speech Therapist came in and gave Jackson a plan! Yeah! Elizabeth is his Speech Therapist and she is helping Jackson with his breath, suck, swallow techniques to learn to eat off the feeding tube. We use the pacifier alot too, which Jackson likes!

On November 21st:
We hang out at 4 lbs and our on our nasal canula we went down on liters to 2.5 which is great.
He sats around 25 to 28 O's

On November 22nd:
We go down again on our nasal canula to 2.0 liters and our feeds are up to 42 cc's per feed and we now take out the feeding tube vs leaving it in all the time.
We had our eye exam and it indicates a stage 1 which the doctors says not to worry about, but we still worry. We will get a second exam in 2 weeks.

On November 23rd:
Happy Happy Thanksgiving. We get another visit with Beth our Occupational Therapist who helps ensure our body is developing okay and lets us know if we are stiff anywhere and need to be moved around in a different way. The nurses also pay real close attention to this as they go by the plan Beth give to also ensure our little ones develop properly.
We go off Prilosec today!
We are 4lbs and 3 oz

On November 24th:
We are at 1 Liter on the nasal Canula - Big NEWS
We weigh in 4lbs 2 oz- so we lost 1 oz we will work on that no worries!
We continue to poop on our own

On November 25th:
We hang out at 1 liter on the canula and we are 4lbs 4 ozs
We go to a nipple feed which is at bottle feed for the 1st time today! BIG NEWS BIG
And Mom was allowed to feed him with the help of Melanie! He took 5 cc's of food then we tube fed the rest- don't worry we won't starve our little man.

On November 26th:
We hang at 1 liter and 4.4 lbs- We nipple feed for the 2nd time. This time we only took 2 cc's of food but we will get there...we will. Poop is greenish but everyone tells mom not to worry it isn't an infection.

On November 27th:
We up our Iron to .3 cc and we started on Sodium Chloride 2x per day along with theophlene. We are in an OPEN CRIB look at me grow! and my temp is hanging out at 98.5!
I am 4lbs 8 oz ....getting bigger and 15 ccs of food by bottle

November 28th
Open Crib and in a REAL CRIB the big one not the wash tub type.
We gained an ounce! 4lbs 9 oz and we go up to 20 cc of food on the bottle!

November 29th:
We get another visit from Elizabeth who is very pleased with our feeds! Way to go Jackson. We took 30 cc's of food. Our little man loves to eat like a big boy!

November 3oth:
4lbs 11 oz and we get to nipple feed which is bottle feed 2x per day vs 1 time!
at 10:30 a.m. we took 40 CC and at 4:30 p.m. we took 48 cc's through the bottle

December 1st:
We now are feeding 3 x per day and our feeds went 17cc's / 52 cc's / 17 cc's. Which is okay remember we are just getting the hang of it.

We are now 5lbs and we are on 1/2 liter on the nasal canula!

December 2nd:
We fed at 17 cc's, 30 cc's and then we had to tube the other feed but that is okay.

December 3rd:
We are told we are going to wean off the canula. We took 34 CC's from the bottle.
We are excited to go off the canula and hope we can stay off it.

December 4th:
Well, we went back on the canula but that is okay we will get there. Our feeds went 37 cc's then 47 cc's and 55 cc's all in one day which means we are getting better at the bottle.

December 5th:
We weigh in at 5lbs 1 oz We do okay on our feeds today ...Still learning and need a little break

December 6th:
5lbs 1 oz
We had a meeting with Speech therapist today Maiya we didn't do so hot on our feed but we will get it.

December 7th:
We take all of our bottle today in 10 minutes with the help of Ali- Mom did okay but Ali had the magic touch- Thank you Ali
We went off our theophlene today and mom and Jackson meet with lactation. We have our bath time with Bethel tonight too.

December 8th:
Occupational Therapist (Beth) visits us and tells us our pelvic bone is losening up and that we look good!
Dr. Lockhart visited and tells us great news that our eyes are regressing - GREAT NEWS
Speech visits today and very very happy with our feeds!
Dr. Unite's - pediatrician that was recommended to us will accept Jackson- Phew!
We got a little cold today as our temp was 97.6 but we put a heater in our new "private room" to warm us up. I think it is definitely the room not Jackson

We had a brady on mom and scared her! We recovered with mom's help. Surgeon came and visited and can't find the HERNIA- We pray that this has closed on its own and we won't need surgery.

December 9th:
Weight is 5lbs 3 oz and we are at 1/4 Liter on our canula today!
Sats are okay.
We brady 2x's on mom today during feeds but we must just be tired.

December 10th:
We weight 5lbs 4 oz
Dr.Dekowski couldn't feel Hernia anymore either- oh we hope this continues!
Grandpa holds you!

December 11th:
Feeds went well- you get to see Elizabeth again and Beth! They are very pleased with your progress. We all are!

December 12th:
You feeds are going wells. We pray this continues- you even took up to 70 cc's by the bottle today which is excellent.

December 13th:
We can feed you by the bottle anytime we want. No More tubes
You also can breast feed when you want.

December 14th:
Doctors are saying you may be home by the end of the weekend or early next week- Mom still doesn't know to get excited or not. But this time she is super excited. Dad can't believe it and is in shock. All mom thinks about is sterilizing the house. Mom asks Dr. Dekowski if he is serious about coming home and he smiles and says yes it looks that way. If Dr. Dekowski admits to that then we know it is going to happen as he seems to be more conversative so mom is very very very excited she gets teary eyed.

Jackson gets an MRI today which Emma who helped bring you down from North Austin.

Jacksons Immunizations are scheduled - 5 shots! Ugh! Mom won't be there for that.


December 15th:
MRI comes back okay!
Hearing test occurs and you pass!
Cheryl had to give you the shots in the morning- poor baby but you know Cheryl didn't want to she just had to.
Sleep study occurs tonight and we get to see if we will room in or not.


Dec. 16th:

Big day! Mom and Dad Room in with Jackson...we received the news and we do get to room in! You did have some Apnea espisodes over the night but you are coming home on a monitor- which is good as mom and dad want to ensure you are okay!

Getting closer to going home!

"You may think from the smile, I have gas but that just isn't true..
I am thinking....
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! "

Hello everyone,

We apologize for the delay in getting the journal updated. The last two weeks have been filled with many blessings.

First, we are proud to announce Jackson Eric Spiess is now 5 pounds and 1 ounce!

We continue to improve on our bottle feeds which Jackson has now figured out that the bottle is a very good way to get his food verses the tube.

We currently are feeding him by bottle every other feeding- each bottle feed contains 52 cc's of milk. At the start of the bottle feeds we didn't offer him as much milk but we have progressed to 52 cc's and are holding steady at that amount. Except today Jackson wanted a little extra boost so his nurse (auntie) Cheryl gave him a 2nd bottle of more milk approxiametely 15 cc's. I think Jackson has Cheryl wrapped around his little finger which is great. We are so proud that Jackson is now letting us know when he wants his food as you can see him get a little cranky before his feedings. We are also happy that all his body functions are working. We know the lungs will take time (years), but the progess he is making so far is GREAT!

Jackson also went off the nasal canula for a little under 24 hours. We are happy that we took the step of trying him off his nasal canula which gives him some oxygen! He did have to go back on but we will try again hopefully this coming week!- We also were able to get some great Christmas Pictures while he was off the canula as you probably noticed from above. Today, we went off of "theophylline" (similar to caffeine) and we pray that his lungs are well enough to stay off this medicine without needing any extra oxygen.

Jackson and Grandpa Shepard also did some bonding this past week as you will see in the photo. Grandpa held his Grandson for the 1st time and he told Jackson about all the train rides that he was going to take Jackson on.

We still have a few more eye exams to go and we still have a hernia surgery coming our way but we are very, very, very thankful for where we are today and we pray his progress continues in this direction!

Over the weekend, Dr. Riveria mentioned we may get home prior to Christmas. We know that we need to take it one day at a time, but are excited to hear the positive news of taking him home whether it is before Christmas or not.

Here are some pictures we took of Jackson recently. We hope you enjoy them. We also hope that this blog update finds everyone getting ready for Christmas!
We can't thank you enough for all the support everyone has provided for us. We thank God each and every day for Jackson, and for all of our friends and family.

Jackson is explaining to Grandpa how many train rides he wants to go on : )






















"Thats right I am one spoiled man, with all these nurses tending to me."
Cheryl and Jackson

"We call this one his Blue Steel pose. For all the Zoolander fans out there."

"Here's one of Jackson in his slugger outfit. I'm sure Uncle Brad will teach him all about baseball."