Jackson's Journey in March

Hello Family and Friends,

Well, March is has come and almost gone and we are very thankful to have had such a wonderful month filled with many blessings. We thank God everyday for Jackson, for everyone who is praying for him and for all the medical staff that took such great care of our little boy. Our March journey has been full of fun and exciting things for Jackson. First Jackson's age is 6 months old! WOW -6 months can you believe it (6 months as of March 23rd). Jackson's corrected age almost 3 months. We are thankful for each and every day, hour and minute. Jackson this month is talking up a storm, even seems to sing along with his new 5-1 play gym that mostly he kicks, but as of today- he used his hands to make his toys roll. You would have thought his parents won the lottery with how excited they got when he started to use his hands on the toy. Jackson definitely is a thumb sucker and he continues to cuddle with his burp cloths, blankets, mom or dad's top, or pretty much anything he can grab ahold of. We love it. We have seen so many more smiles out of Jackson this month which of course makes mom and dad less stressed. When we feed Jackson we look down at his chunky legs and his little fat rolls and just take in how thankful we are! Jackson also has noticed when the TV is on, so we keep the TV off most of the time. He does get to watch the NCAA tournament while he plays with his toys and with us. We are sad that Jackson had to retire his MSU attire on game days due to MSU losing last week. However, Jackson still has OSU in the tournament and continues to sport his OSU outfits on game days. We also are using flashcards for Jackson and we can't believe that we can get through the entire deck of flashcards without boring him. We are very pleased at how Jackson is taking everything in. Jackson also likes to chat on Skype. He visits with Nanna and Pappa Shepard, Aunt Aimee and Uncle Brad, Uncle Matt and Aunt Nicole, Tom and Lore, The Drees Family and we had a special treat this month as Jackson was able to visit with St. Martin's Parish Council and Nanna Shepard's RESA friends. Jackson loves video conferencing and he likes to watch videos of himself on the computer. He also likes the books we read to him. Right now is favorit books are: Sandra Boynton series, "Little Engine that Could", and "Goodnight Moon". He takes in the pictures and loves it when mom and dad change their voice to sound like the character in the book.
(Jackson talking with Nanna and Pappa Shepard)

Mom keeps telling Jackson that it won't be long and we can get out the house and check out parks, maybe a trip to the zoo or IKEA. These trips will all be in June time frame which we are looking forward to as not only are we able to get out and socialize but Nanna and Pappa Shepard and Grandma and Grandpa Spiess finally get to come down to see Jackson ! We will at the end of April /Beginning May follow the guidance provided by the doctors and stick to walks verses going all over town. We also are very excited that a very important walk is coming up and that is the March of Dimes Walk-May 12th. We hope that Jackson will be able to go in the walk but time will tell. However, dad or mom will DEFINITELY be at the walk. Jackson's walk page is: http://www.walkamerica.org/Jacksonsjourney

Well, now on to the doctor visits. Only one for this month- can you believe it! March 16th- 9 a.m. appointment at Austin Children's Chest Associates: Jackson gets his RSV shot and we find out this is the last shot for this season. They informed us that they judge RSV season by how many cases come into the area hospitals. Therefore, we do not need to get a shot in April for Jackson.





We finally have loaded more pictures onto Jackson's website, http://spiess-archives.phanfare.com/album/195814. Feel free to check them out. These are pictures of Jackson from Janaury to March. Mom thought they had been loaded last month but she must have done something wrong as when she went to update the file, she didn't see any pictures. They are for sure on the website this time!

We can't thank everyone enough for all the prayers! We are very thankful for how Jackson is doing and we know it is due to all the prayers out there for him. We hope this blog finds everyone healthy and happy.

With love,
The Spiess Family
(Kyle, Erica and Jackson)

Jackson is 11 lbs 14 oz - February's Journal

Dear Friends and Family,

Boy, has February flown by for the Spiess household. We do apologize for the delay in getting the website updated.

First we would like to thank everyone for all the prayers out there for Jackson. As we look back on February, we think about how much Jackson has grown and improved. We are doing really well considering our start and we pray we continue in this direction. We know that we need to keep a close eye on Jackson for a few years but we have faith that we are going to be okay. This journey is in God's hands and we thank him for each and every day.

I hope we are not boring anyone with all the details we post in this blog. We have found that reading other family blogs with similar journeys has been extremely helpful. Therefore, we hope some families out there find reading about our journey helpful.

March 2nd-
Jackson Eric Spiess is 5 months 1 week and 1 day old- Corrected age Jackson is 2 months old and 1 day. The last few weeks Jackson has been lots of fun! He is working on holding his head up. Jackson also is very alert and taking in all of his surroundings. He loves to be carried facing out so he can see everything. Jackson also is noticing his toys,his hands, his tongue and loves all the faces we make at him. His favorite song is itsy bitsy spider since that song comes with hand gestures. Jackson loves to hold onto his burp cloth and his parents fingers, especially when he eats. He is a very serious eater and doesn't like for his parents to be late with a bottle. We will try to load some of his videos on the other website for anyone to view. Now for what everyone is waiting for- his weight!

Jackson is as of Feb. 28th's doctor's appointments up to 11lbs 14 oz- 22.25 cm long.

Now for the details of the past month:

We had our wellness check on Feb 6th! We discussed the issues we were having with his reflux and his episodes the past week with the loose stools. We think most his issues are due to an immature gut which time will help us improve this. We also discussed how we should work on changing up his feeds a little - less formula more breastmilk or less breastmilk more formula. We keep a journal everyday and have since he came home from the NICU of each feed and what type of formula we use and what percentage of his feed is breastmilk vs formula. This has come in very handy, especially when we went to changing around formulas around. Jackson also is averaging about 30 oz of food a day which is a good amount for our 10 lb 14 oz boy. We need to get his blood taken for a thyroid test-follow-up from when he was in the NICU.

On Feb 9th we went to the lab to get Jackson's blood drawn. This visit really didn't go so well. Originally they tried to get blood from Jackson's arm but couldn't find his vein so we went with the heel prick. Unfortunately, we found out on Monday that they didn't get enough blood so ...back to the lab.

On Feb 13th we took Jackson to the Children's Hospital Lab to get his blood drawn. This visit went extremely well. The nurse took him in, found the vein and took the blood. Our brave boy showed how well his lungs work now by screaming so hard that daddy heard him at registration which is all the way down the hall. Mom held him with the nurses and of course she couldn't help but get teary eyed. Jackson right after the needle was removed took his pacifier and cuddled with mom.

Feb 14th Happy Valentines Day! We had a very eventful Valentines day. Daddy came home to Mom in tears worried about Jackson. She had gotten off the phone with Kim at our pediatrician's office because mom noticed blisters on the top lip and she thought there was some on his bottom lip. While on the phone she also mentioned to Kim that he is through with his dyflucan for thrush but at the very top of his mouth there is still a patch of thrush. We had been working on getting rid of Jackson's thrush for awhile. Dyflucan should have done the trick. Kim was also worried so we ended up going to the pediatrician's office the next day.

February 15th- in the morning and saw Dr. Addy. We were prepped that if he did still have thrush that we may get referred to some specialist as this could have something to do with his immune system since dyflucan should get rid of it. Well, we went into the office and Jackson was examined. Dr. Addy looked at Jackson (she looked worried too!)and then she decided to try a Q tip and see if what was way up in the top of his mouth might be milk and not thrush. Thankfully it was milk. We could all feel the weight lifted off our shoulders. We all were congratulating Jackson (Even Dr. Addy) and laughing, yes laughing at the situation.

Feb 16th- we get to visit Dr. Fulmer our lung doctor. Boy was this trip just icing on the cake. Yes, he did take the monitor away- which we are proud to say we only used the monitor a little bit this past month with Jackson so we were feeling a little more at ease with Jackson not having a monitor. Of course dad and mom still take shifts on sleeping "with" Jackson. Jackson sleeps in his play yard or his bouncer still and we crash on the couch. When he starts to sleep more than 4 hours we will eventually move him to the cosleeper in our room and maybe he will get to sleep in his room. Who knows at this rate, he probably won't be in his room until he is 3 or 4 years old.
Not only did Jackson's monitor get taken away but the lungs sound good. Dr. Fulmer told mom and Jackson that End of April / beginning of May they could start to get outside and go for walks. Just watch what flu season is like and of course be careful as you can still catch things even after RSV season and flu season.

The following week we are appointment free. Jackson eats, sleeps, plays and yes cries. He doesn't like belly time at all- although one night w/ Nanna and Pappa Shepard on video camera mom and dad showed them what we do with Jackson during Belly Time as mom was up for suggestions since Jackson cried so much during belly time. Wouldn't you know it- Jackson was showing off and behaved. He even moved his head to the camera. Now they are signed up for Belly Time every day.

On Feb 28th we get to have a full day of appointments and again we are super excited as they all seem to go well.

The Gastroenterologist thinks that Jackson's symptoms with the gagging, the spit up, etc. are all reflux related and didn't seem concerned about it being GERD. He did give us a prescription for Zegerid in case we need it vs just using Prevacide. We obviously will only use the script if we need it. Hopefully we don't. Jackson does gag, cough and occassionally due to the gagging loses his breathe a little. We keep a close eye on him and are thankful to see him recover from these episodes. We also have everything in our house for him on an incline- even his baby Einstein mat.

We also had a visit with the Surgeon. She said Jackson looks good and just to keep a close eye on him and no hernia surgery needed. We have another follow-up with her in August.

Jackson also likes his bath tub even since we have fully emerged his body in the water. He seems to kick his legs alot more in the water, and smiles alot! Jackson also looks to the right more often than to his left so we are working with him on looking left.

We can't thank everyone enough! We appreciate all of you. The prayer are working please keep them up.

We want to thank the Ronald McDonald House for being our Home away from Home. It was nice to only be 1 minute away from our little boy when we needed to shower and catch some sleep incase we received another one of those "calls".

We also want to thank everyone who has donated blood! We can't thank you enough. We hope you continue to donate as many other people are in similar situations.

Thank you and we will be better about updating the blog.
With lots of love,
Kyle, Erica and Jackson Spiess