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
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
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