Jackson's Journeys in July and most of August!

Hello Everyone,

Here we are almost 11 months old and happy as can be to announce that we continue to do well. On August 23rd Jackson will be 11 months old. On September 1st Jackson's corrected age will be 8 months old. We have been so happy that we have had lots of visitors this summer. We continue to thank you all for your prayers ....Thank you! It takes prayers, prayers and more prayers and excellent medical care to get our little man to where he is today. Thank you ,Thank you, Thank you!

Watch Jackson grow through lots of pictures....posted at: http://spiess-archives.phanfare.com/. Beware mom has a tendency to post all pictures and takes pictures of EVERYTHING.....

Jackson's Journey's in July were left off right after Nana and Papa Shepard left us and we were getting ready for more fun with Grandma and Grandpa Spiess.

July 6th- Our day starts off with us getting up and Mrs. Diane comes to take care of Jackson while Dad and Mom start work. Then Grandma and Grandpa Spiess arrive. They are so excited to see Jackson and can't believe how big he is. They come in an relax a little and chat. Then daddy gets home from work and then they change, wash their hands real good and hand out with Jackson. Jackson has come along way in such a short time when it comes to sitting with help to now....he is sitting up real well on his own as you can see him with his toy.....look at those blue eyes (what an angel). It is amazing how fast these little guys pick things up. He is still "leap frogging" on the crawling but we will get there....we will.

July 8th- We celebrate Father's day with Grandpa Spiess and although Grandma's card was sent for mother's day, Jackson wanted to personally give her, her gift in person. Jackson loves watching people open gifts....

July 1oth- We have another visit to Dr. Lockhart's office where we pass with flying colors on our eye exam.....WAY TO GO J!

Durng this week, we kept it fairly low key with Jackson as he was congested and we couldn't tell if he caught a cold or if it was allergies. We called Dr. Unite's office and we had to put him on Triminac Yellow and use the nasal spray. He was trooper...although the nasal spray wasn't the easiest thing to give him. Dad and Mom managed to hold Jackson long enough to squirt his nostrils.

The rest of the week we do our usual of hanging out at home, Grandpa and Grandma Spiess tour some of the surrounding areas during the day and enjoy the sunshine while we have it. Unlike up North we are getting rain down here in Texas. Grandpa Spiess helps out with trimming trees, dishes and lawn work. Grandma Spiess checks out the new Round Rock Outlet mall. Plus they fill us in the new IKEA!

Over the weekend of July 13th we go to Babies R Us to get Jackson his "big boy car seat". Yes that is right...we had to go and get him a convertible car seat as Dr. Unite mentioned the infant car seat weight wise is great but Jackson is so tall that he needs to something a little bigger. We had to use the convertible car seat as Jackson's height hasn't caught up with his weight. If we were buying car seats again....I think we would have just picked out the convertible car seat from the beginning. The benefit of the infant car seat is you can leave your baby sleeping in it even after you get home and bring them in the house. The benefit of the convertible car seat- you can have 1 car seat for your baby from 5 lbs up to 65 lbs! As always there are pros and cons to everything.

July 16th- We have our physical therapy with Cathy. Jackson seems to tilt his head when tired more and we get a pretty long report on things to work on but she seems pleased with Jackson. He are working on crawling, sitting up and his head range of motion. I think Jackson was just on vacation today.

July 17th- We go visit Dr. Unite as Jackson seems to be doing lots better during the day but doesn't seem to do as well at night as he is a little more congested sounding at night and is wanting to sleep on his tummy. We have been on Triminac for almost a week and we are nervous about whether to continue the Triminac or not.The visit went well, Dr. Unite thought he may have the touch of a cold and it just needs to run its course. We cease using the nasal spray and since his lungs were sounding okay we reduce the amount of Triminac we use until we aren't using anything. We are told to let Jackson sleep on his stomach as he is able to roll over. Mom and Dad didn't sleep all that well as it has been engraved into our head "BACK TO SLEEP".....
**** However at the doctor office, Jackson gave both mom and Dr. Unite a scare- he almost fell off the table. Mom had her body in front of Jackson while she reached into her purse. Jackson swung his entire body around when Dr. Unite came in. Luckily Mom's body helped block him along with Dr. Unite's and mom's quick reflexes....the little man stayed on the table. Both Dr. Unite and mom probably could have used a cardiologist after that. *******

Jackson also had a good time with Grandma Spiess's slippers.....we used them to promote crawling.

July 19th- Grandma and Grandpa Spiess leave to head back up North. Jackson is still leap frogging around...almost crawling but still not there yet.

July 22nd- Jackson Crawls! Yes, he crawls an actual crawl. NO more leapfrogging....Mom and Dad plan on what needs to be baby proofed next.....as Jackson is all over the place and we love every minute of it...

July 23rd- We have physical therapy with Ginger and she is very please with his crawling. We are still working on the sitting up and the fact his head is still tilting a little to the right when he sits up. Jackson will get there...he just needs a little more time. We get excellent tips on how to work with him to get him to do things and of course between dad, mom and Diane the little man is getting lots of physical therapy playtime. Jackson also seems to be doing really well. No more congestion! He also is sleeping on his side...okay not so much on his back but the side.

July 30th- We are now onto eating our Fruits.....watch out cereal we are adding a little more to Jackson's diet. Over the month we started with Rice Cereal then Oatmeal, then Barley. We held up on the cereals with Jackson being a "little" under the weather as we didn't want to deal with congestion issues and the chance of his being allergic to something. Well today was the big day- we get Bananas...Jackson loves them. (One thing about Jackson having to wait so long to actually get cereal and baby food is he likes everything.) I guess he figures he can't be picky as it took his parents long enough to finally give him baby food. We of course are writing down what he eats and what type of reactions he has ...."does it seem to like the food or not".

August 3rd: Papa Shepard arrives to help Jackson and mom out while Daddy goes on another trip to Taiwan.

August 4th: Daddy leaves for Taiwan.

August 6th- We take a ride in the wagon Cousin Carter bought Jackson and we get to eat some vegetables now! Ginger comes for Therapy and we get a GREAT REPORT. Jackson is beyond wanting to crawl and is pulling himself up on everything. He also wants to walk so bad. He likes to be a little higher up.....Watch out Onyx and Jasper (our cats) here comes Mr. Jackson. We will admit sometime the cats are great in helping Jackson learn to crawl/walk by leaning on the couch.

August 9th: We go to Cranial Technologies for a consult about a helmet for Jackson. We are so thankful that our good friend's sister is a therapist there and is able to squeeze us into her schedule - thank you Angie and Shana. We are informed that Jackson is a candidate for the helmet if we choose to put him in the helmet. Then after our appointment for the helmet we head to doctor Unite's office again....regarding Jackson's Thumb. He looked like he was getting a little infection near the nail bed....well, it is a hang nail- thank you Roxanne and we are told how to massage it when giving him a bath to ensure it softens up and then falls out. We are not to pull it out (thank goodness). Yes paranoid mom but definitely worth the trips.....as we are told we can start MEAT! Yes Stage 2 food for Mr. J......Papa Shepard goes out and gets Jackson some Stage foods that night! So the little guy can finally have some "real food".

Papa Shepard and mom kept busy through the week with Jackson. Papa started working on padding around the fireplace for Jackson on the weekend and throughout the week along with helping mom at night keep up with Jackson and the household chores.

August 10th - Family Day at Dell- Mom's work and Jackson decide to pop in at the very end of the day after mom comes homes, changes and scrubs down her hands and arms real good. We then take Jackson back to Dell to go outside and look at the carnival rides and the kids if any are still there.

August 11th- Daddy comes home! We pick daddy up at the airport and then go and get Jackson's walking toy- Thank you Papa Shepard. The train ride at home begins....Jackson loves his Winnie the Pooh train.

August 13th- Papa leaves for Kansas City to visit Great Grandma and then back home.


August 15th- Jackson's 1st Tooth pops through....Mrs. Diane brings Jackson up to mom's office to give her the news...Daddy mentioned the night before that he thought the tooth was cutting through the gums. Mom who has had her hands (with a glove on) in Jackson's mouth so many times already for this...really just thought it was another false alarm...Well, mom was fooled. You can see the tip of his tooth! Big Yea for Jackson! Diane and Mom celebrated with hugs for Jackson and a picture. Then the phone call to daddy to tell him he was also right... : ) Then back to work.

August 16th- Jackson has PT with Ginger and everyone continues to be very pleased with Jackson's progress. We are given some tips for things to do with toys to help Jackson learn to walk and how Jackson needs to cruise side to side verses trying to walk straight forward. He also cheats when it comes to corners and starts crawling to get to what he wants to go to. What can we say....he is smart : )

August 20th- Jackson has PT with Cathy and in the report...yes in the actual written report Cathy says....."Jackson is doing VERY WELL!" ......Way to go little man! I think mom is going to buy stickers to put on this report! His report also only filled up a few lines on the page...which is great. We had to write a new "developmental plan" for Jackson as he has met his goals! Our new plan is focused on Walking, Walking and more Walking. Ensuring we keep his range of motion with his head in "good standing", and eventually speech...right now I think mom is the only one real concerned of his lack of talking...but this is okay. Mom's job is to worry.

Now to top today off even more....daddy decides to show Jackson how to crawl up the stairs and he did a pretty good job at crawling up the stairs..under very close supervision that is.

We hope that our update finds everyone smiling as much as we are. We can't thank you enough for all your prayers...they mean so much to us. We realize how fortunate our family is to be where we are today! Thank you!

With love,
Kyle, Erica and Jackson