I am a YEAR OLD! THANK YOU EVERYONE

Hello Family and Friends,

Wow, can you believe it! Jackson has turned one this past Sunday and boy did we have to celebrate! We can't thank you all enough for the prayers as they sure are working, and for all the great medical care Jackson is getting!

Thank you Thank you Thank you.

We couldn't have made it this far without all of you.

So here we are September 25th- two days after Jackson's 1st birthday and boy does the Spiess family have lots to be Thankful for. We are so blessed.

Our journey's in September will start with September 4th- Labor Day weekend. What did we do over the weekend? Well we definitely took advantage of having an extended weekend where we could get lots of cleaning done. Jackson enjoyed watching mom and dad busy working away.... Actually, we trade on and off as Jackson always has one of us playing with him, needless to say...household tasks take weeks to get done.

We also decided to throw an early birthday celebration since Jackson's Birthday is in that nasty cold season and almost start of RSV season. Dad and mom didn't exactly plan out the party too far in advance as it was on a whim that we decided to throw his party on Labor Day. We know he shouldn't be around large crowds and school had just started but we figured September 4th would be best since it is still warm enough to do something outside and this way we could have other kids around. So we did it and we are glad we decided to throw him a party.

We can't thank all our friends enough for coming. We appreciate them taking the morning of Labor Day and meeting us for some fun at Brushy Creek Water Park to Celebrate Jackson "almost turning 1". This was a very memorable event and we are Thankful to have so many people show-up even with the weather in the early morning being "iffy"!

The rest of the month is going well. Jackson continues to do well with Physical Therapy. He is growing strong and is a very happy go lucky man. He is wanting to walk and pulls himself up on everything and walks with help. It is only a matter of time before our baby takes his first steps. He is also balancing on his own a little (standing up without support)! Go J. He finally started to "chat" a little, and we are aggressively working on him waving, and baby talking as we seem to be more of a mover and shaker than a talker or waver.

Jackson loves to read, turn everything over(especially his bouncer) and play hide-n-seek with us. He is just the happiest little guy around.

On September 23rd - We celebrate Jackson's birthday with a birthday dinner with Ed and Sara, dad, mom and Birthday boy Jackson. Then we watched Jackson pick at his cake and finally eat it. We moved on to opening gifts which was lots of fun. I also think Jackson has a new girlfriend as he loved Mrs. Sara. He laughed and played so much with her. They had a blast together.

On September 24th (yesterday) we had our 12 month appointment at Dr. Unite's office. Wow, great appointment J! Jackson weighed in at 18lbs 11 oz- little lower than mom and dad thought and lower than his last weight there but Dr. Unite isn't worried. Jackson still has some constipation issues but we are working on this. Right now we are still just working with foods he eats and working on giving him just a little more juice. We may end up having to give him some over-the-counter meds (time will tell). We also didn't do his shots yesterday as we have Jackson's Synagis shot on October 3rd and we decided to only put him through one day of pain vs 2 days within a week. We can't wait for the Synagis shot as Austin has already reported two cases of RSV in the area (found this out on Monday). This appointment went really well! As Dr. Unite is very pleased with Jackson's progress.

We are keeping a low profile and praying that we have another winter of Jackson staying healthy. On the home front we are washing our hands constantly, changing our clothes when we come home from work, keeping a low profile as usual and doing our best to stay healthy especially with mom and dad working. We definitely appreciate all our friends who are very aware of our situation and have put Jackson's health first in so many ways! THANK YOU.

We can't wait to give you more updates and we pray all is going well with you and your families.

With love,

Kyle, Erica and Jackson Spiess

Here is some information about RSV and Synagis-

RSV:

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes mild cold-like symptoms in adults and children. But it can make premature babies and children with certain other medical conditions very sick. Each year, an estimated 125,000 babies in the United States are hospitalized with severe RSV infections, the leading cause of infant hospitalization.1,2 Annually, severe RSV infections cause up to 500 childhood deaths.

How Synagis works:
Full-term babies get virus-fighting substances called antibodies from their mothers when they are born. These help fight RSV and other viruses. But babies born prematurely often do not get enough of these antibodies before birth.
Each dose of Synagis gives your baby enough RSV-specific antibodies to help fight RSV infection for about a month. Your baby needs one dose of Synagis about every 28 to 30 days during the RSV season to help protect against RSV disease. If you skip or postpone a Synagis shot, your baby could be at increased risk of getting RSV disease.