Spiess Family's End of February through March Journey

Hello Everyone!

Well, here we are a little behind on the blog but good news! We all are doing really well. We pray you all are too.

Well, we will start where we last left off......

Jackson's end of February went well! It is ironic as I had posted the Valentine's day post and shortly after Jackson ends up catching something. We have no clue how which gets mom very frustrated. We are so careful and have so many "rules" of handwashing and cleanliness when people come over that it just gets frustrating but....as long as Jackson continues to recover from what he gets we are okay. Jackson came down with Roseola virus. Crazy as he doesn't touch other kids yet....Who KNOWS- Ugh...

"Roseola infantum is a common illness in young children in which they generally develop a fever for 3-5 days (worse at night), followed by the appearance of the typical red rash when the fever disappears. The rash may be present on the upper arms, legs, and face, but is most prominent on the neck and trunk. It consists of numerous, red 2-5mm spots that blanch when pressed. The rash typically lasts for 24-48 hours. "

Jackson's fever started on a Sunday at 101 then it climbed to 102....then on Monday he didn't have a fever at all. Tuesday he was burning up at 103 and went to the doctors. Due to Jackson's only symptom being a very high fever the doctor figured it was Roseola Virus however, he too was surprised as Jackson wasn't around any kids. He forewarned us that a rash would break out from this and if the fever continued to Thursday then he would need to come back in. Well, doctor Unite was right on track with the fact that Jackson's fever broke on Wednesday after reaching 104 the night prior and Thursday we had ourselves a little leopard! He was spotted...The great news during this appointment was the doctor wasn't that worried as it wasn't a respiratory and....the doctor mentions that maybe this summer Jackson can play with some kids which shocks mom considering we are in the office for Jackson getting sick even though we keep him some what isolated. Dr. Unite actually wasn't too unhappy about this as he mentioned his immune system is building up so there was a positive side to him getting sick.

We do have to brag that out little man for having such a high fever handled it very well! Kids are amazing. We as adults would have been miserable and cranky with a fever so high but Jackson well up until Wednesday he was a happy go lucky little guy. Wednesday, all he wanted to do was rock, cuddle and sleep which of course we were more than happy to do.

Mom had already resigned from work right after Christmas Break (January 7th) after Jackson caught his first upper respiratory infection which thankfully he recovered from without a hospital stay. She was working on finding her replacement and train them before she left. She can't thank her boss, Frank enough for being so supportive. The fact she was able to work from home while others were taking care of Jackson in the house made things less stressful and the ability to work part-time during isolation when Jackson came home from the hospital really did help out alot...since isolation was difficult. Everyone has been so helpful and we can't thank them enough! We figured the less people in the house then maybe we could keep Jackson from getting sick. We know he is a toddler and has to explore the outdoors but we figured when we were in isolation we managed to keep him healthy. We could do our best to do this again without being in total isolation.

Now Jackson is up and running again....he continues to play and loves seeing Mrs. Michelle and Mrs. Cindy who take care of him during the day while mom works. He gets so excited when then come over and then he takes them to the door when they leave and gets on the couch and waves "bye, bye" to them while blowing them kisses : ) What a prince charming if you ask us...

Developmentally we are working extremely hard on speech. Jackson knows what he wants and is very good at communicating thing without talking through sign language and basically showing us what he wants but we really need him to start chatting.

ECI-Early Childhood Intervention team continues to come to our house once a month. We were focused on his motor skills so we had Mrs. Ginger and on occassionally Mrs. Kathy coming out to our house to evaluate Jackson and to give us advice on ways to work with him to ensure he meets his goals. They have been extremely pleased with his motor skills and are looking to bring out a speech therapist during his next visit.

On March 11th, Jackson gets his ECI evaluation/observation and boy did our little man show off. He showed the ladies that he knew exactly what everyone was saying by retrieving toys they asked for and showing how well he does his puzzles, etc. However, they did mention that we may want to see an ENT (Ears, Nose, Throat) doctor to see if there isn't some medical reason Jackson isn't communicating verbally. They also have noticed how much he keeps his mouth open all the time. We can't tell if this is from teething or if this is from something else. We can't thank ECI enough for going through everything with us. It helps a lot to see how Jackson is progressing and where we may have some delays that we need to focus on.

March 21st- Happy GOOD FRIDAY! We hope everyone had a great Good Friday. The Spiess Family sure did. This was mom's last official last day at work which she was able to take off as a vacation day and the family was able to spend some time together as Daddy took the day off too! We went to Mrs. Brooke's birthday party- 1st birthday party Jackson was able to go to as it was at a park and we stayed away from the kids. Jackson couldn't wait as he loved the invite he received (Dora the Explorer) and continuously had to take it off the refrigerator and carry it around. We then prepared for EASTER!

March 23rd, Happy Happy EASTER! The Spiess Family hopes and prays that everyone had a very Happy Easter. What a way to celebrate new life! The Spiess's were extremely happy as Mr. Jackson is doing well and Mr. Tyler is still baking away inside his mommy. This year mom was able to go to church on Easter so Dad went Saturday night to church and Mom went Sunday morning since we can't take Jackson to church. After 7:30 a.m. mass mom comes home to find Jackson awake and having his morning bottle with daddy. She changes and then we go and find what the Easter bunny brought for Jackson. Later on in the day, Ms. Brooke comes over to do a Easter Egg hunt with Jackson. It was so much fun. We wanted to take Jackson to the neighborhood Easter Egg hunt but worried about him being around other kiddos. Brooke's mom and dad know all about Jackson and so they are very careful when the kids are around each other. We decided to go ahead and do an egg hunt with just Jackson and Brooke. Jackson's first hunt went well. He grabbed 4 eggs from the yard and after that decided to play with the eggs. Since Easter...we have been practicing for next year... : ) Then Brooke and Jackson opened up their eggs to see what the Easter Bunny left in them. We then settle down for a good dinner and start our bed time routine to end such a glorious day!

March 25th, we have our appointment with the Allergist. Jackson had an allergic reaction in the latter part of February (February 24th) and therefore, we went to the Pediatricians to get an EpiPen.

Allergic Reaction: What happened?

Well, we were eating dinner and Jackson all of a sudden pushed his food away and started rubbing his eyes. then he wanted out of his chair and kept rubbing his face. Mom told dad to get the Benadryl as she thought he was having an allergic reaction. His face started to get welts on it and we gave Jackson 3/4 tsp of Benadryl and then he wanted down to run around. Again, kids are so funny about how well they handle things. However, we were warned whatever caused this the next time around will probably be more severe and thus the reason we need to keep the EpiPen on us at all times especially since we still do not know what caused this.

At the doctor's we went through what Jackson ate that night and then we had to get a blood draw for a screening on what could have caused the allergic reaction. We also need to do a skin test on Jackson too...which we still haven't scheduled as we know it isn't going to be fun for him but we will be getting him in soon. The doctor's mentioned waiting to do this after Tyler is born. So in the interim, Jackson really isn't being introduced to any "new" foods. He doesn't seem to mind as we already had a great variety of foods introduced that he does well with.

March 27th, we have our 18 month appointment with the pediatrician, Dr. Unite. We are so excited as Jackson has an excellent report! Jackson's stats are:

Weight:

23 lbs and 4 oz! - Wow.....we are pumped: which puts J at 10 to 25 percentile on the growth chart.

Height:

32.5 inches- which puts Jackson at the 50 to 75 percentile

March 28th, We have our big doctor's appointment with Dr. Berry our Perinatologist. At this appointment we have the cerclage removed and we are very nervous that Tyler will come today.

Mom hopes that Tyler holds off as Tyler and mom have a baby shower for Mr. Tyler the next day and she is excited as this time she will have a round belly at the shower. After the cerclage is removed mom does dialate to only 2 cm and is a little effaced.

March 29th, Tyler and mom made it! They get to enoy the wonderful shower that her girlfriend put on for her and catch up so many girlfriends that she hasn't seen in a very long time.

We pray that everyone's February and March went well and that everyone is in good health!

The Spiess family knows how blessed they are and can't thank everyone enough for all the prayers! We appreciate everyone keeping up with how Jackson and Tyler are doing. We can't thank you enough! Thank you Thank you Thank you!

Love,

Kyle, Erica, Jackson and Tyler (on the way)