Jackson's Journal

2.12.08 Update

2009-02-12T22:22:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,

Well, we have figured out that if we do not keep up with the blog then we are in deep trouble. Mom has started three different books filled with updates on the kids, now..where did all the books go. We decided to try and do updates as often as possible to keep everyone posted on how great GOD is, our family is for sure witnesses to this. We have 2-25 weekers in the family, 2-29 weekers and a 39 weeker!

The Spiess boys....Wow, are they getting big and we are doing so many different things now.

Tyler is almost walking. On February 17th we will hit 10 months and so far we have taken 2 steps on our own (Feb 10th was his 1st 2 real steps on his own). We wonder if he will start walking by 10 months or may hold steady at this until he gets closer to 12 months. Hmmmm...either way, Tyler gets wherever he wants to go on his own. He climbs on everything and lately his favorite toy is the rocking horse. Mom continues to try and help him on the horse thinking he wants to rock but no....he lets her know he just wants to climb all over and try to get on the horse himself. He also climbs up the indoor play slide, turns himself around and scoots to slide down it. Again, mom is NOT to help him. Tyler displays his independence by throwing FITS if you do anything he does not like hence try to help him or when you take paper away from him that he wants to eat. We love it. It is now funny since we hear his screaming tantrums so often we just shrug our shoulders and tell him...Well, you can't have that and let him continue with his fit. Jackson is also very used to the fits...not that Jackson isn't displaying his "wonderful" two year old independence. Tyler has 4 teeth now and back to the not wanting any help.....will only eat food if he can feed himself. He literally just started eating baby food after many attempts to get him to eat the food, about 2 weeks ago. We thought he just wanted mom's milk only but have now come to the conclusion that he just wants to feed himself. We are happy to say that Tyler will eat a little if you put it on the spoon and hand him the spoon to feed himself or give him some type of finger food (crackers, etc).

Jackson is also growing so fast. He is talking with sentences more and more (not always very clear but we are working on this). He also is into reading his books to us or Tyler which we love. He makes the stories up to the pictures! Sooooo cute. Jackson's latest thing to do is tell us, "no" and mean it. He also likes to look the other way when we try to explain why he can't do something. Who would have thought keeping a straight face would be so hard when disciplining your child. They are just a riot sometimes. Jackson and his time out chair are starting to become attached to the rear- just kidding. Some days it seems that he just wants to go to time out and sit there all day. Once he told mom that he needed to sit in his time out chair....so we are starting to consider taking a toy away verses time out. We can't believe how tall Jackson is now. He just is getting so big so fast. We are very blessed to be where we are today! Everytime Jackson does something intentionally wrong to test the waters....mom wants to celebrate even though she has to do the parenting thing of time out. When he intentionally tells her no, or purposely waits until she tends to Tyler to dump his milk on his plate (the latest trick) she knows that he is thinking it through! Go Jackson and Tyler!

The boys are having so much fun playing and wrestling together. It is a sight to see...

We pray all is well with you!
Love,
The Spiess Family

We are BACK! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2009-01-17T22:26:00.000-08:00

1-17-09

Dear Family and Friends,

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and are enjoying the New Year!

Our family is doing extremely well! We thank God everyday and continue to thank him for each and everyone of you! Today is already January 17th and what have we been up to..........

Well, we enjoyed our Christmas this year with Daddy getting some extra time off with the family which made for some GREAT bonding time with the boys. The time was also needed as we were able to get some things done that we have put off...gosh before Tyler was born. It was nice to go through the house and reorganize as much as we could (still lots to do...but oh well), try to get rid of things we didn't need and get ready for visitors! We already have lots of baby clothes to move out...as Tyler is growing so fast...

Papa and Nana (P&N) were on their way down to visit! Jackson and Tyler couldn't wait to see them. We told Jackson that P&N would be coming down to visit a little bit before they were to leave because you never know what may come up- such as illness or weather. Well, good ole' Michigan weather almost stopped them from coming as Nana called Friday to mention they didn't know if they would make it out on Saturday due to the snow. Then Saturday, we heard they were on the road.

Monday, Dec. 22nd we had doctors visits due to Jackson having a horrible night sleeping or not sleeping to find out that he had an ear infection. We give Papa and Nana the low-down while they are on the road but neither the snow nor Jackson's illness stops them from coming! So we tell Jackson that they will be here and oh boy did he get excited. You definitely wouldn't have been able to tell he had an ear infection by the way he started acting when they arrived...

Monday, right before nap time mom hears a knock on the door. Well, it was Papa and Nana. Oh boy, did Jackson get pumped......needless to say- nap time wasn't needed anymore....well at least not until around 3:30/4 p.m. ish : ) Tyler was already napping.

We would have to say - this was definitely the start of Christmas. Seeing Jackson eyes light up and watching P&N get just as excited...What more can you ask for. Tyler was asleep but was also very excited. He did seem to remember Nana from her September visit. We are sure Tyler knew he would get LOTS of loving and would be able to take naps on Nana now...vs in the crib.

We were very happy to have company and have a wonderful Christmas celebrating the birth of Jesus! We pray that those who are in search of a job are finding some success with their search and that you have your health!

Highlights from December were......

This is Tyler's 1st Christmas! Happy 1st Christmas BABY!

Sledding in Llano, Texas and enjoying Coopers BBQ- I think Tyler enjoyed cuddles from
Mrs. Annie the most and Jackson enjoyed rock climbing with Olivia!

Tyler getting to attend Phoebe's birthday party! He loves the inflatable playhouses.

On Saturday, Dec. 21st we checked out the Trail of Lights and it was awesome!

We had a great time and love all the outdoor things we can find during the winter season.

Jackson singing Happy Birthday to Baby Jesus and BOTH boys enjoying CAKE!

Christmas Lights....we took the boys out to view lights and OH BOY.....Tyler after
a few minutes decided that he had enough lights.....****Thank you to all who light up your houses by the way! ******Jackson was a riot as we went turn to go down a road and all of a sudden you hear "AWESOME!" from the backseat.

Dad and mom finally getting to go to church together (Midnight Mass). Thanks for babysitting Nana and Papa. Mom and Dad typically split up so the other party can be home with the kids. Dad does Saturday night and mom goes on Sunday mornings.

Watching your babies reaction to the season......Jackson is now noticing the difference
between clothes and toys when opening gifts...it is so funny but he LOVED his train sweater. We laughed because all the other clothes went off to the side...but that sweater he had to put on.

Tyler loves everything, especially anything his brother has and trying to eat everything
including wrapping paper.

Putting up Christmas lights! Jackson helped this year and Tyler supervised!

We hope and pray you are doing well and again can't thank everyone enough for their prayers! They sure have and are helping!

With lots of love,

Kyle, Erica, Jackson and Tyler

11/15/08- Update from the Spiess Household

2008-11-15T17:28:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,

Tis the season to give Thanks and this household has lots of thanks to give. We are blessed with two boys whom are doing extremely well.

Next update is going to be a timeline of everything the boys have been doing, but for now we will start with today and .....then highlight some of the past events that went on.

11/15/08...TODAY...

What an awesome weekend so far! Today, we had two birthdays to go to. Originally we were going to send Daddy to the events while mom and J stayed home, but since both events were going to be outside and we wouldn't stay long so we all headed out (late of course)... Well, good ol' Texas weather decided to move the parties inside so we ended up not attending one party really, other than saying Hello and dropping off the gift (daddy running inside real quick). He also does this when we can't stay as mom loves to chat and forgets about time. Then we went to the other party and dropped Tyler and Daddy off while Jackson and mommy headed to the park. WOW what a day. First, Tyler and Daddy had an awesome day socializing and celebrating Addison's 1st birthday while Mom and Jackson found a good place for a picnic -okay an EXCELLENT place for a picnic and then lots of fun. Mom had so much fun she pretty much lost her voice. Mom and J- ran up and down the hill, rolled down the hill, were airplanes and yelling out numbers, ABC's, hide and seek in the trees.....it felt like watching the best football game and cheering so much that you just are on a rush for the rest of the day and of course have very little voice left. We have tons of fun at home and when we do go out but alot of the time mom has to constantly wash Jackson's hands and make sure he doesn't touch certain things so finding this spot was great as she could just let Jackson be a kid and have fun as it was pretty much an open area where Jackson didn't even notice the playground equipment so she didn't have to give an excuse on why we couldn't use it. Then J and mom go to pick up daddy and Tyler and we step in only to say Hello and get the boys. Well, of course mom started to socialize as much as she could with limited voice. It was awesome for mom to see everyone and then to hear about Tyler getting played with when Daddy was there and everyone getting to hold him, etc. It was neat to let Tyler play on the floor with other kids too and be able to let your little one hang out with other kiddos! Jackson loved playing out back with Daddy on a trampoline while Tyler and mom were inside. Jackson decided he needed to use the wakeboard to practice jumps???? Boy they grow up so fast don't they.... Needless to say we ended up staying a little longer than expected but that was okay. Now we are still going strong around 7:50 p.m. at night and having lots of fun. We decided we will go back to this park even though it is a good 45 minute drive, but well worth it.

Update on Mr. T...

Wow, Tyler is getting so big so fast...our little man is now up to 20lbs and army crawling...He will be 7 months in 2 days. He babbles and definitely lets you know what he wants.

Tyler's personality to sum it up is : JOLLY...yes this little guys smiles all the time and is so loving. Tyler currently is loving the fact that he sleeps WITH mom and dad....yes we start in the crib but some how we end up in their bed. Something we NEVER thought we would let happen. When will we break Tyler of this - probably by Christmas. It is hard to break him as he disturbs Jackson's sleep when we try to do this and Jackson adores his brother so much that when Tyler is crying and Jackson hears this...he has to make sure Ty Ty is okay by seeing him. Oh, he doesn't trust mom and dad that Tyler is okay, he himself has to make sure it is okay! Infact last night, everyone was in mom and dad's bed. We came to the conclusion it is going to be time for sleep training with Tyler and we tried to do it but once we found out how much it affected Jackson's sleep we decided when daddy gets some time off we will try it again. Tyler knows what he is doing too as he won't let daddy get him in the middle of the night if mom is the room. He screams until mom takes him and he knows mom is in there even if she hides under the covers...he knows. Kids they are so amazing. Keep in mind we had Jackson upright on us until I think around 9 months...yes we have a chair that we love as we used it for 9 months to sleep in due to all the reflux issues for Jackson so this is a walk in the park.

Update on Jackson:

Jackson is doing extremely well and also very Jolly. He is talking up a storm, graduated from his Early Childhood intervention and is a very happy little boy (still our baby too). His latest thing is now he won't sing songs along with us, he has to sing his songs alone. He knows his ABC's, "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Twinkle Twinkle little star" and "Trucks, Tractors, forklifts and Bulldozer's too" and can count on his own to around 20 and is able to do most of 1-10 in Spanish. He likes to mix up his 7 with green in spanish- verde...we are working on it. Now, mom and dad need to learn more spanish too! Jackson likes to play trains...trains, trains and more trains...which to be honest dad and mom love to play trains too so we hope he stays in this phase a while longer. Infact we make forts in the living room and run our train tracks under them. Sometimes mom get frustrated as the boys want to stop playing trains...yes Ty loves to play too although he takes the tracks apart for Jackson : ) Jackson celebrated his BIG number 2 Birthday (Thank you God) on September 23rd and had a little party on a TRAIN on September 14th!

Jackson has stayed pretty healthy and Ty has been healthy...mom wishes she could have kept Jackson 100% healthy but it didn't happen. He did get sick 2 days before his birthday with Croup...but thankfully he recovered from it. The doctor also said that Jackson handled it like all the other kids which was great news and Big Yeah for J!

We are so blessed and can't thank everyone enough for all their Prayers and support.

Love,

Kyle, Erica, Jackson and Tyler

**** November is Prematurity Awareness Month!*****

Summer Time!

2008-08-12T21:54:00.000-07:00

8-12-08
Hello Everyone,

We hope that you all are doing absolutely fabulous! We pray that this email finds you in good health and happy.

We want to start the email off thanking everyone for all their prayers and thoughts! The boys are doing well and we pray it continues. Infact, this summer has been a BIG summer for us. We welcomed our blessed little Tyler Jacob into the family who is doing well and Jackson is an awesome big brother.

We also want to thank everyone for their prayers for Allison as they received the news that she will be coming home! She had over 100 day stay in the NICU and her mom and dad are ready for her to be at home. Thank you! (http://www.allisonshepard.blogspot.com/)

First, Jackson was so excited when Tyler first arrived home. Not only did we (dad and mom) expect some jealousy, but we thought Jackson may have at least missed us a little....Yea right! Jackson was living it up with Nana and Papa and then he gleamed when he saw his little brother! Oh, we wish everyone could see how his eye's lite up. Maybe you can in the picture. Then Jackson went on to touch Tyler's toes, etc. Majority of our pictures can be found on the phanfare site at: http://www.spiess-archives.phanfare.com/

The first eight weeks was pretty hectic with lots of newborn duties. Once things started to settle down, we found ourselves filling our days with lots of playing...learning...and then napping. We still are trying to get onto a "schedule" and dare we say that it looks like we may have one started...time will tell.

Jackson's big events this summer have been:

Play dates! We are blessed to have wonderful friends who are very understanding of how we require lots of handwashing and heads-up on when the kids are showing signs of what could be a cold, etc. We also had approval via the physicians office to do these. We love our playdates and are not looking forward to RSV and cold season as we will need to see if the playdates can continue or not.

We talk! We talk! We talk! Yes, Jackson started taking off talking around 20 months and wow has his vocabulary grown. We are so happy to hear him repeat pretty much everything we say. He also likes to tell us what he wants...what a relief. His favorite word is "no". Sometimes this is funny and other times, well....we wish he would use the word YES! But, no complaints....as mentioned at least he is talking. We ask him what he wants for breakfast and he will tell us, "eggs and toast" or "oatmeal", etc..... We LOVE IT!

We have been out and about - A LOT!...Yes parks, walks, Austin zoo, water park with sprinklers, etc....mostly outdoors when the Texas heat isn't too bad. Unfortunately, this summer has had the third most 100+ degree days in history.

Jackson also is counting and working on his ABC's......As parents you quickly find that when your kids hit a milestone it is the biggest and BEST reward in the world.

Jackson also is very infactuated with the television for some reason. He loves to give kisses to his reflection in the tv. He is going through a kissing stage...Watch out Olivia we may have issues during the next playdate.

Tyler's big summer!

Tyler not only has put up with his crazy family for the past four months extremely well but he is getting to be very fond of Belly Time! He has impressed many with his head control and he LOVES to grab things and bring them to his mouth for knawing....okay "exploring".

Tyler at 2 months old traveled up North for Aunt Nicole's shower and saw MANY people at Aunt Nicole's showers/Baby Allison's shower! Yeah! It was so awesome to see everyone we miss them so much. We can't wait until we get to come up North with the entire family.

Tyler also is now 18 lbs! Our little-big 4 month old is eating well and is a happy little man.

Tyler is a very easy going child and he watches his brother all the time. Yes mom has asked Jackson to go and dance or do " Ring around the Rosie" in front of Tyler to entertain him. We are so happy that both the boys adore each other.

Tyler pivots around in circles and can creep forward on belly time. He has rolled from stomach to back a few times so far and honestly acts as though he will crawl before he will roll.

Love,

Kyle, Erica, Jackon "J" and Tyler "Mr. T"

April through May's Blog update....

2008-05-19T05:38:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,

Well, it has been 4 weeks and 3 days since Tyler’s birth and we have started to surface from the chaos. We have a good start so far on getting the blog up to date- but I need more time for the April to May post. BUT...

I HAVE TO SHOW OFF TYLER!

We hope and pray all is going well with you! I also wanted to email everyone and Thank them for all the prayers, flowers, gifts, cookies and congratulations. We are one very blessed family to have you all in our lives.

Tyler is doing absolutely fabulous and Jackson is loving his brother so much! We are VERY LUCKY….

Tyler did have some reflux issues which since we have been through this before we knew exactly what the issue was and seem to be on top of it- so far.
This time around it didn’t take as long to get on a med that seems to be working and we are so very thankful for that. We also as of today do not have to mix formula with breast milk and mom is happy to not have to do this!

Tyler is now on prevacid and Axid together and after 5 days of prevacid we will no longer need to give him Axid.

How are the boys alike?-
Well, they both had/have reflux but they also both loved to eat. Tyler is starting to look more and more like Jackson did as a baby as he gains weight. Tyler loves to eat which Jackson did too and we are very thankful for this. In fact- Tyler was born at 7 lbs 9 oz- dropped to 7lbs 3 oz and went home on Saturday April 19th at 7lbs 3 oz. Monday was his first pediatrician appointment and he weighed 7lbs 6 oz. Then one week later he had another appointment and was at 8lb 9 oz. The doctor was very impressed. We wonder if some of the reflux issues isn’t from his constant eating : )

How are the boys different?
Well, Jackson never was into a pacifier and Tyler- never leave home without a pacifier.
Jackson didn’t really did need/like to use his swing, Tyler loves his swing.

Difference for mom and dad-
Totally different….
1st managing a house with 2 under the age of 2….HOLY COW! It is busy…but these little guys are the BEST!
Less stress on the medical end! – Phew..

It is very different having a full term baby. We have already taken Tyler to the Domain (favorite for the Spiess as it never is too busy and there are fountains that Jackson LOVES to play in) and to the March of Dimes Walk- mom is so happy we ended up going as we were up in the air on this one due to her not able to walk it and whether it would be too hot for Tyler, etc.

It was great to catch up with friends we saw at the walk! We are so thankful we went and we definitely all wanted to be there to support our family of micropreemies and preemies…yes we have another little one born shortly after Tyler was born- Allison Marie Shepard.

We would like to ask everyone to please keep our niece/cousin in their prayers .
Allison Marie Shepard whom was at 25 weeks gestation just like her cousin Jackson. We know those who have called mom or dad are aware and are praying and I can’t thank you enough..We know the prayers and excellent medical care helped us make it to where we are today with Jackson and continue to help us! Allison is in a great NICU and so far we are very blessed with her progress.
http://www.allisonshepard.blogspot.com/

Again, we can’t thank you enough for all the support everyone has given us.

Love,
Kyle, Erica, Jackson and Tyler

Spiess Family's End of February through March Journey

2008-05-18T00:31:00.000-07:00

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)

Happy Valentines Day!

2008-02-14T21:04:00.000-08:00

2.15.08

Hello Everyone,

We hope everyone is enjoying a very happy Valentines Day. The Spiess household sure did. We all hung out together and loved on our little Valentine- Mr. Jackson.

Jackson received a card from mom and dad that plays music and of course he danced to this card for probably 30 minutes. It was so much fun to watch. He of course had a gift to open which was from his Great Grandma Shepard, which was one of the toddler laptops. However, we do have to chat with our son about not using a Dell Laptop- Ha Ha!

We are happy to announce that we are still healthy. We pray we stay this way and we pray that all of you do too. As you probably know, the flu is horrible this year. We also were updated that they have seen lots of cases of RSV at the area hospitals but at our last doctor's appointment everyone was real concerned about the flu. We were informed Jackson's Synagis shots will continue into April as of right now. This is fine with us as long as long as he keeps getting them.

Well, we have lots to update everyone on as we left out the month of January so we are playing catch up once again.

Jackson was blessed to get some more visitors in January. Nana and Papa came down so we were able to do a late Christmas with them. However, we wish their visit was a relaxing one where we could all just hang out, but Dad had another trip to Taiwan and mom was 25 weeks along with Tyler so.....we utilized our resources. It was so neat though as they were in town close enough to Christmas that we were able to extend the festivities and open Nana and Papa's gifts with them.

Then we get another big surprise.....Jackson's HG's (Honorary Grandma's) were able to pay him a visit from January 10th through the 13th. Of course they received the laundry list of precautions before coming and we can't thank them enough for being soooooo very careful when they were down here. They were so good about changing clothes, showering and washing their hair, and making sure that once they touch something they wash their hands before touching Jackson! Thank you HG's! We can't wait for you to come on down again.

Jackson of course spotted some more gifts under the Christmas tree which mom still hadn't taken down yet. Jackson was lucky as most these gifts were for him from his HG's and Jackson did get his HG's some very nice Crocks to wear in the house since they can't wear their shoes in the house. The best part of this is the little prince helped HG Sara Jo put her slipper on. We like to call him prince charming now. Then Jackson received his tooth fairy pillow from HG Pam and he loved to give Pam gifts to help her open. He just kept bringing her one gift after another. We are glad he is so good about sharing especially since he doesn't get around any kiddos...to share yet.

Nana and Jackson kicking back and having a drink!

Jackson's Nana and HG's took Jackson out to Town Lake for a stroll. All four women (Nana, HG Pam, HG Sara Jo and pregno Mom) all managed Jackson rather well...or maybe we should say, he kept us under control. Then we met up with Papa who saved the day as mom left the house with bottles and diaper bag but forgot the baby food for his dinner-way to go mom..We also walked around the Domain shopping center which is a great place for us as we can stay away from people yet we get out of the house...Parks are also a big hot spot lately. We stay away from others but enjoy our little family party in a secluded area of the park.

Jackson also received the very needed 1st real haircut from Sara Jo. Sara Jo knows what she is doing and did an excellent job. In fact we are about due for another haircut and mom is going to try and tackle it herself. Last time mom and dad did this though...it wasn't a pretty site. Jackson must have just not been in the mood for a haircut when mom and dad made their attempt. Luckily he was pretty good for Sara Jo.

Jackson is big on not having anyone mess with his face. We often wonder if it isn't because he had so much stuck to his face during his NICU days for so long that he wants to keep all hands and objects off the face. I can't blame him one bit. We are glad that he loves kisses though and "fuzzy" face rubs (a daddy and papa treat to J) since they have the facial hair. He likes to brush his teeth and comb his hair and will let you help him with that, but you do not dare wash his face off without a little fight and then back to the haircut...well we need Sara Jo back down here.

Some of nana and papa's new experiences with Jackson included how much Jackson loves his Hokey Pokey-he turns himself around- and while everyone was down here Jackson loved to help them mop the floor. He also showed Nana and Papa how he likes to UNfold clothes : ) We are so thankful that nana and papa took care of Jackson for a few weeks with mom while daddy went to Taiwan for another business trip. It helps out so much.

We sure do miss having people around and enjoyed being able to get visitors. We never know if we are doing what is best for Jackson and the fact that he stayed healthy with visitors made us feel good. We know we can't relax too much but it sure was nice to not be totally isolated from people.

*********************

Development and PROGRESS - ALL Positive! Thank you GOD!

On January 23rd, Jackson gets to visit Treehouse Pediatrics again for a Synagis shot! Although I hate to see him get the shot, I am very thankful for his shot. The poor little guy is much more alert as to what going to the office means so he does get worked up prior to the shot. Immediately following his shot- mom and Jackson cuddle and once the 1/2 juice ; 1/2 water bottle is in site we are good to go...

On January 28th, we have our 15 months visit at 16 months of age...At this visit Jackson weighs in at: 21lbs 13 oz (10% for his real age)!

His Head measures at 46 cm which is 10-25% for his "real" age.

Height: 31 1/4" which is 25/50% for his real age.

Our big boy! Can you believe this 1lb 15 oz; 14 inch long little man is now this big! Thanks to everyone's prayers...

Jackson continues to get more teeth in and is growing. He is running all over the place, riding his tricycle all around, finally eating big boy food- whatever mom and dad are eating (pasta is currently the favorite) and yes, we are getting into some uncharted territory of Jackson showing more of his wonderful personality. The most recent incident was Sunday when Jackson bit his mom after she had to take the cell phone charger away. She asked him to choose another toy and he grabbed her hand and bit it. Needless to say our little angel had to do "time out". He also started dumping of the food over the Highchair move and then laughing. We have to admit...it is so hard not to laugh when he does this. We are doing pretty good at looking away if we think we may laugh or can't keep a "stern" look when trying to discipline, but tonight well, it was a challenge.

We can't thank everyone enough for everything! We are so very thankful to be where we are today. We thank God each and everyday. We also are very thankful that baby Tyler is still happily baking inside mom at 30 weeks along. We pray for 10 more weeks but every day is a blessing.

Love,

Kyle, Erica, Jackson and Tyler

Merry Christmas-Happy Birthday Jesus!

2007-12-29T20:20:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone!

We hope this post finds everyone happy, healthy and still very excited about the birth of Jesus. The Spiess household had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas. This was Jackson's 2nd Christmas at home as we were very blessed to have our son home last Christmas.

Jackson did get sick prior to Christmas but we are very happy to say that we think he is recovered from what he had. He went in and was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection. The NP (Nurse Practitioner) listened to his lungs and they sounded fine! PHEW...then the next day he came down with a fever so they immediately but Jackson on antibiotics. His fever lasted 2 days and then we seemed to do a little better. He still had lots of drainage and a cough but they didn't think it was RSV which we were very, very thankful for. This occured on December 13th and Dec. 14th and he down for the rest of the weekend and then the majority of the next week. Jackson shared what he had with mom which was fine as long as she doesn't give it back to him. Mom went to the doctors immediately and they put her on antibiotics as a precaution since Jackson had been on them. We were very happy to have Jackson healthy again and getting his appetite back. He only lost a few ounces which was good news for us as we really thought he had lost more weight. We are not sure how Jackson caught whatever he had but we are as always very strict on the handwashing and only healthy people being around Jackson.

After the week of getting the household healthy again we were excited as this Christmas we were lucky to have Grandpa and Grandma Spiess come down and spend Christmas with us. Jackson loved to have the company and he started his babbling again. He talks and has been talking a little more but he went to town chatting with his Grandpa and Grandma especially at dinner time. He had lots to tell them and catch them up on. He is just babbling and will say Mamma/Dadda, but we are working on this.

On Christmas Eve Jackson opened his PJ's from Nanna and Papa and ;ut them on , then he read his Christmas stories. Mom's favorite is "The Story of Christmas". Of course still no church for Jackson, so dad and Jackson do their Father and son time together while mom attends mass. After Jackson goes to bed, Grandpa and Grandma relax after the long drive down here while dad starts to tackle the radio flyer wagon from Nana and Papa. Mom starts to help dad with the wagon (Dad and Mom couldn't wait to pull Jackson around in the wagon), then they arrange everything under the tree for the next morning...Plus we had to make room for Santa's gifts : ) Dad and Mom also took some time to relax and just sit and stare at the Christmas tree. It was nice to take a few minutes out of the busy day and talk about how Jackson will react in the morning.

The next morning Jackson gets up at his usual time (7 a.m. ish) and heads downstairs to get his morning bottle and wake up a little more....well once he saw the Christmas tree and the neat toys under it and the gifts, he was awake. He squealed and his eyes gleamed with excitment. We of course let him down to walk around and check out his new bike from mom and dad, his wagon and the gifts, then we headed for the bottle. Grandpa and Grandma wake up and we eat a little breakfast and start in on the stockings. Then we started opening all the wonderful gifts that were under the tree. Jackson loved so many of his gifts. He loved the tractor from Grandma and Grandpa and his tickle me elmo, his tricyle -everything. He was one overwhelmed little guy :- )

Later that evening we had our Christmas dinner and sat around and chatted. Jackson loved daddy's corn dish. He also enjoyed some stuffing.

Jackson's Journey's: End of September through End of November

2007-12-05T02:52:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone!

We hope that you get a chance to check up on this post....We know it is long overdue.

We can't post pictures to the blog right now as our computer crashed on us and we are working on repairing the hard drive. However, we did get the phanfare site loaded with pictures from October to November prior to the system crashing... You can find our family photo albums at the following link: http://spiess-archives.phanfare.com

We pray everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that this post finds everyone preparing for Christmas.

The Spiess Family had/has lots of Thanks to give out to everyone! We thank God every day for our little miracle man and are very blessed that he continues to progress well. We want to thank all the staff at the hospitals for their support during our NICU stay and for taking great care of our little man. We hope to make some rounds on December 17th- our "Spiess Family Day" also the day Jackson came home from the NICU to thank many people. Jackson however, will be hanging out outside as it is that nasty season (colds, flu, RSV, etc). We also can't thanks all our Friends and Family for their support. We can't thank you enough. The Ronald McDonald House we thank you for giving us a place to stay close to our little man during our NICU days. It means so much to be close to your baby when they are struggling to survive and then as they grow and start get Milk vs IV fluids. THANK YOU!

Jackson is 14 months old and twelve days! Corrected age is almost 11 months. We sure are getting big and he is growing fast.

So what has been going on with Jackson....Well, we left off with Jackson Big Birthday and then we rolled into October. Jackson had a fabulous Halloween. He was able to have Nana and Papa here for Halloween. We dressed Jackson up in the costume that he picked out. Yes Jackson picked it out. We showed him a Tigger costume and then the Lion costume and he went nuts for the lion costume. It was hilarious. There was a lady in the store laughing about it. We picked his outfit out pretty early so that he could go with us and plus we were excited as this was Jackson's 2nd Halloween but first Halloween we could put a costumer on him. We weren't going to take him trick-or-treating but...he loved to watch the kids so we put him in the stroller and stayed a distance from everyone, yet we were able to be apart of the fun . We went to our neighbors houses who know all about Jackson and the situation and "fake" trick or treated...as in we just had them act like they were giving him candy so we could get a picture.

In November we kept busy with trying to get the house in order- does that really every happen when you have kids though?

We also are preparing for Jackson's little brother to come. Yes, Jackson is going to have a little brother. We are very excited and very scared. We have kept this pretty low key about the pregnancy but mom is now rounded out and we are praying to make it to 40 weeks...The first trimester was pretty rough as far as morning sickness but now we seem to be back into the swing of things. Baby Spiess is at 20 weeks gestation now and due on April 22nd...or mom likes to say - April 22nd or AFTER...

Jackson is also very excited to announce he has two new cousins, Evynn and Avery. They decided to take after their cousin Jackson and be NICU babes too! They were born at 29 weeks and we thank God for their progress as they are home and from the emails and pictures they look really good. We pray they continue to do well and stay healthy. We also thank you for all your prayers for them. I know they were on the prayer list up in Michigan and Archbold.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with the immediate family (Dad, Mom, and Jackson). We kept pretty busy trying to get all our Christmas shopping done while mom had some time off work and dad was home, along with getting out Christmas decorations! We had a very good Thanksgiving and hope everyone else did too!

Jackson has grown so much over the past 3 months. It seems like our baby is such a little boy now. He still likes to be rocked, read to and sang to at night-(He can even fall asleep to mom's singing which is a miracle in itself- ha ha). During the days, Jackson is a mover and a shaker. He is checking everything out. He also waves, and likes to put his toys together and take them apart. He babbles alot. He says Dadda and Mamma however, he doesn't us the words to necessarily address us only on occassion. Developmentally through our therapy appointments, Jackson is doing really well in motor skills and is working on his speech. Developmentally through mom and dad, Jackson is doing excellent! We are so proud of him.

Jackson's doctor's appointments continue to be "normal" as in we only go when we need vaccines or shots. Jackson is now up to 20lbs w/out clothes on and 21 lbs with clothes on! We are so happy about this.

Jackson is definitely getting around alot more. He is WALKING - yes Walking. When we left off Jackson was crawling and wanting to walk in the last blog but he definitely is walking now. His movement keeps us on our toes and we love every minute of it. Jackson goes to bed around 9 p.m. at night and lately mom has joined him on that bed time. Jackson still averages his 10 to 12 hours of sleep. We are thankful that he is getting more towards 12 hours of sleep with his naps during the day as they say in all the books mom reads, how important the sleep is. This actually has worried mom for awhile but now that he is starting to take a little longer nap in the day, I think he will be fine. We are so blessed for where Jackson is at and we can't thank everyone enough for this as we know it takes lots of prayers and excellent medical care to have a baby born so early come so far. We keep all the NICU babies and babies in our prayers along with all of you!

We want to Thank all those fighting for us too! We know many were away from their families during Thanksgiving and will be away during Christmas. THANK YOU!

We hope to have another update right before Christmas but if not then shortly after. We also have Christmas Cards on the way.

Many Blessings to all of you,

Kyle, Erica, Jackson and Baby

I am a YEAR OLD! THANK YOU EVERYONE

2007-09-25T19:13:00.000-07:00

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.

Jackson's Journeys in July and most of August!

2007-08-20T17:19:00.000-07:00

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

Jackson's Journeys in June...

2007-07-07T19:11:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,

We are very excited to give you our Journey in June! We can't thank everyone enough for everything! All the prayers are keeping our little guy progressing in a very positive way! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.

Our June Journey starts out with LOTS of excitment (Picture of Jackson tells all)...as Nana and Papa Shepard are visiting! We couldn't wait and we definitely were ready to have them come visit. We have been anxiously awaiting the summer time for all the Grandparents to be able to come see their grandbaby. We also have been needing to see our parents too!
Our June schedule started off with ...
Nana and Papa were expected to arrive on June 5th.
Daddy was supposed to head to Tawain on June 4th and Mom was start work full time on June 6th.

Well, we were so happy that our events slightly changed. Dad's flight to Tawain was delayed until Tuesday, June 5th (thank you Texas Weather!) and Nana & Papa safely made it to Texas on June 4th!

June 4th:
Dad, mom and Jackson anxiously await for Nana and Papa to arrive.
Nana and Papa arrive....! They come in, wash their hands really well, change and love on Jackson.

After all the excitment from Nana and Papa's arrival we decide to go on an outting. Nana and Papa take Jackson to Target to get his exersaucer. Daddy wanted to see Jackson use it before he left so around 9 p.m. at night we are putting together an exersaucer. We did take Jackson with us too. We had to be very careful, but we had enough people that pretty much Papa and mom were able to attend to Jackson while Nana and daddy shop for J. We are pretty sure we won't be trying too many Target trips in the near future though. With 4 people it was easy but if it was only mom and dad, Target just wouldn't be ideal to take Jackson too. They stay busy even at night.

Also, Jackson was immediately okay with Nana and Papa. We were worried how he would react to them holding him, etc, as you never know how he will react. He loves visiting with people and watching them but there haven't been that many people other than mom and dad holding Jackson since he has been home from the NICU. He definitely had no problem taking to Nana and Papa. Infact, I think he enjoyed the change in "scenery"

Tuesday, June 5th-

Mom drops dad off at the airport, heads to work to donate blood at their quarterly blood drive! THANK YOU DELL for doing the Quarterly Blood Drives! They mean so much to so many families...

Our family will never forget the need for blood and how scary it was to know we could lose Jackson because we do not have enough O negative blood in the Austin area. They ended up finding Onegative blood in Dallas finally but with all the patients out there needing blood, it sure is great to have all these blood drives.

Well, mom started back to work on the 6th of June leaving Nana and Papa in charge after only 2 days of training. It has been 29 years since they had to take care of a little one full time - you need time to get some training.

They did a great job. Mom was able to go physically into work and see people! It was so nice. She started full time on the 6th, 7th and 8th. It was great to be back at work, see people and thank everyone in person (which she still has lots more thanks and hugs for people). However, the separation from Jackson was hard very hard.

Well, Jackson seemed to be living it up with Nana and Papa. It definitely helped knowing that Nana and Papa were taking care of Jackson during the first month of mom going back to work. After the first week things seemed to get a lot better and it wasn't as hard leaving Jackson at home while going into work (still wasn't easy) but wasn't as hard. It is hard to think that something may happen while mom is in the office and someone else would need to do CPR on Jackson so mom really is happy that she can work from home and does that more often now. Plus when the nanny starts mom will definitely be working from home full time. This way if something comes up, mom is there to help out in an emergency and it is hard to leave your baby with a stranger in your home.

Dad's first separation from Jackson:
In the interim Daddy and Jackson get to visit via Skype (video conferencing) and the separation for Daddy and Jackson was hard. Very Hard. Daddy sure did miss his little man and Jackson missed him.

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We sure do appreciate all those who are fighting for our country and who are separated from their families for months....THANK YOU to all the troops everywhere who are away from their families because they are fighting for us. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
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We also are looking for a Nanny again as the nanny we had lined backed out. We were very disappointed but we have found out that everything happens for a reason.

June 12th comes up and this means...our Physical Therapy appointment!

Ginger visits Jackson and once again Jackson can not stay focused as he just wants to watch Ginger. It makes it hard to do therapy but it is funny as he just loves her. It is hilarious to watch him just look at her and smile. Jackson's tortacollis (stiff neck) doesn't seem too severe this week. Jackson is wanting to crawl and we are very proud of his progress. He is frogging his legs out a little so Ginger drops off some "hip hugger" pants for us to use when we are doing belly time. Jackson doesn't seem to mind the pants at all. Ginger and mom discuss the helmet for Jackson's head shape. He has a slight flat head on one side. We are given a recommendation on a cosmetic surgeon whom also teams up with a neurosurgeon for an evaluation. Jackson is working really hard on crawling. He wants to crawl so bad and he is sitting up much better on his own now! We are so pleased with his progress!

During the week of June 12th, mom of course gets online and reads-up on flat head and helmets. She chats with Papa Shepard about it and calls the pediatrician's office to find out if he needs to see a cosmetic surgeon or neurosurgeon and get some background on some physicians. She ends up going to the Neurosurgeon to ensure Jackson's flat spot is only caused by positioning and not closing of the sutures. Of course our appointment date with the Neurosurgeon isn't until end of July.....but we are on the cancellation list.

June 10th: We start house hunting for Nana and Papa! Yes they are "just " looking but it was a lot of fun. We are finding so many things we can do with Jackson. We are very, very careful with what he touches, we touch and people touching him. However, we have been told to get him "exposed" a little. It is great to get him outside and around. Jackson picked out a few houses that he thought Nana and Papa should buy. One of them had a little boys room already painted with a football theme for him : )

June 16th:
Daddy comes home from Tawain and in time for FATHER's DAY! We all were very excited to be able to have daddy home prior to Father's Day. In the morning we just spent the day getting ready for daddy to come home.
In the evening we have a gift opening session for Nana and Papa to celebrate very belated birthdays, and Mother's Day gift.

June 17th: FATHER's DAY!
Happy Belated Father's Day to Daddy's!
Daddy's are so important to their little ones....you deserve a round of applause for all those GREAT DADDY's out there!

We are very excited as we get to watch Daddy and Papa open their Father's day gifts and Jackson helps them with the gift opening.

June 18th:
Well, great news, Mary from Dr. Aronin's office calls mom and we get Jackson in to Dr. Aronin office on Friday! Yes, Friday June 22nd! We are so very happy about his news. For those of you who know mom well, she is a worrier anyways so giving a month for an appointment gave mom way too much time to research things and worry : ) She is getting better about this though as Jackson gets older.

June 20th:
Nana and Mom have a girls night out and see Dancing with the Stars! It was alot of fun. So much fun we forgot to take pictures : ( The boys ordered Applebees and hung out together.

June 22nd-
Boy oh Boy are we happy. Dr. Aronin gives Jackson a great report and indicates that it isn't Jackson's sutures closing. She doesn't even think the head shape looks that bad. It is up to us to make the decision about the helmet but she mentions if it was her son, she wouldn't put him in a helmet as the headshape isn't bad. He also is spending much more time on his belly and there is still a window of time that his head will round out a little more. He is at the "slower" part of that curve for his head to round out (first 6 months is where you can see the most difference). Mom and Dad end up deciding to take the advice of pending the helmet at least for another month to see where we are at.

June 23rd-
We head down to Zilker Park to take Jackson on the Train and boy the fun we had....We walked around and then luckily the rain held off long enough for Papa to take Jackson on his train ride that he has been promising him since the NICU days. We had a ball. It was a little tense with all the people and kids around but Daddy sat in the seat in front of mom and papa, then mom and papa sat with Jackson in a seat together, then Nana sat in a seat behind us. The only people who could reach out and touch Jackson would be family. We of course made sure there was enough seats to do this -originally Nana and dad were sitting together, then we realized they had plenty of seats open for use to do this.

June 29th:
We are sad as the trip for Nana and Papa is coming to an end. They headed out on Friday, June 29th. Prior to departure, they ended up finding some property in Liberty Hill that are buying. They found the property on Thursday afternoon. We are so excited.

We also have another doctors appointment at Dr. Unites office for Jackson's 9 month visit! Oh boy, are we so happy to say that Jackson weighs in at 16lbs 13 oz and his heights is 27 inches long! He is doing very well and e get the go ahead to start Jackson on more baby cereals and progress our way up to baby foods : )

We get home from the appointment and tell Nana and Papa all the wonderful news from the appointment. Later that afternoon, Nana and Papa head on the road... it is so quiet at home now : ( We can't thank Nana and Papa enough for taking care of Jackson during June. It is a lot of work taking care of a little one and we appreciate all their support! We love you!

We are bored without Nana and Papa and miss the company but we know that pretty soon Grandpa and Grandma Spiess will be here so we are excited all over again and anxiously await their arrival.

July 2nd:
Diane starts as Jackson's Nanny!!!!!!!!
Mrs. Diane, Jackson's Nanny starts and what a blessing it is to have found Diane. This was a big stress for dad and mom over the past month. We just are so happy to have found her. We did go through a nanny agency to find Diane (Moms Best Friend). She is wonderful! She has been taking excellent notes on Jackson's feeds and schedules and prewires mom about anything she notices being a little different. We know she has only been with us for a week but Jackson really loves Diane. She takes very good care of him during the day. We are very happy to have Diane as apart of family.

July 3rd:
Jackson goes to his Development appointment at Children's Hospital with Mary Stoner. We are at the new Dell Children's Hospital Location and boy is it nice. We really like the new facility and so does the staff. We go through Jackson's development testing which is a series of tasks Jackson has to do. He has to try to pick up a cup, bang the ring on the counter, pick up cubes, follow the rings with his eyes, play peekaboo, etc. They evaluate Jackson against his corrected age which was almost 6 months old on July 3rd! Boy, Jackson is stocking up on his lollipop count that we owe him : ) We tell him after his appointments that he will get a lollipop or ice cream for being such a good boy....We have a lot of IOU's to Jackson. Mom is going to change the treat to apples pretty soon : ) (an apple a day keeps the doctor away)

July 4th:
Happy Happy 4th of July! What a wonderful day! Yes, we had more rain, but it was nice just to hang out and do nothing...well, mom cleaned the house! We even watched the fireworks on TV. This is a first for us (watching fireworks on TV)! It was actually rather fun. We joined in on all the songs they were singing and boy New York, Washington and Houston sure do a GREAT fireworks display.

We are very, very thankful to all for so many things. We are blessed to have all the support from our family and friends. We thank God everyday for Jackson's health and development. Thank you for all the prayers and we pray that this blog update finds everyone happy and healthy! We also are praying for all the families who are going through very rough times with the flash flooding. We look forward to drier weather.

We are very excited as although the week is quiet...we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Grandpa and Grandma Spiess ..They left on July 4th and should arrive on July 6th!

We love you all and can't thank you enough for all your support.....Jackson can't wait to meet everyone!

Love,
Kyle , Erica and Jackson

Happy May and Memorial Day weekend

2007-06-03T22:01:00.000-07:00

Dear Family & Friends,

The Spiess family hopes that this blog updates finds everyone having a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend. We are very Thankful for all those who fight for our country and we pray their families realize how much we appreciate what they are doing for us.

Our family has had some exciting news since the last time we updated the blog. The end of this month has been filled with lots of excitement, but first we run down the events that lead up to tonight/today.

Jackson continues to grow and is a happy little guy. We are chugging along just fine and then Jackson decides to choke a little on his spit. He seemed to not recover very quickly so mom decides best call the doctors and see if they think it is just his saliva or if maybe reflux issues are starting again. so...

May 18th, we get to see Dr. Unite again...and thankfully we are sent home without having to go on Prevacide again. However, while at the doctor's Jackson gets weighed and he is now (with all his clothes on) 16lbs and 3 ozs! Go Jackson....

Then in the evening Jackson's physical therapist, Ginger, stops by to see how we are coming along with our neck exercises and to teach us how to do baby massages. Well, wouldn't you know it, Jackson was tilting his head to the right too much and then to the left too much and now back to the right too much. One of these times we are going to be not tilting our head too much :) In the interim we continue with our neck exercises to ensure his neck doesn't get too tight. Then we started massage therapy, Jackson didn't mind this part of therapy at all. He still loves to look at Ginger and study her. It is amusing to see. We also are working on getting him to crawl. He really wants to crawl, but he hasn't figure out how to get his knees up to move forward. We will get him there.

Believe or not...that is pretty much the most action this month and we are very thankful for that...We hope to have more months with fewer doctor's appointments-and now here we are on Memorial Day weekend with some big parenting decisions to make...do we or don't we attend get togethers with Jackson.....

Well, we had been told we need to start exposing Jackson more...but probably not at a large party....so...mom and dad did end up taking Jackson to 3 get togethers this weekend. We pretty much asked people not to touch him and if they did mom used the saniwipes to wipe Jackson off and he did get a Bath after each one.....Jackson really seemed to enjoy it. Infact, he loved it.

Jackson was able to meet up with some Friends at the Round Rock Express game as the admin team had the suite for that night. Mom and dad realized even with Jackson in his stroller with the net over him that we won't be going to the Round Rock express game for awhile. Mom didn't realize people would be smoking...(for some reason she thought the smoking ban worked at the game too). She knows we were outside and that we really weren't close to the smokers but just the thought of any smoke getting near Jackson made her nervous. If you haven't figured this out yet- Dad is a little more laid back then mom. We just quickly walked up to the suites and then mom and dad were much more relaxed. Mom was finally able to see friends and co-workers and chat. It was GREAT. They were able to see Jackson for the first time. Picture of Jackson attached..." Jackson and all his women...."

The other get togethers had kids there but we held Jackson the entire time. He did try to hug and kiss Tegan (a 41/2 month old little girl but the parents help prevent the slobbery kiss from happening (another kodak moment). Picture of Jackson trying to Hug Tegan and they baby talked.

Then we headed to another get together and all went well, but mom really thinks we over did it. We decided that we were not going to be bringing Jackson to these anymore. Dad and Mom may go to them if the grandparents are still in town...but from now on, smaller group outtings will be fine. We are very happy to report after a week of being extremely nervous and taking Jackson's temperature everyday, that Jackson seems to be doing fine. We know that we are very careful with Jackson but we came to the conclusion that walks are great (large or small) and outdoor outtings. This isn't a doctor's opinion just Jackson's parents. We all had a great time though!

Well, I started this blog and the March of Dimes blog right after the weekend the events occured and as you can see I am now just finishing them. We are very excited to announce that Nanna and Pappa Shepard will be here tomorrow and then Grandma and Grandpa Spiess will be here in July. Help is on the way! We are ready for Grandparent loving on Jackson and they are too! We hope to finish up lots of thank yous and get out some overdue mailings that are sitting in the office to many who have helped saved Jackson's life. We may even be able to visit in person!

Two more Quick updates:

Thursday, May 31st, Jackson has his weekly PT appointment with Ginger. OH my does Jackson love Ginger. Well, our neck is doing okay, and we discuss his "flat head" again. We mentioned this earlier as one side is flatter than the other. We have been doing different position at night to try and fix this but it hasn't rounded out yet. We are starting to lose time when the head is able to be molded as easily Ginger mentioned this so we can't wait to further discuss what our options are this week. We want to ensure we are moving fast on these things for Jackson's future.

Today, June 3rd- Jackson is rolling from his back to his stomach and then back to his back! We also against recommendation gave Jackson a little rice cereal. The poor guy wants people food. He watches us eat and grabs for our food. Well, you probably could laugh at what we did. We gave him probably 3 oz of milk with 1 tablespoon of rice cereal. It pretty much was milk but he loved eating like a big boy. We may continue doing this with his milk just so he gets and idea. Jackson also reaches for Mom and Dad - it is so much fun to see who he wants to go to during the day. Right now, most the time Jackson likes mom holding him but loves to watch daddy. However, there are occassions when he reaches for dad to hold him. Mom has to get old after awhile. He also loves the cats. We let him pet them and once he grabbed Onyx's hair and yanked it. We felt horrible for Onyx, but she lived through it.

Everyday as mom rocks Jackson she thanks God for everyone who is praying for him, for the medical teams who worked on him and for Jackson to be able to be with us. You can see his IV sites and I will never forget the day we needed blood and his blood type wasn't available in the Austin area. We ended up getting some from Dallas. We can't believe how far we have come since September 23, 2006. We know we have lots of growing to do, but we never let one day go by without giving thanks.

Thank you!

With love,

Kyle, Erica and Jackson

March of Dimes Walk

2007-05-27T22:45:00.001-07:00

Hello All!

Thank you so much for anyone and everyone who is involved with March of Dimes in some way. We also want to thank everyone who walked and/or sponsored Jackson! We were so grateful to Team Jackson's Journey for joining us for the walk or sponsoring us. We can't thank everyone enough! Our T-shirts are also in so Mom will be contacting you soon!

May 12th was a big day for many! We had the chance to walk with miracles and the best part is we were able to bring our little miracle with us. Jackson was a trooper! We started getting him ready around 7 a.m. with a bottle, then clothes change and then caking on the sunscreen. We packed the car the night before just so we were prepared and hopefully would make it to the walk on time. We took some pictures because we didn't know how nervous we would be during the walk with trying to work with Jackson. We also didn't know how Jackson would do being out and about....Well, the little man did just fine. Jackson got to the walk and met up with Shelly, Lyndsay,Tim, Karen, Anne, Olivia, John, Kevin, Michelle and Megan all his walking buddies. Jackson needed some fuel before the walk so we took a bottle and missed the start of the walk which was nice since there were so many people ...we ended up brining up the rear of the walkers. Once the walk ended we grab our sandwiches, ate and then went home.

We can't thank everyone enough for their support. We are getting ready for this coming year's walk. It was great to just get out and actually see people! That is what Mom and Jackson were really excited about.

Thank you so much!

Love,

Kyle, Erica and Jackson

Happy End of April and Beginning of May- Happy Mother's Day

2007-05-10T23:03:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,

We would like to start this posting off with many thanks to everyone who is praying for our little man and to all those who have been apart of Jackson's Journey. We are doing well, real well and we are extremely blessed!

We hope this blog finds everyone Happy, healthy and Happy Mother's day to all the Moms reading this blog.

We can't thank everyone enough! We know our journey wouldn't be going so well if it wasn't for all of you!

Love,

Kyle, Erica and Jackson

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Okay so hear are the events from the past month!

All good news thanks to all the prayers out there!

Easter for the Spiess Family,

We had a great Easter Sunday. Jackson and mom of course couldn't go to church so our family celebrated Easter Sunday like we would if we were going to church except we didn't go to mass. We got up- later than we normally would have- dressed in our Sunday clothes and took some pictures. Have you ever tried taking a family photo using the timer on the camera with a baby? Well, it was a lot of fun! I don't think any of our pictures of the family turned out that well but it will definitely be a memory that we remind Jackson of when he gets older. We then made our Sunday dinner for 3 - ate and chatted with our extended family on Skype.

April 10th-

On April 10th we had our Doctor's appointment with Dr. Unite- Jackson's Pediatrician for his 6 month check up! The appointment was great-up until Jackson had to get all his shots, but he is a trooper. First, we discussed what Jackson was doing. Dr. Unite seemed extremely pleased at Jackson's weight- especially his chubby cheecks! Of course, Jackson talked up a storm and managed to drool all over for Dr. Unite. He weighed in at 14lbs and 4 oz- GO J! He also is 24.5 inch long. Dr. Unite also mentioned we could introduce food (baby rice cereal) around 8 to 9 months of age.

Then, we received even more great news! We can start walks now- so isolation is over-(kindof). They hadn't seen a case of the flu in the office for a while and we just are to be very careful- walks are okay- no one will be touching Jackson, etc. I think the person that was the most excited about this news was mom. She couldn't wait to get out - at least for walks. She had ventured out twice at times when barely anyone is around to Walmart (in the middle of the night) and I believe the 2nd time she had ran into work once late at night. Now, Jackson and mom get to go on walks in the middle of the day or at night when other people are walking and can actually see Jackson (not touch him) but look at him was GREAT NEWS! So as you can see we ventured out the following week. Mom will admit she has been getting used to the isolated lifestyle and although extremely excited about this venture out, she also was extremely worried.

4/11/07

Wow, after all the excitment yesterday dad and mom didn't know what would be in store for them today. We had our appointment with Dr. Zweiner, Jackson's gastroenterologist. We get to the hospital and weigh Jackson again, and then we go into our appointment. Dr. Zweiner informs us that he made the 3rd percentile for his weight for his REAL age. This is Awesome! Then we get the orders to reduce his prevacide down until we aren't giving him prevacide anymore and see how that goes. If that goes well, then we will start to go to all breastmilk and wean him off the formula. We are keeping Jackson's diet dairy free for 1 year and we will see what to do from there. We were given the okay to introduce rice cereal again around 8 to 9 months of age. We walk out of the appointment just beaming. We also get the order that if we get off the prevacide and he is doing okay then we do not have to schedule a follow-up visit! Yes, as of today - no prevacide which means 1 less doctors to see! GO JACKSON!

We continue the next 2 weeks with Dad working, mom taking care of Jackson and working part-time from home and we interview nanny's for Jackson.

On April 24th,

We have our Development meeting with Mary Stoner. Jackson is given a good "progress report". He acting and developing like an average 4 month old- which he is given his corrected age. GO JACKSON!

Now mom and dad will admit they have been anxiously waiting for Jackson to roll. Infact they were worried about Jackson not rolling yet, but they were reassured that he will roll over.

On May 3rd,

We start our first session with Jackson's Physical Therapists. Infact Jackson was so lucky as he received a visit from three women. I think this is the most people Jackson has ever seen at one time.

We had his Physical Therapist , Occupational therapist and Physical Therapist Assistant. They visited us to evaluate Jackson's torticollis. We also needed to look at Jackson's eating as he has started to gulp a bit when he eats. He still manages to drink his milk within 2o mins- 4 oz's but we are concerned about the amount of air he is getting while drinking. Luckily, Ginger the PT noticed this and asked the Occupational therapist to look at Jackson.

The visit went well and Jackson loved being the center of attention. We had to show everyone how we play and they watched his neck, showed us some stretches that we can do which are incorporated into our everyday activities. We carry Jackson around the house in a different position that stretches the appropriate neck muscle and when we change his diaper we do an exercise to stretch out his neck. All of these exercises/stretches we were shown how to do them appropriately by the PT's.

May 9th:

We bought Jackson a sippy cup since he has been so interested in what Mom and Dad are doing at dinner time....Well, we gave him the cup and he managed to grab it and "try" to drink out of it the appropriate way. Another milestone for Jackson that dad and mom will have in his scrap book. Of course he isn't using a sippy cup yet but just the fact he was able to put it in his mouth and try to drink out of it was great. We only put water in the cup so who knows what would happen if milk was in there.

May 10th:

We had our second visit from Ginger, the PT Assistant working with our family. Jackson loved watching Ginger today. He didn't want to do anything but look at her. I think he has a girlfriend. Mom learned a new stretch to do on Jackson's neck for his torticollis and Jackson learned how to grab his toes better and almost put them in his mouth with our help. Mom also showed Ginger how she works on Jackson rolling. He really is almost there......just needs a little help. (Rolling from his back to his stomach)

Ginger mentioned that by helping his grab his toes and get used to that, will help him roll eventually.

So.......tonight Dad and Jackson are playing and of course working on rolling while grabbing his toes. Jackson decided he had enough of us pushing him to roll and did it. He actually rolled all the way from his back to his stomach on his own! We video taped it of course.

We will definitely keep you updated on his progress and hopefully soon Jackson, dad and mom can make rounds to visit some people to thank them for everything they have done for us. We would love for Jackson to see some of his Drs, nurses, and RT's soon! We can't thank the medical teams enough for all that they have done for our little man.

Happy Happy EASTER!

2007-04-07T22:09:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends,

The Spiess family wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Easter!
We hope everyone is Happy, Healthy and celebrating Easter Sunday.

We hope the weather isn't causing any problems for anyone and that everyone is being very careful. We also wanted to thank everyone again for their prayers for Jackson. We are reminded everyday of how much these prayers are working. Everyday we rejoice in the fact our little man is here with us. We are blessed to have such wonderful friends, family and medical care!

To the Medical Staff who worked on Jackson:

Thank you so much! We are blessed to have you in our lives. All NICU parents are! We pray that you choose to remain in your profession for many, many years. We wish you a Happy Easter! We can't wait to see you when we can venture out!

With Love,
The Spiess Family

Jackson's Journey in March

2007-03-24T20:23:00.000-07:00

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

2007-03-02T18:50:00.000-08:00

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

January for Jackson_We are GROWING!

2007-01-29T18:51:00.000-08:00

Dear Family and Friends,

Oh boy are we excited to type this update. (New pictures have also been posted in our photo album)....

We are very thankful to inform everyone that as of January 29th Jackson is now 9 pounds 5 ounces and he just had another visit to the lung doctors which Dr. Fulmer said Jackson's lungs sound good and his apnea monitor report was 18 apnea spells which were FALSE ! and 17 brady's....which they are not real concerned about so we are allowed to take him off the monitor. Dad and mom are still concerned about the Brady's though so....We choose to keep the monitor for another month and limit the amount of time we have Jackson on it as we (dad and mom) need some time to adjust to him not being on a monitor (sorry Jackson).

Jackson's doctor's appointments in January started on:
January 2nd at Dr. Unite's office and then on Jan 5th with our Eye Doctor appointment.
We then had our first week of no appointments for Jackson- boy was that nice. We spent alot of time at home cuddling, eating, and sleeping.

On January 19th we went to Austin Children's Chest Associates to get our RSV shot which of course hearing about RSV and having the Nurse Practitioner explain to us how easy it is for him to catch and what to do to prevent him from getting RSV scared us- or at least Mom. She really didn't say anything we didn't already know as we are as isolated as we can get. Thus our isolation until June. Mom still gets nervous as whenever we go to the doctors we always hear staff or other patients coughing and sneezing, but we are not afraid to ask people to wash their hands. We try to do everything with Jackson and limit anyone touching him. We head home feeling much better as we have our shot in us and Jackson did a great job of not crying too much. Jackson also weighed in at 8lbs 3 ounces and is 20.5 inches long! We are getting big...

We then get some time off before our next doctor's visit which is our pediatrician's office- Treehouse Pediatrics. This appointment took place on January 24th for another weight check and guess what .... our little man is up to 8lbs 13 ounces! This appointment is our weight check only so all is well in that area.

Then on January 29th. We had our next lung doctor's appointment. Jackson is 9lbs 5 ounces and 22 inches long!

Wow we are so happy and again THANK YOU! We know that we wouldn't be where we are today if it wasn't for everyones prayers, and the medical teams that have taken care of Jackson.

On January 30th, visited Children's Hospital - not the ER but the hospital for a development appointment with Mary Stoner. The appointment went well. Jackson is falling in as an average 1 month old on the charts. His areas that need a some improvement are in his gross motor skills which we are working on at home.

On January 31st, February 1st Jackson started to have some loose stools and they think he "may" have gotten a touch of a bug. Kyle and I have no idea how as we don't go anywhere except to all our doctor's appointments, but you know hospitals are full of germs. Dad also goes to work but when he comes home he changes his shirt and washes his hands- now he takes a shower too- before touching Jackson. Mom took Jackson to the pediatrician's to see what was going on as she was very worried on Friday and they think he did catch something viral so we are watching his fluid intake, etc. Thankfully Jackson's only symptom is the loose stool. Our little boy still loves to eat and is a little more tired than normal but when he is awake, his bright blue eyes are checking everything out! Jackson also had just started some meds "new" meds so...who knows. Mom also had talked to Kim the Nurse practitioner many times on the phone prior to the appointment and is very thankful to Kim for all her help! We seemed to manage most of this from the phone. The doctors appointment was just to because the loose stools continued and mom was extremely worries. Jackson's temp at the doctors was 99.7. As of yesterday his temp was around 98.9. We can't thank Dr.Addy enough for getting Jackson in to see her.

Well, today we will have our Wellness Check at the pediatrics office we pray this goes well and have faith that it will. Then I believe we get 2 weeks off before another doctors visit.

We continue to thank God everyday for Jackson. We also want to thank everyone who has been praying for Jackson and who continues to pray for Jackson. We are blessed to be where we are today and we can't thank everyone enough for the prayers. They sure are working!

We also want to thank all the wonderful people who took care of Jackson in the NICU and who are helping take care of Jackson now. We will be forever thankful for all that you have done and all that you are doing.

We hope this email finds everyone keeping warm!

Thank you!
With Love,
Kyle, Erica and Jackson

Happy New Year!

2007-01-08T19:24:00.000-08:00

Hello Family and Friends,

We hope this blog finds everyone happy, healthy and recovering from a fabulous Christmas. We are very excited as the New Year has been good to us thus far and we had a blessed Christmas celebrating it with our little man outside the NICU.

Jackson has had many doctors appointments but they are telling us that he is doing well infact they all seem really happy with Jackson's status. We pray this keeps up.

On December 19th Jackson had his 1st appointment with Dr. Unite at Treehouse Pediatrics in Round Rock. Dr. Unite said his lungs sound good, conduct an exam and we pretty much just chatted about his medical history.

On December 20th Christa his Respiratory Therapist came to visit at our house to download his monitor. She mentioned their was lots of data which isn't necessarily good but hopefully the data is just from false alarms and not real apena or brady espisodes.

Of course our Dec. 23rd ER visit to Childrens Hospital- blog below covers that : ) Just mom being paranoid but happy that was all it was.

On December 26th Jackson had his 2nd appointment with Dr. Unite,He went to that appointment weighing in a 6lbs 5 oz and doing well.

All snug as a bug ready for my visit to doctors office.
On December 29th Jackson goes to Austin Childrens Chest Associates where he gets examined by the Nurse Practition whom informs us that he only had 1 "real" apena episode which is great considering all that Jackson has been through. She said he is a very smart boy which of course mom and dad agree. Jackson also is weighed and measured at this appointment. Jackson weighed in at 6lbs 8 oz and he is 18.5 inches long! He has grown 4.5 inches since birth.

On Janaury 2nd Jackson goes to his next weight check at Dr. Unites office in which he weighs in at 6lbs 14.5 oz! We are almost 7 lbs baby.

Ahh! What is a man to do- so many schools so little time......
Jan 5th- BIG DAY- we go to Dr. Lockharts office for eye exam and all went well. His eyes looked good but they want another follow-up in 2 weeks which is okay - but mom will admit this exam really is hard to watch Jackson go through so if all goes well in 2 weeks we don't see Dr. Lockhart's office for 6-9 months which we will be very happy about! Nothing against the staff they are great.

We can't thank everyone enough for the prayers as they definitely are helping Jackson, dad and mom.

I am ready to walk Mom really I am...

Merry Christmas to All

2006-12-25T16:25:00.000-08:00

Hello Family and Friends,

The Spiess household is very blessed this Christmas as our little boy, Jackson was home for the holidays. We know that he was able to make it home prior to his due date because of all the prayers that were out there for him. Plus please keep in mind at the beginning we were told due date or after...so this is truly a miracle to us to have him home.

We can't thank you all enough. We continue to pray that he stays healthy for a long time but especially through the RSV season and at least the next six months which is why mom and Jackson are in isolation for six months.

We want so much to have him meet everyone who has been praying for him and let everyone hold him but we have to stay indoors with only mom and dad in contact with him until June and then we will see what the doctors allow us to do. Right now that was the doctors orders and whatever it takes to keep Jackson healthy is what we will do.

We hope that this Christmas is as blessed for you as it is for us. We hope you realize that we wouldn't be where we are today if it wasn't for each and everyone of you. We will keep Jackson's blog going as he grows as we want to keep you all included in his progress as you will always be apart of our family.

Dec. 17th to today status...
Jackson has been home for a week and as we left the hospital we thought we had everything undercontrol. Well, famous last words....Jackson's feeds were changed up a bit upon discharge and he had difficulty adjusting as he started to have reflux extremely bad this past week. He didn't sleep and cried these shreaks that we hadn't ever heard before. We have since started him back on 1/2 formula and 1/2 breast milk every feed which helped a little and now he is on prevacide for the reflux and that is finally starting to take effect. We are thankful he wasn't getting sick as his parents were extremely scared. We know how very important breast milk is for babies and hope to eventually get him back on just breast milk but for now 1/2 and 1/2 will have to work.

In fact we went to Children's Hospital ER on Friday night to have him looked at. Fortunately, the rasp mom was feeling in his back was due to reflux and not congestion-thank God. Our baby is now acting like his old self...at first we thought maybe he likes the NICU better which is all he knows. We even started making beeping sounds like the monitors to see if that would help but the spitting up and the bubbles in his mouth told us otherwise. We apologize for not updating you on his homecoming sooner but he did keep us extremely busy this past week and worried.

We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

We can't thank everyone enough for the prayers. We continue to pray that he stays infection free and we pray that this blog update finds everyone happy and healthy.

We have many many many people to thank and we are EXTREMELY APPRECIATIVE to have all of you in our lives.

We love you all!
Jackson, Kyle and Erica

JACKSON COMES HOME!!!!!

2006-12-23T21:25:00.000-08:00

We just wanted to let everyone know that Jackson came home on Sunday, Dec. 17th. We are so glad to have him home, and we appreciate everyone's prayers over the past few months. As you can imagine, he keeps us quite busy at home so we will update the blog with more detail and pictures in a little while.

Love,

Kyle, Erica & Jackson

Jackson's Journey during December

2006-12-22T15:00:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,

I would like to take the chance to update you on the sequence of events that has taken place up until he came home. We are very thankful for the St. David's medical teams which include respiratory therapists, nurses, doctors and the cleaning staff. We know that they do their best everyday to keep all NICU babies safe and help them get better. We are glad that God has blessed them with the knowledge and courage to be apart of the NICU environment.

We last left off around November 17th...

On November 17th:
Jackson's feeds were stopped then restarted due to residuals. He was started on Prilosec for reflux and he continues to poop on his own!

On November 18th:
Jackson was 3 lbs and 13 ozs. He went to feeds over 1 hour vs the continuous feeds. They increases his thetholen and he hangs out on 25 O's and sometimes room air!

On November 19th:
Jackson is 3lbs 15 oz!

On November 20th:
Jackson makes it to 4lbs! He starts on eye drops today due to goobers in his eyes they think it is a clogged duct not an infection- phew
Temp is 99.1 and he sats around 24 to 26 O's.
Speech Therapist came in and gave Jackson a plan! Yeah! Elizabeth is his Speech Therapist and she is helping Jackson with his breath, suck, swallow techniques to learn to eat off the feeding tube. We use the pacifier alot too, which Jackson likes!

On November 21st:
We hang out at 4 lbs and our on our nasal canula we went down on liters to 2.5 which is great.
He sats around 25 to 28 O's

On November 22nd:
We go down again on our nasal canula to 2.0 liters and our feeds are up to 42 cc's per feed and we now take out the feeding tube vs leaving it in all the time.
We had our eye exam and it indicates a stage 1 which the doctors says not to worry about, but we still worry. We will get a second exam in 2 weeks.

On November 23rd:
Happy Happy Thanksgiving. We get another visit with Beth our Occupational Therapist who helps ensure our body is developing okay and lets us know if we are stiff anywhere and need to be moved around in a different way. The nurses also pay real close attention to this as they go by the plan Beth give to also ensure our little ones develop properly.
We go off Prilosec today!
We are 4lbs and 3 oz

On November 24th:
We are at 1 Liter on the nasal Canula - Big NEWS
We weigh in 4lbs 2 oz- so we lost 1 oz we will work on that no worries!
We continue to poop on our own

On November 25th:
We hang out at 1 liter on the canula and we are 4lbs 4 ozs
We go to a nipple feed which is at bottle feed for the 1st time today! BIG NEWS BIG
And Mom was allowed to feed him with the help of Melanie! He took 5 cc's of food then we tube fed the rest- don't worry we won't starve our little man.

On November 26th:
We hang at 1 liter and 4.4 lbs- We nipple feed for the 2nd time. This time we only took 2 cc's of food but we will get there...we will. Poop is greenish but everyone tells mom not to worry it isn't an infection.

On November 27th:
We up our Iron to .3 cc and we started on Sodium Chloride 2x per day along with theophlene. We are in an OPEN CRIB look at me grow! and my temp is hanging out at 98.5!
I am 4lbs 8 oz ....getting bigger and 15 ccs of food by bottle

November 28th
Open Crib and in a REAL CRIB the big one not the wash tub type.
We gained an ounce! 4lbs 9 oz and we go up to 20 cc of food on the bottle!

November 29th:
We get another visit from Elizabeth who is very pleased with our feeds! Way to go Jackson. We took 30 cc's of food. Our little man loves to eat like a big boy!

November 3oth:
4lbs 11 oz and we get to nipple feed which is bottle feed 2x per day vs 1 time!
at 10:30 a.m. we took 40 CC and at 4:30 p.m. we took 48 cc's through the bottle

December 1st:
We now are feeding 3 x per day and our feeds went 17cc's / 52 cc's / 17 cc's. Which is okay remember we are just getting the hang of it.

We are now 5lbs and we are on 1/2 liter on the nasal canula!

December 2nd:
We fed at 17 cc's, 30 cc's and then we had to tube the other feed but that is okay.

December 3rd:
We are told we are going to wean off the canula. We took 34 CC's from the bottle.
We are excited to go off the canula and hope we can stay off it.

December 4th:
Well, we went back on the canula but that is okay we will get there. Our feeds went 37 cc's then 47 cc's and 55 cc's all in one day which means we are getting better at the bottle.

December 5th:
We weigh in at 5lbs 1 oz We do okay on our feeds today ...Still learning and need a little break

December 6th:
5lbs 1 oz
We had a meeting with Speech therapist today Maiya we didn't do so hot on our feed but we will get it.

December 7th:
We take all of our bottle today in 10 minutes with the help of Ali- Mom did okay but Ali had the magic touch- Thank you Ali
We went off our theophlene today and mom and Jackson meet with lactation. We have our bath time with Bethel tonight too.

December 8th:
Occupational Therapist (Beth) visits us and tells us our pelvic bone is losening up and that we look good!
Dr. Lockhart visited and tells us great news that our eyes are regressing - GREAT NEWS
Speech visits today and very very happy with our feeds!
Dr. Unite's - pediatrician that was recommended to us will accept Jackson- Phew!
We got a little cold today as our temp was 97.6 but we put a heater in our new "private room" to warm us up. I think it is definitely the room not Jackson

We had a brady on mom and scared her! We recovered with mom's help. Surgeon came and visited and can't find the HERNIA- We pray that this has closed on its own and we won't need surgery.

December 9th:
Weight is 5lbs 3 oz and we are at 1/4 Liter on our canula today!
Sats are okay.
We brady 2x's on mom today during feeds but we must just be tired.

December 10th:
We weight 5lbs 4 oz
Dr.Dekowski couldn't feel Hernia anymore either- oh we hope this continues!
Grandpa holds you!

December 11th:
Feeds went well- you get to see Elizabeth again and Beth! They are very pleased with your progress. We all are!

December 12th:
You feeds are going wells. We pray this continues- you even took up to 70 cc's by the bottle today which is excellent.

December 13th:
We can feed you by the bottle anytime we want. No More tubes
You also can breast feed when you want.

December 14th:
Doctors are saying you may be home by the end of the weekend or early next week- Mom still doesn't know to get excited or not. But this time she is super excited. Dad can't believe it and is in shock. All mom thinks about is sterilizing the house. Mom asks Dr. Dekowski if he is serious about coming home and he smiles and says yes it looks that way. If Dr. Dekowski admits to that then we know it is going to happen as he seems to be more conversative so mom is very very very excited she gets teary eyed.

Jackson gets an MRI today which Emma who helped bring you down from North Austin.

Jacksons Immunizations are scheduled - 5 shots! Ugh! Mom won't be there for that.

December 15th:
MRI comes back okay!
Hearing test occurs and you pass!
Cheryl had to give you the shots in the morning- poor baby but you know Cheryl didn't want to she just had to.
Sleep study occurs tonight and we get to see if we will room in or not.

Dec. 16th:

Big day! Mom and Dad Room in with Jackson...we received the news and we do get to room in! You did have some Apnea espisodes over the night but you are coming home on a monitor- which is good as mom and dad want to ensure you are okay!

Getting closer to going home!

2006-12-07T14:13:00.000-08:00

"You may think from the smile, I have gas but that just isn't true..
I am thinking....
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! "

Hello everyone,

We apologize for the delay in getting the journal updated. The last two weeks have been filled with many blessings.

First, we are proud to announce Jackson Eric Spiess is now 5 pounds and 1 ounce!

We continue to improve on our bottle feeds which Jackson has now figured out that the bottle is a very good way to get his food verses the tube.

We currently are feeding him by bottle every other feeding- each bottle feed contains 52 cc's of milk. At the start of the bottle feeds we didn't offer him as much milk but we have progressed to 52 cc's and are holding steady at that amount. Except today Jackson wanted a little extra boost so his nurse (auntie) Cheryl gave him a 2nd bottle of more milk approxiametely 15 cc's. I think Jackson has Cheryl wrapped around his little finger which is great. We are so proud that Jackson is now letting us know when he wants his food as you can see him get a little cranky before his feedings. We are also happy that all his body functions are working. We know the lungs will take time (years), but the progess he is making so far is GREAT!

Jackson also went off the nasal canula for a little under 24 hours. We are happy that we took the step of trying him off his nasal canula which gives him some oxygen! He did have to go back on but we will try again hopefully this coming week!- We also were able to get some great Christmas Pictures while he was off the canula as you probably noticed from above. Today, we went off of "theophylline" (similar to caffeine) and we pray that his lungs are well enough to stay off this medicine without needing any extra oxygen.

Jackson and Grandpa Shepard also did some bonding this past week as you will see in the photo. Grandpa held his Grandson for the 1st time and he told Jackson about all the train rides that he was going to take Jackson on.

We still have a few more eye exams to go and we still have a hernia surgery coming our way but we are very, very, very thankful for where we are today and we pray his progress continues in this direction!

Over the weekend, Dr. Riveria mentioned we may get home prior to Christmas. We know that we need to take it one day at a time, but are excited to hear the positive news of taking him home whether it is before Christmas or not.

Here are some pictures we took of Jackson recently. We hope you enjoy them. We also hope that this blog update finds everyone getting ready for Christmas!
We can't thank you enough for all the support everyone has provided for us. We thank God each and every day for Jackson, and for all of our friends and family.

Jackson is explaining to Grandpa how many train rides he wants to go on : )

"Thats right I am one spoiled man, with all these nurses tending to me."
Cheryl and Jackson

"We call this one his Blue Steel pose. For all the Zoolander fans out there."

"Here's one of Jackson in his slugger outfit. I'm sure Uncle Brad will teach him all about baseball."

Happy Thanksgiving!

2006-11-25T22:14:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,

We hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving and we wanted to let everyone know that we are very thankful to have you in our life. We are very thankful for all the prayers and support we have received as they are helping.

Over the last two weeks, Jackson has made a lot of progress.

On November 13th- Jackson weighed 3 lbs 11 oz and was on CPAP of 7.

On November 14th- Jackson went down on his CPAP machines to 6 in 1 day! Which is excellent. Jackson has some interesting colored residual from his milk so they are watching how much of his feeding comes back up- all through a tube which goes to his stomach.

On November 15th- Jackson went NPO- (no feeds back to IV Fluids)

On November 16th- Jackson goes back onto feeds and we use a different protein/fortifier mixture in his milk. Jackson's weight is 3 lbs 12 oz which is great considering we just went back on feeds, but we were only off of feeds for 1 day. Jackson also gets a bath and we get to Kangaroo Care "hold" him. Jackson's feeds are also going into his stomach an are given every 3 hours which is great!

On November 17th- Jackson is at 3 lbs 11 oz and he was put on Prilosec. But he made a great stride forward today, we got rid of the CPAP machine and went to the nasal canula. This is great for Jackson as he seems much more comfortable without those long prongs down his nose and all that tape on his face.

On November 18th- We are 8 weeks old today! We are back to feeding again and it was Daddy's turn to hold Jackson today. He's still on the nasal canula and doing well. He also weighed 3 lbs 13 oz today! We've also been praying for Jackson during mass at Saint Mary Cathedral in Austin. It's a beautiful church and a wonderful place to celebrate our answered prayers.

On November 19th- Jackson weighs in at 3 lbs 15 oz! and we are just hanging out on the nasal canula and enjoying minimal changes in our life today.

On November 20th- Jackson weighs in at 4 lbs! Our baby is getting big and we are very very happy. Jackson is developing some goo in his eyes so we start eye drops. He also gets his first visit from the speech pathologist!

On November 21st- We went down on our Canula pressure to 2.5 L and our Oxygen requirements are minimal.

On November 22nd: We go down again on our Canula to 2.0 L and our feedings increase to 42 cc's every 3 hours. We had an eye exam today and we are given the report that we have a stage one regarding his blood vessels in his eyes. Cheryl his nurse informs us that the doctor doesn't want us worrying as this is very typical, but if it progresses to stage 2 then he may need eye surgery. We pray that this just goes away on its own with time. Jackson will get his next eye exam in 2 weeks. We are now taking out our feeding tube after being fed which is great and the tube only goes in when he needs to be fed.

November 23rd: We get our second visit from Occupational Therapy and she is very pleased with how much more Jackson is able to tolerate being touched and moved. Jackson also goes off prilosec today and he weighs in at 4lbs 3 oz! In the picture below, I think he is telling the Occupational Therapist "Put me down, I'm tired!!' ;)

November 24th: Jackson is down to 1 Liter on his Canula and weighs in at 4lbs 2 oz. He also learns to make a fish face with his mouth. According to Nana Shepard, he gets that from his mother. :)

November 25th TODAY: Jackson is still at 1 L on his Canula which is excellent and he weighs 4lbs 4 oz!!! and he turned 9 weeks old today. We also were able to feed him a little from a bottle today for the first time. He managed to take 5 cc over about 30 min then he went to tube feeding. This is great considering this is the first time Jackson has had the chance to try to take a bottle and considering everything that has been shoved in his mouth. He did really well.

Jackson also got a full bath tonight. He handled it very well, and I think he almost liked it. But as you can see in the last picture, I think he was ready to get out at the end. :)

We again thank everyone for all the prayers and support. We hope you can see through these updates that miracles through prayer are occurring and we pray Jackson keeps moving in the positive direction.

With love,

Kyle, Erica & Jackson

7 Weeks Old

2006-11-12T18:49:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,

Jackson is another week older and almost 33 weeks old! We are very excited to announce that we do not have much to update you on. As our little man is holding steady on his CPAP machine. He did go down on the pressure from 10 to 9 which is EXCELLENT! He is holding his O's (oxygen) at 21 to 23%. He did have an eye exam by Dr. Lockhart which so far everything is looking good. His eyes are still developing so they need to do the eye exams every 2 to 3 weeks. Jackson is on the 2 week plan so his next exam will be around Thanksgiving - it actually falls on Thanksgiving day- but I am sure it will occur the day prior or after- but we could be wrong. Jackson is holding steady at 3lb's 11 oz. (1660 grams). We hope he starts to gain more weight again but no pressure. Jackson is doing well on going to the bathroom on his own - which many will think this is funny but is a big deal when it comes to these little guys. Jackson will need a hernia surgery but the doctors are going to wait until he is stronger and bigger. Mom was able to give Jackson a bath the other night which was fun. Jackson liked it when he was in the water but moving from the isolette to the water- was a chore for Bethel (his nurse) and mom. Jackson also has received some new nicknames one from Faith (his Respiratory Therapist) which is "slobber monster" and Daddy nicknamed him "lawnmower man" as Jackson made noises like a lawn mower during Kangaroo Care today.

Thank you so much for all the prayers and all the comments !
We hope these updates find you and your families in good health.
Love,
Kyle, Jackson and Erica

Here are some more pictures of Jackson during Kangaroo Care and of Jackson in one of his many new outfits that Nanna and Pappa Shepard bought him.

6 Weeks Old and Growing

2006-11-08T12:14:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!

We are so happy to let everyone know that this past Saturday Jackson was six weeks old. Jackson has had a good week and we pray that he continues in this positive direction.

On October 28th- Jackson and daddy had a huge day where daddy was able to hold him for the first time! (See previous post)

Jackson continued to grow stronger and on Tuesday October 31st...
Jackson gave us a big Halloween treat by going off the ventilator onto the CPAP machine. He also had protein added to his milk which he gets via a feeding tube that goes directly to his intestines and he went up on his feeds to 9cc's / hour. We are proud to let everyone know that 1 week later Jackson is still on CPAP and last night to today he stayed on room air (21% O2).

Mom is super excited as she was able to hold Jackson for the first time on Sunday, November 5th. Jackson and I were able to do Kangaroo care, which is skin to skin contact. Jackson did well, infact I think mom or dad needs to Kangaroo care Jackson 24 hours a day / 7 days a week! Of course, the doctors may have something else to say about that : )

November 7th- We are very thankful to Olga, his weekend nurse, who helps us when we did the Kangaroo care on Sunday and also to Lisa who helped daddy last night as he was able to do Kangaroo care too!

November 8th-

Our big boy is still doing well on CPAP and he is as of today 3lbs 10 oz! Go Jackson!! We are down to room air on the CPAP machine which is great. He will be on the CPAP for a bit longer to give his lungs more time to get better, but we are very pleased that he is progressing in this direction and thank God everyday for this. He also had his 1st outfit put on him last night, it is so cute. We will send pictures of this as soon as we get them downloaded. Mom also was able to Kangaroo Care Jackson last night again for the 2nd time and this time for a little longer than 30 mins and it just made our day!

We can't thank everyone enough for all their prayers, love and support. We appreciate it and we can't wait to send you all pictures of him coming home. In the interim, we will continue to update the blog as often as we can. Jackson will still have about 2 months or more stay at St. David's, but as the doctors say "one day at a time" and who knows our boy may surprise everyone!

Love,

Kyle, Erica and Jackson

Daddy's Treat

2006-10-28T17:31:00.000-07:00

Today there was a suprise in store for me when I went to the hospital. Jackson has been doing well and his ventilator settings have been reduced over the last few days. Dr. Dekowski dropped by Jackson's bedside to check up on him and asked if I'd like to hold him today. Of course I said yes, since this was the first opportunity I've ever had to hold Jackson. Jackson's nurse, Olga, and Respiratory Therapist, Denise, helped get Jackson ready and then placed him in my arms. It was truly amazing. Jackson was awake and alert and was looking right at me as I was talking to him. He handled the situation very well and never went too low on his blood-oxygen saturation. I was able to hold him close for about 20 minutes. We thank God everyday for Jackson's health and pray that Jackson continues to have good days and continues to grow.

Kyle

Introduction to Jackson's Journal

2006-10-25T21:32:00.000-07:00

For all of our family and friends, we have created this blog of Jackson's Journal as a place you can come and see how our special little guy is doing. Below are posts of the 1st and 2nd email updates we sent. We'll be posting updates on this site as we get time and we hope everyone continues to pray for Jackson as he gets stronger and grows over the next few months. Thank you.

P.S. You can also find pictures of Jackson on our family picture website at the following link:

http://spiess-archives.phanfare.com

3rd Email Update

2006-10-17T11:09:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends and Family-

Kyle and I wanted to continue to thank you all for your thoughts, prayers and offers to help us. We appreciate everything everyone is doing for us. We can't thank you enough!

Jackson had a few good days in a row last week which was a relief. He was transported to St. David's Hospital downtown on Friday and had his PDA ligation on Sunday. He is now over 36 hours post op and is doing well. Infact, they weighed him yesterday and he is 2 lbs 11 ounces! We are very excited. Just the fact they were comfortable weighing him was a good sign. He is still on the oscillator and nitric and oxygen but we like to move slowly and take baby steps.

Jackson hasn't been working his nurses so hard either as they actually have had time to sit down and write their notes- he tends to keep the nurses at his bedside and we are thankful he is giving them a break. We pray he continue to progress in this direction. He is 3 weeks and 3 days today.

We can't thank you all enough- please continue to pass on to anyone praying for him.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.

2nd Email Update

2006-10-08T22:41:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,

Here is a status on Jackson Eric Spiess. Our little man keeps things changing which thankfully is good as of today. We pray he keeps up the way he has been for the last 3 days. Right now he has gone down on his O2 which is great- he was hanging out at 100% which isn't good but today he is at 42% - he is still on the oscillator which mom hopes they keep him on to give his lungs a rest- lungs looked okay the last two days but today they looked a little worse. Sunday we found out he has another infection, gram negative, which can be from the stomach- we are still waiting to see the strand and what is the best antibioticc to use- but they were proactive and have him on an antibiotic. I know you may think we are crazy when we say we are having a good day but still find out he has another infection- but considering all the news we had received and the way Jackson looked prior to these past 3 days, we are very very thankful for the "good" days. We can thank everyone enough! We appreciate all the thoughts,prayers, emails, care basket and meals. We ask that everyone continues to keep Jackson in your thoughts and prayers I know they are helping our little man. Thank you to everyone who has donated blood! I can't believe we would be in the situation where we might not have blood or platelets for Jackson but there we were Saturday- with the nursing staff calling San Antonio and Dallas to find his type of blood. Jackson and the area blood banks are in need 0 negative blood- Jackson had to get blood from Dallas on Saturday- today the Austin bank had some blood for him - thankfully- but Jackson and I am sure many other micropreemies and patients will be needing more blood- he has had 11 blood transfers in 2 weeks 2 days.

Thank you Thank you Thank you!

1st Email Update

2006-10-05T22:39:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends,

Kyle and I can't thank everyone enough for all their support. We appreciate everyone's thoughts , prayers , emails and support and we ask that you keep praying for Jackson Eric Spiess. We wanted to reach out to everyone and give them a status on how Jackson is doing. Feel free to pass this letter on to everyone who is praying for our little guy as we believe the prayers are helping. Jackson was born on September 23rd at 1:32 a.m. 1 lb, 15 oz. He will be 2 weeks old in 1 hour! He was doing okay considering how old he is, until around last Friday when we found he had an infection. The infection has taken a toll on his lungs but he is a trooper and is working hard to get better. In the interim we found out he has a PDA (Heart murmur) which is common in preemies. He was given some medicine to close the murmur but thankfully the murmur didn't close. The reason I say this is because the blood flow has changed directions through the murmur which actually made it better for Jackson's weak lungs. If the murmur had closed down while his blood flow through the PDA changed in direction then it would have flooded his lungs with blood. I am sure I don't need to explain the affects this would have caused and we are very thankful that this didn't happen. We pray that the steroids he is getting for his lungs help and do not cause any permanent damage to his lungs or brain. We continuously are weighing consequences every time something is done to help Jackson out. Jackson has had two head ultrasounds thus far and we are very happy to hear that there hasn't been any damage to the blood vessels in his head and he doesn't have clots or hemorrhaging of the head. We thank God and everyone's prayers for these results and for the wonderful medical team working on him. He has many wonderful caring nurses and excellent physicians looking out for him. We also would like to thank every one who has sent cards, food and been there to help us with the house, the animals and moving furniture. We are very thankful to have such wonderful family and friends. I will do my best to keep everyone posted on Jackson's status. Thank you again for everything!