Once we left the hospital, Baby H's bilirubin level spiked to a dangerous level. Not only was her little body yellow, but the whites of her eyes seemed to be getting darker with each passing hour. She was .8 away from being hospitalized. We had to act fast.
We rented a photolight therapy blanket to wrap around her 24 hours a day. She was our little glow worm for 5 days.
After a few days, we saw an improvement.
Each day for a week, we had to return to the hospital to get Baby H's heel pricked in order to collect a vial of blood. It was awful. Don't you wish people were really good at their profession? We had both ends of the spectrum. Nurses who seemed to not know what they were doing as they squeezed blood out of my screaming newborn baby was not my favorite. In fact, I was on the verge of expressing my unfriendly thoughts towards them and their less than mediocre performance. On the other hand, we also had nurses who seemed to really care for my baby and successfully collected blood as she peacefully slept. This was as close as I could get the time they were unable to get enough blood from her heel. They decided to tie her arm off and collect blood from a vein, which in the end, didn't work either. That was not a good visit.
The photolight therapy blanket worked and her bilirubin level came back down to safety. No more visits to the hospital. No more vials of blood. No more appointments with the doctor.
The kids absolutely love her and all her tiny features.
E is so excited to have a baby sister. She has expressed several times that she can't wait to have her in her room. I'll get up in the middle of the night to help her. I can change her, well, except for the poopy ones. You can do those. She can help me teach the boys what to do.
Red socks on hands?- I have no idea.
Red socks on hands?- I have no idea.
1 comment:
That is really hard. E had to go through something similar...only they didn't have the blanket thing. We had to put her in this lit up suitcase thing for 5 days. We weren't able to hold her and she had to have pads over her eyes and a mesh hairnet thing to keep the pads in place. It squeezed her head though so tightly that when you took it off, her head looked like a baked ham. It was horrible! Those were very long days of feeling helpless and just wanting to hold her and make her better. And, ya, those heel slices. Screaming newborn while they squeeze the blood out. Hated it! I feel for ya.
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