Under the Lights

Abby is spending another day under the light to see if we can get past this bout of jaundice. Her number hadn't come down at all from yesterday, so it's another day (and night) of phototherapy for us. She is looking much better, eating more, making more diapers, and being alert more often, which are all good signs.

The beautiful afghan that Arlene Shock (who Jen worked with at Washtenaw County) made for Abby - you can see the light coming through the holes in it.

Four Days Old on Day Five

Unfortunately for Abby, day 5 of being a big girl required a trip to the hospital lab, even though she was discharged yesterday. Our little gal has a bit of jaundice and is undergoing phototherapy (where they use special lights to break down the offending bilirubin in the cells). She started using her biliblanket yesterday afternoon and we have been faithfully switching it from her belly to her back every hour on the hour (which made for a very, very long night). So... this morning we got ready and went for our trip to the lab, where we had to let the nurses poke poor Abby's heel to get a blood sample. Fortunately, her levels are on the way down and she will hopefully be done with the light therapy sometime tomorrow.

On the bright side, the therapy is working and Abby is getting much more active and looking much less yellow. Last night she had her first sustained period of playfulness, which was a relief to us. She spent the time from 1 am to 2:30 am kicking and waving her arms and responding to us, which was really neat, even though we were both exhausted and wishing she would just go to sleep so we could catch a few hours of much needed rest. She's also been eating (albeit from a bottle) a lot more and making the messy diapers that come with eating more. All good signs that she will be over the jaundice soon.

Since Abby is on the light pad 24 hours a day, I have been housebound, and mostly stuck in a chair holding her to make sure the light pad stays on her little belly. For those of you who know me well, you know this is making me stir crazy, but she is well worth it. Steve had his first adventure of grocery shopping on his own. I made a list, but I know where everything is at the store and he had to do a little hunting, so it took longer than he thought it would. We do have everything that was on the list, so that was good.

We are back to the lab tomorrow for more blood testing and hopefully good news that we will be off the phototherapy.

Day 4 - Going Home

Abby and I were discharged from the hospital this afternoon and Steve, Abby, and I made it home at 1 pm today to start the adventure of life with baby. Abby seems to like her new digs, including the bassinet. She's been too sleepy to check out much beyond that and the couch.

Abby has some mild jaundice, so even though they sent us home, Abby has to be on an ultra-violet light pad as much of the day as possible. She doesn't seem to mind when she has to lay on it to get the light on her back, but it is a trick to keep it on her belly, since she does like to wiggle her little arms.

Abby had some firsts today. Since she is very sleepy from the jaundice, we've had to pump milk for her and give it to her by bottle. She really loved the bottle, so we are hoping that we will be able to transition back to breastfeeding when the jaundice is passed without too much struggle. Since Abby has been chugging down the bottles, we also experienced the first throw up. She got me good, and herself, and the arm chair, and the area rug. It was quite the mess - and my white sweater may never be the same.