Jaundice

Over the past week Jude has been through quite a bit with his jaundice - I feel as thought I keep mentioning it, but haven't really given a run down of what exactly it means to us.

When we were discharged on Thursday last week he was given a biliblanket:

Basically this machine is plugged into the wall and the hose that attaches to the glowing part (as seen above) goes on Jude's back. The light works to get rid of the biliruben.

Jude was on the blanket Thursday night through Sunday. Each of those days we had a visiting nurse come out to our house to test Jude's biliruben levels by doing a heal prick. For the heal prick, they'd put a small slit in the heal of his foot and use the blood to fill a small tube to test. The nurse would then deliver the blood to the lab for testing and we'd get a call back later that night with the results.

We were told on Sunday his levels were low enough to come off the blanket, but that he need one last heal prick to make sure his numbers are still going down. When we went in on Monday to the lab for his heal prick, we received a phone call that night telling us that his numbers were slightly elevated and he needed to go back on the blanket. bummer.

Not that it was my fault, but I felt like kicking myself. I had thought originally when they called Sunday that maybe I should just keep him on his biliblanket until we get the results back from Monday's prick. It wouldn't hurt him and could only help. However, being excited to be able to move away from the wall I took him off per the doctor's orders. I kept thinking if I had stuck with my gut instinct it would have been over for sure on Monday morning.

Either way, he went back on Monday night and we went back in on Tuesday morning to the lab for another heal prick. It ended up working in our favor though because Jude was exactly 7 days old and was able to get his follow up newborn evaluation (this typically needs to be done within 7-28 days after birth). The evaluation needed to be done at the same lab at the heal prick and they needed to collect blood, so we got it all done at once.

Monday night I got a call around 5:30 from the doctor's office. I was on the phone at the time with our insurance company, so thought I'd just call them right back. Seconds after getting off the phone I called the office back and they were closed. They had left a message, but all it said was they were calling with the bili-levels. So I needed to call back the next morning.

Fast forward to about 9:30 last night. We were keeping him on the blanket but were curious to know what the results were. For some reason I picked up my phone and I had two missed calls even though I hadn't heard it ring. One was from the doctor's office at like 7:30pm. The message again was very vague "we're calling with Jude's bili-levels, they are fine, please call the office in the morning". Now I thought, define "fine". Does fine mean he can come off? Stay on but he hadn't gotten worse? The numbers had gone up, but still were not in dangerous territory?

Either way we kept him on through the night and called them first thing this morning.

Fine means: he's done with the bili-blanket, he's done with the heal pricks and the rental company can come pick up their machine. This is much more awesome news than Sunday because that means it's officially over, none of this "we'll still need to test him, but he should be ok" bull crap.

In addition to it being GREAT news in terms of Jude's health and our sanity as new parents, it's also great news because we got a call from the rental company yesterday telling us that insurance typically only covers the machine for so many days and we had reached that limit (they could submit an extension request but apparently they're typically refused). They were letting us know that any time we needed the machine past yesterday, would be coming out of our pocket. Obviously we'd do anything to keep him healthy no matter what the cost, but it was still unsettling not knowing when it would be over.

However, I called them first thing this morning that the lady I spoke to said "so you were done with the machine last night, right?" I said "well, yeah - the doctor called last night". Then she basically told me she'd put it down as being completed last night so that we wouldn't have to cover any of it! All in all some great news this morning!

Jude's test results (I'm not exactly sure what the numbers 'mean' but I know they're on a scale and depending on how many days old he is the tolerance level for the numbers goes up - so a baby who's a few days old can tolerate higher numbers than one JUST born - if that makes sense. Also, we were told if his numbers were too high he'd have to be hospitalized - but once they went below 12 he was off the machine):

Wednesday May 6th: 4.9

Thursday May 7th: 8.9

Friday May 8th: 13.1

Saturday May 9th: 13.8

Sunday May 10th: 12.5

Monday May 11th: 13.1

I didn't get yesterday's number, but it was below the 12 mark.

This is all wrapping up at JUST the right time, because tomorrow we go to see the pediatric urologist for his hypospadias. Apparently this will only be a consultation and he won't be treated for it until about 6 months - but it'll be nice to not have to focus on TWO issues at once.

My First REAL Sleep-less Night

Up until last night, Jude was a breeze. Sleeping well and waking up mostly just for feedings, etc. (Really, I would wake up more than him to make sure he was OK!)

However, somewhere between 4:30 and 8:30 last night he went on a hunger strike. Basically, I fed him at 4:30 and he ate very well. Around 6:30 I figured it was time for him to eat again. He latched on for a couple of minutes (no where near his typical 10-15) and he threw a fit. He wanted nothing to do with me. He did a little rooting but would not take to me. Instead, he sucked on my finger his fingers, or a pacifier and went back to sleep.

I tried around around 7, 7:30 8, 8:30. Each time he'd take a few sucks and stop. This was the same until some time in the wee early morning when he finally decided he was a little hungry. Right before he did finally eat, there were some gurgles in his belly and a big old Poo. The poor little man seemed to have a bit of an upset belly. In addition, i pumped to make the boobies a little softer for him.

Once he got it out, he ate much better. This morning he ate well at 7:30 and did his normal every two hours from there.

I discussed this at my pediatric appointment today (his weight check) and they said that as long as he's hydrated and eating it's nothing to be concerned with. I guess I expect him to get on a schedule (or at least be semi-predictable) but breast-fed babies just don't function that way.

Being that I was so concerned about his eating all night, I didn't get much sleep. Even though our pediatrician had told us before "don't wake a sleeping baby" during the night hours I couldn't help but want to get him to eat something. I tried every hour or so to get him to latch on and he just didn't want to. Meanwhile every time I tried it would set him into a fit and I'd have to calm him down again.

Better news though: at his weight check today, Jude was just 1/2 an ounce under his birth weight. We'll be going back next monday to make sure he's still gaining weight (basically they want to keep seeing him until he's at least at his birth weight). But he is well on his way.

Other News: Jude is currently struggling with a little Jaundice. Yesterday after our visiting nurse came out, we were told he could go off his biliblanket. Unfortunately when he went in to his check up today his numbers had gone up slightly so they wanted him back on. We have to go to the lab tomorrow to get re-checked, so I'm crossing my fingers he takes some big poos and gets some of the yellow out!

Hospital Adventures

Our stay at the Christiana Hospital was exceptional. Ryan (who has been nothing short of an amazing father from the second Jude was born - helping me in any way he can, and just glowing from excitement) just kept commenting that if you were to have a child, CCHS is THE place to do it.

All of the recovery rooms are single patient rooms. Fathers have their own bed for rooming in and your child stays with you the entire time (no nursery - except for infant ICU). The nurses for the most part were all AMAZING and extremely attentive as well (there was one in particular who I wasn't too fond of, but even she wasn't terrible).

The First Night:

After being ushered to our room somewhere around 9 or 9:30pm it was a pretty big adjustment. We had come from the delivery room where everything was pretty much taken care of and routine to our room where it was up to us to care for Jude and call the nurses when necessary.

We needed to rest after a long day, but of course we were still wide awake from all the excitement. Even though it was past visiting hours Barbie and Meghan got to come up to visit for a little bit and it was nice to be able to sit down and talk and just mellow out a little. After they left we of course tried to get some sleep but every little noise or sound Jude made had us wide awake - even though for the most part he was sound asleep.

In addition to his little noises, around 1:00 in the morning it was time for Jude's 6 hour check up. At 1:00am we were being shown how to care for Jude - from taking care of his little cord to giving him a bath. He and I both had our vitals checked and I had some blood work done. Not too long after it was time for my Rogham shot (ugh! again!). We got a little sleep but before we knew it the sun was on it's way up and the nurses were bustling again.

Full Day #1:

Early the next morning it was time to get things rolling with all the procedures for Jude. He needed his first pediatric check up and his circumcision. In addition I had my morning visit from my doctor making sure I was getting by OK. The pediatrician ended up coming while I was in the shower, so Ryan got to take care of that. He was told that Jude was good to go but that they were going to test him for jaundice because of my/his blood type mix.

When Jude was taken away for his circumcision I felt terrible for the poor little man. Come to find out when he was brought back, the poor little guy wasn't even done. He has a hypospadias which basically is an irregular urethra opening which needs extra attention in the next few months. As a result they started the incision, saw the problem and had to stitch him back up. I felt terrible. But he seems fine and the stitches should heal without a problem. Unfortunately we'll have to take him to a pediatric urologist later on to get it treated further.

In addition, the jaundice test came back that he had slightly elevated levels of bilirubin which meant extra monitoring for jaundice. We were off to a great start!

All in all though he's a healthy adorable, amazing baby boy!

He and I spend the rest of the day sitting around the hospital room, taking visitors and Ryan ran a couple of errands and went home to shower and tend to Buddy.

Later when it came time to sleep, Jude had been sleeping all day so we were afraid he'd be up the whole night. We weren't too far off base. For the most part he was asleep, but wouldn't stay asleep in his bassinet very well. Which means that I was up most of the night holding him close to my chest to keep him content.

Day #2 - Getting Ready to Go Home:

First this Thursday morning I was very ready to get out of the hospital. I woke up bright and early and got showered and dressed to leave. Unfortunately we found out that his bilirubin levels came back higher than they should be and he would need to be sent home with a biliblanket. This meant we had to wait around a few hours for the delivery man to bring it through. We hung out around the room trying to keep ourselves occupied. Ryan carried all of our gifts and belongings outside and we were just waiting for the blanket. Once it came on home we went!