Rhory Camille: Adventures with Jaundice

When we left the hospital on Saturday morning (September 6), I was in heaven. Everything seemed so surreal and I couldn't believe we were actually taking OUR baby home - HOME. Coming home with a baby was all we had ever wanted from the moment we found out we were pregnant with Sawyer. Obviously life took different twists and turns that we had anticipated but after much anticipation it was finally happening.

The first night at home was an adjustment for sure! Josh was super sweet though and set up everything on my night stand so we wouldn't have to be running all over the house in the middle of the night. Rhory had some issues transitioning to her bassinet and we tried several different things, but nothing seemed to work. After getting frustrated with the bassinet I told Josh we would just work on it in the morning and fix the batteries in the music player, etc. 

We got up the next morning and headed back to the hospital to get labs drawn for her jaundice levels. When we left the hospital the levels were at 11 (and had gone up from 10) so they wanted us to come in and see how much they had changed over night. They drew the labs at 9:15 and told us we would have the results within an hour. We headed to CVS to grab some things and then to my moms house. We knew there was a chance they would re-admit us so I didn't want to drive ALL the way home, even though I secretly hoped we wouldn't have to go back. My aunt works in the NICU at Gwinnett Medical and called around 10:15 to say her levels had jumped all the way up to 16 and we would for sure have to come back. I hung up the phone and just cried. I was so disappointed that we had finally been able to take a baby home and were now having to turn around and go right back to the hospital.

To a lot of people it may have seemed as if I was over-reacting because all that she needed was the intense light therapy and then we would be going home again once her numbers were down. Our previous experience, though, was playing a major part in my emotional state along with all of my crazy post partum hormones. I was so frustrated that we had to spend more time in the hospital with Rhory when I just wanted to be home. I asked several times if we could just do light therapy at home, but with it being the weekend and they usually have issues with insurance it was better to just stay at the hospital. We had a room that we were able to stay in so we were with her the whole time, but she spent MOST of the time under the lights, only coming out to nurse. 

On top of being stressed and overwhelmed about going back to the hospital, they told me that we may need to supplement with formula. The reason for this is because pooping is the best way for babies to get rid of the extra bilirubin that the lights are breaking down. I understood the reason, but I felt like I had been sucker-punched. I was terrified that "supplementing" with formula would turn in to her refusing to nurse, therefore squashing my dreams of breastfeeding. By no means do I think there is ANYTHING wrong with formula, I had just wanted breastfeeding to be successful. I fought supplementing, but as my aunt explained it - it would just be for a short time to get us out of the hospital faster. So, I gave in and as the days progressed and my milk was actually coming in she was taking less and less of the formula supplement so I started feeling better about things. It also helped her settle down in the bed because she was full and would sleep. I have been through the whole "not being able to hold your baby" experience before with Sawyer and I hated it was happening again. I soaked up everytime she woke up hungry because that meant I was able to hold her! 

She was on the lights from the time we checked in on Sunday, September 7 to Monday night at 12 AM. When she came off the lights and we were finally able to hold her for more than the 30-45 minutes she was nursing we were SO excited! I don't think she slept in her bassinet that whole night! LOL. Her numbers had been coming down so that was the reason for taking her off of the lights. They had planned to re-test Tuesday morning at 6 AM and when they did her numbers were still low which meant we were going home! The discharge process took WAY TOO LONG, like 6 hours too long. But alas, we were finally able to leave the hospital again! A huge thank you to our parents for taking care of us with food while we were holed up in the hospital!

moment of snuggling before back under the lights!

one of many good meals

NO MORE LIGHTS!!!

 

she had "sunglasses" on which led to the yellow around her eyes

snuggles all around

FREEDOM!

Before we left I made an appointment with our pediatrician for Wednesday the 10th because Rhory's levels would need to be checked again. They had gone down, and we went back one last time on Thursday the 11th to make sure they were still going down. Everything looked good so we don't have to go back until she is two weeks old! Which is in two days - AH! I feel like time seriously needs to slow down because she is already growing too fast! 

Love,
Ashlyn