Just Keep Swimming

~Words of Wisdom from Dori~

I found that title on another blog and thought how appropriate.....anyway

Addison had her PKU this morning and the Pediatrician thought she was looking a little more yellow and had us go and have her blood drawn AGAIN and come to find out she went up.

When we left the hospital on the 6th it was at 11.63 now it's back up to 16.7. So I have to take her yet again in the morning to the lab and have more blood drawn and IF it has gone up more we have to do more photo therapy aka... La' Tanning.

BUT the only good news is WE HAVE ACCESS TO A BILI BLANKET HERE IN OUR SMALL TOWN! SHOCK & AWE TO FOLLOW. Now why couldn't we have done this blanket thing say umm last week?

Anyway, I will let you all know more tomorrow. Sorry no pictures today we have been running all day long and I just got the baby in bed the dishes are done and now I am done but, I'm gonna keep on swimming. :)

Pin It

Yahoo!

We had her blood draw @ 5:00 and her level was at 11.63 which is down from 11.79! So it is going down on it's own.

I do have to take her in tomorrow to get weighed and rechecked by the pediatrician, but I can handle that.

SO YEAH it looks like we are home!

I'm off to bed, I'm exhausted.

Pin It

{ Going Home! }

At least I think we get to stay home. 
We got sent home this morning as her levels had dropped, BUT we have to take her back to the hospital at 5:00 today to have more blood drawn and we will know more from there.

IF her levels go up a little I think our Pediatrician was going to call around and see if he could find a bili blanket. I don't know if he will be able to find such a thing around here, but we are keeping our fingers crossed. Hey Dawn do you have Bili Blankets in Enterprise? Do you think we could smuggle one out? :) 

I told him I can't stay at the hospital anymore with 4 kids it's just too hard, I need to be home. Plus she is getting old enough that really a bili blanket would do the job. Stayed tuned to your local Berry Blog for more at 5:00 pm :)

Pin It

Finally!

Well Hallelujah! Her levels are going down!

She is finally under 12. This morning her levels measured 11.7 so that's good and apparently puts her in the low risk category for her age according to our nurse. I was a wee bit frustrated with the girl who drew her blood though. I'm calling her girl because I swear she looked about 17.

The nurse came in and took Addison to the nursery for the draw, I normally go with her but seriously was so exhausted I couldn't keep my eyes open, so they bring her back and say she did great, about 10 minutes later the lab girl comes into my room and says oh dumb me.. I was like what?

Then she said oh they didn't tell you, I used the wrong tube I was suppose to use purple not blue so I need to draw her blood again. GRRR!!!! Seriously!!!! And I am now awake!

So she does it again, this time with terrible luck. She basically was rooting around in her arm for I swear like 4 minutes with the needle trying to find the vein she "thought" she had.... So poor Addison has been poked one more time than needed. I'm sure she will be sporting a nice bruise with this last draw. Our nurse was pretty upset with the lab girl. She told her, you have to tell the mom the baby needs another draw we aren't telling her this was your fault. So at least someone is on poor little Addison's side.

Yeah I am so ready for this to be done.

I need to be home with my family.

So now we wait for the Pediatrician to see if we get to go home this morning. ;)

Pin It

Sigh.......

Well, we got back her test results and they went from 12.2 to 12.02 not much of a difference I thought there would be a bigger drop because she has been under these lights for days on end.

I am now supplementing with formula hoping that will help

I have never had a baby take so long to get rid of Jaundice.

So I get another night in the blue room.

I want to go home.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Pin It

The Waiting Game:

Well I am just waiting until 5:00 when they will come and draw some more blood for another Bili level test. Our Pediatrician said that if she is under 12 that we may get to go home. She was at 12.2 this morning. Then tomorrow we are suppose to come back to the hospital and have more blood drawn and immediately after that go to the pediatric clinic for her to have a check up.

My only concern is, if it we go home tonight and get her blood drawn in the morning and it goes up what happens then?

My mom would be gone & we would have to find somewhere for the kids to go as Lloyd has to go back to work tomorrow. Plus I would rather sit here another night to make sure that her levels are low enough not to worry about. Mercy, I know it's just the mom in me, but why do I worry so much about all the little stuff? Well, I'll post more in a while just had to do something I am sooooooo bored out of my mind. There is really only so much Internet surfing one can do during the day. Later:)

Pin It

Still Here

Yes we are still up here at the Hospital. Thought I would update as some of you may be checking. They drew more of Addison's blood this morning at 6:00 and next thing I know they are coming back to our room to draw more. I guess the 6:00 am draw said that her levels were REALLY HIGH, they think that the draw was damanged something about damanged red blood cells.

The lab asked the lady who drew the blood if this baby was really yellow, she said in fact she was really pink. So they had to prick her heel and spend 15 mins trying to squeeze blood from her while she screamed her little head off.

Anyway I am just waiting for the new level results and also waiting for the Pediatrician. I will let you all know more later.

And wouldn't you know it, Addison's Dr. just came in and her levels are at 12.2 and he wants her to stay under the lights for today and do another blood draw at 5:00. Can I just say this is getting old. My poor Mom is so ready to go home as am I. Well gotta go and call Lloyd to let him know what is going on.

Pin It

{ Jaundice Round 2! }

And we are back! 
We came back on Saturday night. 
Well I guess I should start from the beginning...

We had a pretty good day Addison spent time suntanning from her crib and so on and so forth. Well around 4:00 she fell asleep again after I had fed her and I put her back in her crib for more window time well, she slept great just a little too great. I couldn't wake her to save my life. I tried to wake her up after 3 hrs of sleep and she just would not. So I let her sleep some more. Needless to say I had to drag out my pump as I was dying, & I tried to wake her again 2 hrs later and she woke up enough to take like 3 swallows of milk from the bottle and back to sleep she goes. Now I found this a bit odd. I have never had a newborn sleep for 5 hrs straight especially at 3 days old. And she was starting to look very yellow again. So I am definitely in mommy mode and it takes over.

I get on the Internet and search about Jaundice and if it make babies sleepy- yup it does. So I talk to Lloyd and figured I would rather be safe than sorry because I think something is up (her levels that is) so we call and talk to the Pediatrician. She said to go to the hospital and have the lab run a bili blood test on her and to wait there for the results because if they are high enough they will admit her (I am so glad I didn't unpack). So they come back as we expected higher than when we left yesterday evening. Yesterday her levels were at 10.6 and this evening they were at 15.45.

I am glad I listened to my intuition because with Jaundice if their levels go undetected and get too high there can be brain damage and a variety of other not so fun things that can happen to them.

And we were not suppose to have her checked again until Monday sometime. And if she went up that much in 24 hrs imagine what her numbers would have been on Monday. Yikes.

Now I am back to enjoying my Day glow room yet again. I am just glad I got one night in my comfy bed and a nice shower in my own bathroom & some sleep time.

So if ANYONE is bored enough they are more than welcome to come and visit me REALLY, I have Wheat Thins and some DVDs just make sure to bring your sunglasses. :)

Sorry for the novel it must be the lights... Nah, it's just me.

Oh a side note: they will run her bili levels again @ noon today (Sunday) the 4th so ya might call me on my cell if you are gonna come up. But I'm sure with our luck we will still be here, unless by some jaundice disappearing miracle something happens.

Pin It

{ She Has Jaundice...I Figured As Much }

Update: So they checked her Bili levels this morning and they went up to 10.6! So we don't get to go home this morning. I am so in need of clean pj's and some more clean clothes and well I just want to get out of this joint. I am basically ready to be checked out we are just waiting on her levels to get a bit lower. They are going to draw more blood at 5:00 to see if she is doing anything and if she is then great we go home, otherwise it's another night in this room.

I'm tired, this bed is TERRIBLE and my eyes hurt from living in this Blue Day Glow Room. I think I need my sunglasses at night so I can see.

I know your all most likely sick and tired of reading about baby posts but when your stuck staring at the same 4 walls for days there really is nothing else to talk about. Sigh... Well I'm off to try and sleep that is until a nurse comes in AGAIN. Later. ;)

Oh this lovely little thing called-- Jaundice!

I knew we would be way too lucky to escape this part of us having a baby. At least this time they are starting her under the lights before we even leave the hospital.

Usually we go home for 1 night and have to bring the baby back the next day to have the lab draw blood to test their levels and then they call us about an hr later saying you need to come back in so your baby can "bake" a little more so then we spend another 2-4 more day's in the hospital. 
Can you tell we have done this now 5 times! But anyway,
last night Lloyd and I were looking at her and he made the comment that she was looking more yellow than the last time he had saw her, & I thought so too. So I went as asked the nurse to check her levels and she said they were going to wait until this morning to do it but went ahead and checked her last night to make us feel better.

I'm glad they did.

Her levels yesterday morning were 6.5 and last night they were 9.6, and our Pediatrician happened to be here last night & decided that she should start her tanning process now instead of later. Hopefully we have caught it early enough that we will get to go home soon. So here she is in all her Tanning/Yellow Bumble Bee Glory.

More to come later.

P.S. I am so exhausted I think I have had 4 hrs sleep total in the last 2 nights.

And thank you so much Melissa. You know why. :)

Pin It