Our little buddy has had jaundice from the beginning. On Monday the 4th (after we went home from the hospital on Sunday) we went to Memorial Northpark to get a bilirubin test. We got a call later from our doctor saying that it was 10.7 which was an okay level.
We had a doctors appointment on Tuesday (5th), and when we were there our doctor felt like Jackson was looking really yellow and went to go check the numbers from the day before. After calling the lab back, she found that they had mis-communicated and his levels were actually 15.7. So we went to get another test at Children's downtown, and at 6pm his levels had gone up to 19.3. Our doctor said that it would be best if we go ahead and plan to spend the night at the hospital so that Jack could get phototherapy treatments.
Here is daddy (in his NEW DAD shirt) hanging out in the waiting area.
Our precious little man in the "tanning bed". We were so afraid that when we put him in there, he would just scream and cry and we wouldn't be able to do anything, BUT he was an angel. He loved the warm comfy box.
While we were at the hospital, they wanted to make sure that Jackson was getting enough milk, so they had me pump and feed him his very first bottle! He had to drink 1.5oz and then he could nurse as long as he wanted to.
They also hooked him up to an IV so that he wouldn't get dehydrated under the lights. His precious little hand was taped to this board all night.
Here's crazy daddy feeding Jackson a bottle...
...and loving on him.
By 12am his counts had gone down to 18, at 6am it was 16, at 11am it was 15. They said that if his levels got down to around 15, then we could go home (thank goodness, because I was about to lose it at this point - I just wanted to go home!!). The next day (7th) we took him back to get another bilirubin test and it had gone back up to 16.2, but they said not to worry, to just keep an eye on him and make sure he didn't get too yellow again.
On Monday (11th), we felt like he still wasn't getting better, so we had him tested and it was back up to 18.1, then on Tuesday (12th) it was down slightly to 17.7. So the doctor suggested we formula feed Jack for 24 hours to see if his levels would come down anymore. By Thursday (14th) it was down to 16.7, and at that point they said not to worry about it anymore. We've still been keeping him in the sunlight during the day, just in case, but hopefully we won't be back to the doctor until his ONE MONTH checkup!!
Did your kids/you have jaundice as a baby?
Catie Grace had the same issue and we had to go every morning that first week to get her levels checked. She was just shy of having to go in the hospital to be under the lights. I'm glad Jack is doing well. It looks like nursing is going well too :) That is more than a small challenge.
ReplyDelete