After the 11 p.m. feeding last night, Karl and I decided to head home for some sleep...they were planning to feed Emma expressed breast milk and formula during her night time feedings. We thought it best that we get some good rest before the long day here today.
We got up this morning early so we could get to the hospital for her 8 a.m. feeding. She nursed well and was wide awake for a while. Then we went out for breakfast...it's nice to get out of the hospital for a bit to see day light and breathe some fresh air! We came back for her 11 a.m. feeding and stayed through the 2 p.m. feeding in a little room they have set up for breastfeeding moms to use. We both got in a bit of a nap, I spoke to the lactation consultant to get some tips on helping Emma nurse better, and then we fed her.
It's nice that we are able to stay here and be with her for the feedings when we can...but it is difficult to get her to nurse well during the 30 minute time limit. And it's disappointing not to be able to hold her more, just to enjoy being with her. However, I know it's best that we stick to the time limit because she needs to be under the lights as much as possible. Her latest number was 14.4...which is pretty good for her age now. I think we're waiting for it to get down to around 12 before they take her off the lights again. Once they do that, they will do another blood test after 4-6 hours off the lights...then we can see if we'll be able to take her home yet. We are hoping it will be tomorrow, but obviously at this point we'd rather she stay longer now so we can avoid another trip here to re-admit...it's been an emotional roller coaster ride for me and I really want to avoid doing that again.
We ended up going out for a late lunch around 3 p.m. to a place called Delmonico's Italian Steak House. We'd never been there before; things turned out pretty good. We both had steak..I think I liked mine better than Karl liked his, though. We also had some dessert...a delicious piece of chocolate chip cheesecake...and some coffee (decaf. for me). It was good to leave the hospital again and have some decent food.
We've just finished Emma's 5 o'clock feeding...she nursed okay but was still hungry so I was able to give her a bottle of breast milk. She's not nursing as well as we'd like but it is going better than it ever did with the others. I expect that we'll both get better with time and experience. ;) Karl and I are planning to stay here until her 8 p.m. feeding then go home for the night. They have expressed milk to give her and the doctor ordered supplementation anyway, so she should be fine. That way we'll both be well rested when it is time to bring her home again.
The rest of the kids are fairing okay, though my mom told me Hailey has said she misses me...actually she said this morning, "I miss you already" when she saw us getting ready to leave. They are not used to being away from us so much, so it is an adjustment. My parents say they've all been behaving pretty well, so that's a plus. EVERYONE is ready for us to be able to be home soon, though.
The nurses will do another blood test at 10 p.m. tonight, then again in the morning. It will be up to the doctor when they take her off the lights...but it sounds like it will be sometime tomorrow.
We will be sure to get back on here and post more info. as we have it. Thanks so much for all your prayers.
4 comments:
They most likely mentioned that jaundiced babies are a bit sluggish trying to get rid of all of the bilirubin - I'm sure she'll pick up with the nursing as soon as her numbers are in the stable range for good.
Mom who has done the jaundice thing several times and had her last miracle baby in the NICU for 2 months -
Hi Wendy! We had sort of the same problem with Jack, and I just wanted to pass along something the home health nurse told me (we were actually able to bring him home with a "bili bed" that he had to lay in at the house). Anyway, she said that babies with jaundice don't nurse great...kind of lethargic and that as soon as all that gets out of their system, they do a lot better. She was exactly right! You're in my prayers. It was so hard not to be able to hold Jack and love on him. I hope that Emma Grace's levels will be down soon so you can truly enjoy her!!
We went through this, a bit, with each baby...we just never had to re-admit them to the hospital. Hailey was able to come home and use a 'bili bed' also when we were in Florida. We asked the doctor here about it and her words were, "Oh no, New York State is too neurotic for that." We thought that was so funny, because lots of the rules and regulations here in NYS seem 'neurotic' to us. However, I'm sure they do this in the Special Care Unit of the hospitals because they want to be sure the babies receive the highest standard of care. The nurses have all been great!
Thanks to everyone for the encouraging words.
Hey girl! you guys are in our prayers. Keep us posted. Emma is going to be great! Just keep your head up and continue to get whatever sleep you can.
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