Our Jaundice Journey

So we have it made it to our first week with little Henry, and its been a crazy one.  For those of you who don't know, we came home from hospital with Henry late Tuesday night.  Then Thursday morning he had his 2 day check up.  Well the doctor thought he looked a little yellow, and this started a whirlwind that we are still trying to recover from.

I took Henry to get his heel pricked and his billy levels checked.  We got a call from the doctor at about 4:30 Thursday night that his levels were at 18 (a tad too high for our little guy, heading into a more dangerous level) and that we needed to go back to the hospital and put Henry under the lights for 24 hours.

That was really hard to hear.  We had just gotten home, were trying to adapt Mason and Campbell to their new little brother, and for me I really just like to sit on the couch and do nothing but hold my new baby for days.

And now, we had to quickly scramble, repack for the hospital, get Campbell and Mason set up for staying at Nana and Pappa's and head back to the hospital.

It was just so hard to go back to the hospital and be told that we could only hold Henry when he was out being nursed.  And we were to keep the nursing quick- no cuddling.  Here he is only 3 days old and we are not allowed to hold him... it was incredibly difficult.

However, the nursing staff at Sierra Nevada was AWESOME! We got to have our room and keep Henry with us for the most of the time.

They checked his levels at 11 pm- and they had gone up- 19.6  

He was rechecked again at 5 am... only down to 17- it was then that we were told that there was a chance we wouldn't be getting to go home that day (now Friday).

AHHHH.

So, we waited, watched Henry under the lights. And when he was retested Friday night, he was at only 13.9  And we would have to stay another night.  However, we were told most likely we would be able to leave early the next morning! YEA!

Nope. At 5 am he was checked again- and only at 13.6

That was so hard.  And I just wanted to cry.

I hadn't seen Campbell or Mason for more than a few minutes for almost a week, and I just wanted to be recovering at home, holding my new baby.

So we had to wait another 11 hours to SEE if we would get to go home.

Ok- so after about 8 episodes of Law and Order SVU (God bless you USA and your wonderful L & O marathons) we rechecked his levels and YES- finally at 10.6!

We were out the door.

As soon as we arrived home, our dinner was pleasantly waiting for us (ah, thank you Brenda for Frank's Pizza- and what a wonderful memory Rachel Jamison has... 1/2 Hawaiian and 1/2 Mushroom and Olives is the pizza we love to devour)

We returned Sunday morning for another heel prick.  And didn't hear anything.

So as a paranoid mother, i started calling around today to see what was up.  And found that Henry's Sunday level was at 13.5- it had gone back up and no one had called us.

So after trying to tackle someone down from Miners for information, here is the plan:

I'll take Henry in to Miners tomorrow to be checked out.  I'll let you know what is going on when I know a little more.  But please pray that we don't have to return to the hospital.

Right now, we are home, enjoying all 3 kids, and learning how to be a family of 3 under 3!