Well, Asher had his first doctors appointment on Wednesday, and as you can see, he was yellow. We knew when we left the hospital that his bili level was high (the stuff that causes jaundice) but they said as long as he was eating and pooping he would be fine. Either way, it was at a 11.4 when we brought him home on
Monday, and when they called us Wednesday afternoon with his blood test results it was at a 21. We were told to take him to the ER at Rainbow Babies and have him admitted. Now, I wasn't happy about this obviously, but I was doing pretty good until we got there, got up to
the NICU and they got all the stuff hooked up to him. I took one look at him with all the wires and everything else they had going on and lost it. I know that it was something that for the most part they could fix, but when you look at your tiny newborn baby
hooked up to all their stuff it is really hard. So, when it was time to put the IV in the nurse offered me to go & get a drink & I figured that was a great idea. Every four hours they would draw blood and run his levels again and thankfully, it was coming down. I never realized jaundice
was such a big thing, I just knew it made them yellow. But apparently it can cause brain damage if the levels get too high. Anything over 20 is hospital time, and if they hit 25 that's when they start to talking about blood transfusions to get the blood with the biliruben in it out and the clean blood to replace it. Luckily 21 was our highest level. So, here are the pictures of Asher under the UV lights getting his first suntan, and of course we had to include the picture where he was mooning us! The lights help to process the biliruben through the skin so that his body can pass it without his liver having to process is. They had him in the
bed with the lights for not quite 24 hours, and when his level was about 14.9 they moved him to another room to watch him and to continue taking blood to make sure it was still going down. It went up to 15.2 and then down to 13.7 and that is when they decided he could come home. They sent us with a bili blanket that you wrap around him and it has the UV lights in it, and the home health care nurse came over to check his blood yesterday. We were at a 13.1 yesterday and he goes back in tomorrow to our pediatrician to get checked again. Hopefully he will still be dropping. He is a little yellow, but he definitely looks a ton better than he did. Apparently part of the reason he got it so bad is because our blood types conflict, and his little body is killing off the blood cells from me. The dead blood cells are where the biliruben comes from, and because his little liver can't keep up with it yet to process it all out, he had way too much in his system. Now I can't guarantee that this explanation is 100% accurate, but it is how I understand it from how the doctor explained it to us. I'm am so glad he is home with us. I think we have taken for granted with the other kids how lucky we were that everything went great and there were never any issues. I have a much greater appreciation for the parents who have to leave their babies at the hospital due to the many reasons they have to be there. It's a hard thing to do. We are counting our blessings that he is home with us and things are going good, and praying they continue to stay that way.
Well, Asher had his first doctors appointment on Wednesday, and as you can see, he was yellow. We knew when we left the hospital that his bili level was high (the stuff that causes jaundice) but they said as long as he was eating and pooping he would be fine. Either way, it was at a 11.4 when we brought him home on
Monday, and when they called us Wednesday afternoon with his blood test results it was at a 21. We were told to take him to the ER at Rainbow Babies and have him admitted. Now, I wasn't happy about this obviously, but I was doing pretty good until we got there, got up to
the NICU and they got all the stuff hooked up to him. I took one look at him with all the wires and everything else they had going on and lost it. I know that it was something that for the most part they could fix, but when you look at your tiny newborn baby
hooked up to all their stuff it is really hard. So, when it was time to put the IV in the nurse offered me to go & get a drink & I figured that was a great idea. Every four hours they would draw blood and run his levels again and thankfully, it was coming down. I never realized jaundice
was such a big thing, I just knew it made them yellow. But apparently it can cause brain damage if the levels get too high. Anything over 20 is hospital time, and if they hit 25 that's when they start to talking about blood transfusions to get the blood with the biliruben in it out and the clean blood to replace it. Luckily 21 was our highest level. So, here are the pictures of Asher under the UV lights getting his first suntan, and of course we had to include the picture where he was mooning us! The lights help to process the biliruben through the skin so that his body can pass it without his liver having to process is. They had him in the
bed with the lights for not quite 24 hours, and when his level was about 14.9 they moved him to another room to watch him and to continue taking blood to make sure it was still going down. It went up to 15.2 and then down to 13.7 and that is when they decided he could come home. They sent us with a bili blanket that you wrap around him and it has the UV lights in it, and the home health care nurse came over to check his blood yesterday. We were at a 13.1 yesterday and he goes back in tomorrow to our pediatrician to get checked again. Hopefully he will still be dropping. He is a little yellow, but he definitely looks a ton better than he did. Apparently part of the reason he got it so bad is because our blood types conflict, and his little body is killing off the blood cells from me. The dead blood cells are where the biliruben comes from, and because his little liver can't keep up with it yet to process it all out, he had way too much in his system. Now I can't guarantee that this explanation is 100% accurate, but it is how I understand it from how the doctor explained it to us. I'm am so glad he is home with us. I think we have taken for granted with the other kids how lucky we were that everything went great and there were never any issues. I have a much greater appreciation for the parents who have to leave their babies at the hospital due to the many reasons they have to be there. It's a hard thing to do. We are counting our blessings that he is home with us and things are going good, and praying they continue to stay that way.
3 comments:
Misty,
Congratulations on your beautiful little boy!!! I'm so jealous you get to have your babies early. Instead of mine coming early, I just have massive children. =) I'm so glad his jaundice is under control now, that's really scary. I still have five weeks to go, so I'm down to the end as well. Good to see you are all doing so well!
Alright I must still have some pregnancy hormones running through me because I got all teary-eyed looking at those pics of him. I am glad he is home and all is well with you guys. He is so darn cute. The yellow suits him!
My eyes are filling with tears for you. Rainbow is such an emotional experience!!! I can remember just sobbing when they hooked Ri up to all the stuff. Your little Asher will continue to be in our prayers. He is a darling boy. Lucky him to come to such a great family!! Much love to you all!!!
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