Jaundice

We took Drake in on Tuesday, May6th, 2008 for his well baby check up. When we weighed him we saw that he had dropped from 8 pounds 11 ounces to 7 pounds 8 ounces. We were very concerned, since Drake had not had a bowel movement since Saturday. When the doctor came in we noticed that Drake was very Jaundice, (yellow in color, even in his eyes you could see it) and we were told that we had a couple of options. We could take a blood test to get his level (approx. 3 hours) and then either hospitalize him or get lamps to take home for him, or take him over to the hospital because there were beds avalible and get him right under the lights and be able to flush it out and get him home the next day. We both opted for the hospital due to the level of Jaundice and the fact that he had not had a bowel movement. At the hospital we could monitor his intake and output. Within minutes of being at the hospital he had already begun to flush out his system, and this is without eating anything. He had several large diapers. We are guessing because my milk took a little longer than expected to come in that he was just now able to start flushing the jaundice out.

Seeing him in the hospital was one of the hardest things that I have ever had to deal with. Here my baby only a few days old is in the hospital and all I can do is sit there and look at him. They had to get an IV in, and because of his dehydration it took a long time to get the IV in.

He did really well for being in the hospital. The only time that he cried was when the nurses came in to take his blood for the test for his Jaundice level. I am glad to say that in a matter of hours, literally overnight he was able to drop his jaundice level dramatically and was able to come home. I am also happy to report that now that he is home is doing very well, eating and sleeping, and even with his bowl movements. He goes back to the doctor on Tuesday for his follow up.