Scary Trip to the PICU

This is a post that no mother wants to write, but luckily things are on the mend. Yesterday I took Laurel to her first pediatrician visit. She had been jaundiced in the hospital and they checked her again to see if her level had improved. Mom and I got home around 3, and her doctor called at 3:30 to tell me that her bilirubin level had increased and that she needed to be admitted immediately to the Johnson City Medical Center to be put under special bili-lights.

After a small breakdown, I got in touch with Tim to tell him what was going on. Mom helped me back and we brought her to the hospital, where she was put in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) to be put under the lights and monitored. In addition to being under the lights, we worked with the lactation consultant at the pediatrician's office to develop a care plan for eating because she had lost more than 10 percent of her body weight after birth and hadn't been eating well. She is now eating expressed breast milk and formula if needed and doing much, much better. They checked her levels at 10 p.m. last night and they had falled from 21 to 18, so we knew she was on the right track. They checked her again this morning at 6:30 and thank God, her levels are down to 11! She did so well last night and is seeming to really enjoy just chilling under the lights.

While it is scary to have your baby in the hospital, it is reassuring to know that she is doing better and is being well monitored. Luckily Tim and I have been able to stay with her, but she is just in a corner of the PICU with nothing but curtains separating her from the rest of the area, so sleep was pretty much non-existent for Tim and myself. We're definitely ready to go back home. Thank you so much to everyone who prayed for us and checked in on us.