First week at home

On Wednesday morning we headed to our doctor's office for a follow up on her billirubin levels. They tested her and found she had increased by 4 mg, all the way up to an 18 (this was the highest level she reached throughout this time). We also had her weighed and she was at 7lbs 2 oz. The lowest she was in the hospital was 7lbs, so she had gained 2oz. The doctor ordered for us to have a billi-blanket at home and keep her on the lights.  I was certainly thankful that it was the blanket and not the "bed" lights because we could at least still hold her with the blanket on (as annoying as it was- because of all of the cords). So, she spent all of Wednesday evening/night in the blanket. On Thursday, (Thanksgiving, more on her first holiday in the next post) we had to go to the Wesley ER to have her levels checked again since the doctors offices were closed for the remainder of the week. That turned out to be frustrating because when we got there, they told us they had never received any orders for the test. Nate worked his magic and got us in for the test in no time.
The test involves pricking the heel and then filling a small tube with blood- she hates it, cries every time, I can imagine it hurts, plus by now her heels are covered in scabs because we've done the test close to 10 times. When the doctor called with the results, he said the level had gone down, but only by about .4 of a mg. So, they said to continue with the lights for the weekend and then to have her tested again on Monday morning.

You can't see all of the billi-blanket, but she wasn't able to put her arms down because it came up to her arm pits. Also, notice the red mark on her arm pit, it must have rubbed on her. I felt sorry for her. Although, she does love to have her arms by her face. She has constantly done that since birth, hard to keep her swaddled up.

We kept her on the lights as much as possible, but the lights had to be plugged in, so we stayed home and hung out with daddy for the rest of the week. We had visitors continually stop by, some out of towners got to come and see her since they were here for Thanksgiving, including Aunt Abby who came in from Denver. Nate even braved the Black Friday sales and got a christmas present for me! It was great to have daddy with us all week. We loved all the time he spent with us.