My Little Angel. 1-22-12

It’s 11pm, and my little angel is resting comfortably in the bili box. For someone who didn’t witness the transformation, it would be hard to explain the contrast of the present to the unfortunate little creature I was trying to console a half hour ago. I don’t know what happened first. Mom came back and brought me some sushi. Wasabi. What was I thinking? I really wasn’t thinking about that part of it. I hadn’t had raw fish since before I was pregnant. And then things seemed to spiral farther out of control. Oops, we just had a momentary hiccup where she had a mini-blowout, but she’s back in the box. Speaking of hiccups, that was a part of the problem. Just like when I was carrying her, my little Boop continues to have trouble with hiccups, which got her upset. However, I think that was later in the unraveling.

Photo 1-24-12

So, when Mom brought back dinner, Mom told me that the nurse told her that Boop’s bilirubin levels this morning were 20!! So, that would have been a huge jump from 15. I figured I better have a look at the research. I found a nice review from the American Academy of Family Physicians. Essentially, a level of 20 can be neurotoxic. I stepped out of my room for the 1^st time in a couple of days because I did not want to wait until the nurses came. The nurse looked up the results. 15.6. That’s a minor increase over 15.2, which is likely not a clinically significant increase. Whew! Then, we found out Boop had lost more weight. Back to my worries about breast feeding. Fortunately, I was able to see some of my milk, and even though she seems to be continually rooting for food, she is producing waste products. Then, the assistant took Boop’s temperature. 100.3 under the arm. Then, they repeated it rectally. 100.3 again. The nurse called the MD on call. The MD said to wait an hour and retake. Fortunately, it went down to 98.6. I’ve been trying to keep the room warm, as she can get chilly under the bili lights, but we must have overdone it. Cooling and airing out the room seemed to help. That’s one potential crisis avoided!