{ battle of the billirubin }

All of my kiddos had billirubin issues but none as serious as Edie. all of my kiddos were early, Garrett was 11 days, Eli was 19 days, and Edie was 10 days. Billirubin issues are more common in babies who are born early. For three days after birth her levels continued to climb from 8.4 to 12 to 16. She was in the high-intermediate risk zone. On Saturday after we got the results from the lab we were sent in to the after hours clinic to see a pediatrician for a weight check. At this point my milk hadn't come in yet and one of the best cures for billirubin is frequent feedings. She had only lost 7% of her birth weight so the Dr. was not too concerned about her weight and said that as long as her levels don't go up more and her weight doesn't drop more that she would not have to be under billi lights. His advice was to try to feed her as much as possible to aid in my milk coming in. I came home an promptly started pumping to try to get that milk in faster. The problem with high billi levels is that the billirubin makes babies tired and sleepy so her nursing sessions became very inefficient and I felt like we were on a downward spiral. I kept on pumping and nursing and giving her a bottle with what I pumped. This helped get my milk in and it helped her not loose more weight but it didn't help her levels. They just kept creeping up on Monday she reached her highest levels of 18 and she had to go under the lights. It was nice, they rented us a billi blanket so we could stay home. She had to be on the lights 24/7 except when she was eating and getting her diaper changed and I needed to make sure she ate every 2 hours. By this point she could not even nurse and she pretty much slept all day. The hardest part was not being able to hold and snuggle my baby. I just had to watch her lay there.

She spent 48 hours under the lights and her levels finally came down. She was a trooper and I handled it OK, but boy was I ready to snuggle by baby. Unfortunately our nursing relationship was struggling as she was getting very used to taking a bottle. But I was just happy to have my baby getting healthy again. I don't wish this road on anyone but we made it through. Baby girl still has scars on her heals from getting poked so many times.

Eli was happy to have his sister to play with. I came upon this site and it melted my heart. My baby boy reading to my baby girl. It was totally unprompted and so sweet!