Little Yellow Baby...

First off, I must apologize to all of my friends who have recently had babies that I harassed them to "send pictures!" right after they got home from the hospital! I had no idea how difficult the simple task of uploading pictures would be!

Actually, our first couple of days home from the hospital went quite smoothly. Just when I was starting to think..."this isn't so hard!" we had our first pediatrician appointment...

Unfortunately, Cole developed a pretty severe case of jaundice on his 3rd day of life. His bilirubin level was a 5 when we left the hospital, but jumped to an 18.5 by Monday. His pediatrician prescribed him to be on phototherapy by means of a Bili Blanket. This is a UV light pad that he must lay on all of the time, wearing nothing but a diaper. He was only to be picked up during feedings, which broke my heart. The other part of the treatment was to increase his feedings to every 2 hours. I had to breast feed for 30 minutes and supplement with a bottle immediately afterward. We were quite worried about him, but we started seeing progress almost immediately as his appetite increased, his color improved, and he dirtied his diapers like a champ, which helps clear his system of the bilirubin.

Here he is on his blanket...we joked that he looks like ET!

The therapy has worked great!!! By Friday, his bilirubin level was back within normal range, and he had gained 8 ounces, meaning we could stop using the bili blanket!!! What a relief! Also, we can now allow him to sleep up to 5 hours during the night, as long as we are still feeding him every 2 hours during the day. Thank goodness, we are done with the bottle supplements, because I was already sick and tired of washing bottles--a seemingly never-ending task! Now I can just pump occasionally so that Daddy can participate in some of the feedings. Our plan now is to take turns at night, so we can each get almost a full night's sleep! Let's hope Cole is on board with that plan!!!