{"id":2758,"date":"2010-05-20T23:52:17","date_gmt":"2010-05-21T03:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.forgetful.ca\/?p=2758"},"modified":"2010-05-20T23:52:17","modified_gmt":"2010-05-21T03:52:17","slug":"humbled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/?p=2758","title":{"rendered":"Humbled."},"content":{"rendered":"

A few days after Wes was born but before we were released from the hospital, his bilirubin numbers started to climb. \u00a0Bilirubin is what they test for levels of jaundice in his system. \u00a0High numbers = not good. \u00a0Upon release on Saturday, they asked us to come back on Sunday. \u00a0That test showed that he went from a 227 to a 255.<\/p>\n

260 is where they start to worry.<\/p>\n

So there was no surprise when they asked us to return the following day, Monday, for another test. \u00a0297. \u00a0297 and re-admittance to the hospital for some phototherapy. \u00a0I was devastated. \u00a0I was aware that there was very little to worry about with jaundice, but try telling that to a seriously hormonal new mom who had yet to spend more than two nights at home with her baby.<\/p>\n

The plan was to give him high intensity light therapy for 12 hours and retest. The therapy was to take place in the NICU – the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.<\/p>\n

We were rushed over to be able to start as soon as possible and he was set up with a ‘biliblanket’. \u00a0Much to my surprise and delight, he wasn’t going to be laying in an incubator under a bright light. \u00a0Bright light, yes, but it was in a little pad under him, which meant that I could hold him as much as I wanted to. \u00a0I won’t lie, I barely put him down.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The good news continued. \u00a0The NICU has a couple of family rooms that weren’t being used that day. \u00a0Parents are asked to leave at shift change for confidentiality reasons, and I was brought to one of the rooms. \u00a020 minutes later our new nurse, Christine, knocked on the door and opened it with Wes in her arms. \u00a0She didn’t see any reason that we couldn’t just hang out in there where we could be more comfortable\u00a0instead of in a chair in the middle of the ward. \u00a0I felt so lucky.<\/p>\n

The bilirubin after 8 hours of therapy went from 297 to 284. \u00a0I bawled. \u00a0I had expected it to drop significantly and it didn’t. \u00a0I just wanted to be able to go home in the morning and at that point it was unlikely.<\/p>\n

Christine surprised us again when she pulled out the couch in the family room, made the bed and forcefully took Wes from me so I could sleep. \u00a0SLEEP. \u00a0Precious sleep.<\/p>\n

The morning bilirubin had plummeted to 241 – under the worry line! \u00a0The pediatrician was happy with that result, but wanted Wes to move to low intensity light therapy (sadly, in an incubator) until 5 pm and based on the result of that test, we would likely get to go home.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And we did. \u00a0We got a 206. \u00a0We were safe and were released with an appointment to come back to the hospital on Wednesday for another follow-up. \u00a0And all was well. \u00a0He was exactly one week old when we were finally released for good. \u00a0No more follow-ups, no more worries.<\/p>\n

I decided to write this to update some family who were waiting to hear what was going on. \u00a0Jaundice is far from scary. \u00a0Had the numbers continued to go up, we just would have had a longer stay and more light therapy. \u00a0But it was still upsetting. \u00a0I am a second-time mama, but I am also a new mama. \u00a0Being re-admitted after only a few days at home with my new babe was hard. More nights away from Jaia was hard. \u00a0I wasn’t expecting it – but more, I wasn’t expecting this experience to open my eyes as much as it did and teach me something I couldn’t have learned elsewhere.<\/p>\n

The time I spent in the NICU was wonderful and yet so sad. \u00a0I came to truly appreciate the health of my children, that I was able to carry them both to term, but most importantly, that there are people in this world who grow up wanting to help the tiny babies in the NICU, like the nurses I met during our brief stay. \u00a0As I stood by my healthy 8 pound baby, feeling worried about his bilirubin levels, we were surrounded by the tiniest babies I have ever seen. \u00a01 or 2 pounds at most. \u00a0A couple couldn’t breathe on their own. One little girl, who they had dubbed the grandmother of the ward, had already been there for 120 days but would have only been 42 weeks, had her mama still been pregnant.<\/p>\n

We were only there for 36 hours and I ached to go home. \u00a0I can’t imagine having to leave your baby there for months at a time and only be able to visit for one or two hours a day and then go home again, empty-armed, wishing your baby was healthy enough to go with you…and it might be months before that is actually possible.<\/p>\n

The nurses that took care of us during our ‘crisis’ also take care of these tiny people everyday – and their terrified, worried parents. I was so humbled by the sweetness, the strength and the courage they showed us and everyone who walked in there. \u00a0It has to be the hardest job in the world. \u00a0One of the gals I talked with surprised me and said that there was no other job that she would rather do. \u00a0It was the NICU or nothing. \u00a0She also told me that most days are actually pretty happy. \u00a0And I imagine they are. \u00a0But some days are not. \u00a0And for being the people they are and helping the rest of us through the bad days, I am so very thankful for them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few days after Wes was born but before we were released from the hospital, his bilirubin numbers started to climb. \u00a0Bilirubin is what they test for levels of jaundice in his system. \u00a0High numbers = not good. \u00a0Upon release on Saturday, they asked us to come back on Sunday. \u00a0That test showed that he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[40,51],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2758"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2758\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forgetful.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}