Wow. This little guy is an eating, pooping machine. Unreal. We’ve managed to keep him alive thus far, so we must be doing something right.
I mentioned in a couple of blog posts ago about Killian’s bilirubin level being high. I wanted to share that story…
Several hours after birth, the hospital pediatrician performed a bilirubin test on his blood and the number came back too high. She said she wanted to monitor it while we were in the hospital to see what happened. Over the course of that day and night, he had two more blood draws, and the numbers kept coming back high. We had planned to stay through the night, so he could have his PKU done and then discharge after breakfast and go home.
The night pedi wanted to do another draw in the morning so we agreed to stay until we got the results and could get a visit from the lactation consultant, which was going to keep us there through lunchtime. I was starting to get really antsy to go home and was getting very emotional about having to stay in the hospital longer. The doctors were talking about keeping him to do phototherapy for his jaundice, which if I knew he needed, I would totally keep him there for it, but we just didn’t feel like it was warranted yet, and we were needing to go home.
The numbers from his test came back still too high, and the pedi showed us on a chart how he marked in a high-risk category and how he had most of the markers for risk for his levels to continue to rise. i told her how we wanted to go home, and I actually started crying in front of her. They wanted to do another test that evening, but the results she was really looking for would be from his test the next morning. The thought of staying in the hospital that whole day and for another night was too much for me, and I just kept crying in front of her.
She laid out some options for us, one of which included us going home and bringing him back in the morning for a blood draw and evaluation - she wanted to check his weight and color and see if he was hydrated enough, if he was getting enough to eat. She WANTED us to stay for the blood draws and for observation, but said she understood how much we wanted to go home. I’m not sure if she really understood how much we wanted - no, needed - to go home. She said to talk it over with Joshua ( who had left the room for a bit with Judah) and let her know what we decided.
My midwife also came by, after having spoken with the pediatrician, and said really good things. She really put me at east about our decision to discharge. With everyone else wanting us to stay, she really advocated for us and was able to explain where the doctor was coming from, but also supported our decision to go home. That was a big relief for me, especially considering how hard it was for me to have had my baby in a hospital in the first place - I can’t even put that into words.
The next time the pedi came back, we told her we wanted to discharge and go home. She asked us to agree to bring him back in the morning for a blood test, and that if the results came back as high as 17, that we would re-admit him for phototherapy. We agreed.
We were so happy to be home. We got so much more rest and spent the time nursing Killian, exposing him to sunlight, and eating non-hospital food (thanks to Eric and Linda Bergquist for the vegetarian lasagna they made and delivered for us!). We got up early Saturday and took him to the hospital for his blood draw. We had bags packed and ready in case they asked us to come in. After his test and an evaluation by the pediatrician, she seemed pleased at what we were doing. He had lost weight from 9.9 down to 8.12, which was within range, and she said he looked good, fed, and that his color wasn’t increasing too much. She reminded us again that if his level was a 17, she wanted to admit him. We told her we would and went home to sleep and wait for her to call with the results.
About two hours later, she called and Joshua answered the phone. She said his level was 16.9. We looked at each other, just convinced she was going to ask us to come in anyway. She didn’t. She stuck to her promise that we could stay home if it was under 17, and it was. She said she felt that it would be safe to stay home; that she thought my milk would come in and that she knew we were dedicated to nurse him often enough to help bring it down, but would we please bring him back on Sunday for another test? If this one was over 20, she wanted to admit him. We agreed.
We were so relieved. The next day, Joshua took him in again for yet another blood test. We got a call from the pediatrician on duty that day, to find out that his level was 16.1 - it had gone down. The pedi actually sounded really surprised that it hadn’t climbed and asked me what we were doing. I told him we were nursing him as often as we could and were exposing him to sunlight. He asked us to make sure to schedule an appointment with our pediatrician for Monday or Tuesday so she could evaluate him and decide whether he needed another test.
I am so glad we decided to go ahead and discharge Friday. If we had stayed through Saturday’s blood test, we would have been kept in the hospital, he would have likely started phototherapy on Saturday, and we would have been kept overnight again for his test on Sunday, and probably not have been discharged until Sunday afternoon at the earliest - TWO WHOLE EXTRA DAYS.
I’m not a doctor. I’m not a baby expert. I’m not well-versed in newborn conditions and their outcomes and complications. But I knew we needed to go home and I wanted to trust that instinct and my ability to take care of my baby. And I’m really glad I did. It’s what Joshua and I needed, it’s what Judah needed, and as much as I knew how, it was what Killian needed.