Newborn Jaundice

Newborn Jaundice

All my kids had some degree of jaundice during their first week or so. It was never a cause for concern. Imagine my surprise when we were told the morning we were going to be discharged from the hospital that we would have to go back the next day to have DD4's bilirubin levels checked once again.

The next day, she had another heel stick (her heel was pricked and squeezed to fill a vial of blood). After about an hour of waiting, the results came in and her levels were elevated.

We were then prescribed a photo therapy device or a bili blanket as the nurses called it. It was delivered to our home that evening. We were instructed to have it on her ALL the time.

The bili blanket is a wide strip that has the special light to take off the jaundice from the skin. It needs to be in contact with the skin. I suppose it's like sunlight but concentrated. It is probably similar to how hgh supplements work. They augment a normally occurring process in the body.

The cycle of going to the hospital, heel stick, waiting and seeing the doctor continued for 3 more days. The hassle of having to go to the hospital and wait was not the worst. It was seeing my newborn cry while her heels were being pricked was torture. It was too much for me to bear that it was DH who would take DD4 to the lab. I waited in the waiting room. My baby was only days old and she was being subjected to this? Ugh...too much for this hormonal mommy. I was also very tired during that time. Instead of being able to rest, I had to shuttle to and from the hospital. My body had not had time to recover!

Even during that time, I was still thankful that at least her levels were not alarmingly high that she would need to be admitted to the hospital. If that had happened, we would have to leave her at the NICU! Oh my heart! I don't think I could've taken that lightly.

By the end of her first week, we were in the clear. We had kept her in the bili blanket for a little over 3 days and it had done its job. Thank God!