• Day 3 – Lucy Frances

    Date: 2010.06.16 | Category: Fungbaby 2 | Tags:

    The past 50 hours have been radically different this time around than when we had Nellie. We are much more calm and seemingly collected, but at the same time, we jump at the slightest sound and still feel nervous about it all….I guess that even though you get more comfortable with feeding, burping, diapering, etc., the parenting senses will be forever piqued from this point forward :) Overall, we are all doing well and appreciate all of the notes of support, inquiries and the well wishes.

    By way of an update, we were scheduled to go home today but Lucy decided that she was not done basking in the Jersey sunshine :) In all seriousness, her bilirubin level was too high and we need to stay at the hospital for a little while longer.  If you are wondering about bilirubin, it is a brownish yellow substance found in bile. It is produced when the liver breaks down old red blood cells and bilirubin is formed when the body recycles old or damaged red blood cells.  Because Lucy’s  liver is not mature enough to metabolize the bilirubin, it builds up in the blood and jaundice occurs – yep, she has a nice coloring that is akin to yellow highlighter.

    So to treat her, Lucy has been  placed under a special ultra-violet light for photo-therapy. This light allows the bilirubin to be broken down to a form that can be excreted by Lucy’s  kidneys. Increasing Lucy’s feeding frequency will cause more bowel movements and more bilirubin to be excreted in the stool.

    This is a very common thing and Lucy has spent the day with her little sunglasses on inside an infant incubator while she gets her photo-therapy. She will stay under the lights until 5am tomorrow morning and then they will turn off the light, do a blood test, wait 6 hours and then do another blood test to see where her bilirubin level is……

    Assuming that all is ok, we should be leaving Jersey tomorrow around lunch time. If the levels are not where they need to be, Lucy may have to go back into the “oven” to “cook” just a little while longer :)

    Here is a photo of Lucy basking with her shades on:

    Basking to reduce Bilirubin