Her future's so bright

On Saturday when we were getting discharged from the hospital, our pediatrician let us know that Taylor’s bilirubin levels were a tad high, meaning she was a bit jaundice. Nothing to be concerned about, he said, as babies little livers need a few days of good feeding to kick-in. We scheduled an appointment for the following day to get re-checked and went home to become a family.

Sunday morning’s visit to the doctor showed that her bilirubin had increased from 8.9 to 18. We were ordered to keep her well fed and she had to spend all of her non-feeding time doing light therapy, which meant she had to lay in a tanning bed brief case. She even received her first pair of sunglasses, which Chris promptly upgraded. Amys’ don’t wear cheap shades.

It was crushing, not only for Chris and I, but for Chris’s parents, Greg and Sue, who made the trip from Texas and were only able to hold their first grandchild for about five seconds. As hard as it was, we kept her on the lights and I forced myself to become a breastfeeding expert in one day.

Monday’s appointment saw an improvement to 10.6, and by Tuesday she was down to 10.4. We were told to take her off the lights and make sure we kept feeding her every 2-3 hours. That night Chris, Greg, Sue and I all sat in a circle and passed her around, we were all overjoyed and relieved to be able to cradle and snuggle her. Yea for healthy baby!

As heartbreaking as it was to watch our newborn spend her first few days home in a tanning bed briefcase, she seemed to actually enjoy it. She didn’t fuss or cry and was totally content just chilling under the lights. I’m pretty sure this means we have a future beauty queen on our hands, and that those arm stretches were really her practicing her parade wave. Wrist-wrist, elbow-elbow. Wrist-wrist, elbow-elbow.