My Poor Baby

Our beautiful little Cameryn Emily Bratt was born on Friday, April 22. She had higher levels of bilirubin than normal, but the hospital monitored her and decided to let her go home with us on Sunday, with the stipulation that I needed to get her tested again the next morning. I took her in on Monday, and the pediatrician said that he thought she would be fine and be able to stay home. She got her little heel pricked again at the lab, and we went home. That evening, the doctor called us back and said that we needed to rush her to the ER to get her ultra-violet light therapy because her bilirubin level had risen to 16.8. We took her in, and they tested her again in the ER. Then they let me know that her level was at about 18. Yikes! I believe that the level at which they do a blood transfusion is around 21.

Maxwell had had light therapy when he was a few days old, but they just ordered some equipment to be sent to my house, and I took care of him myself. But here, everything has to be done in the hospital.

They hooked my little one up to an IV, but it took them FIVE ATTEMPTS before they were able to get it in. They stuck needles in each of her hands and arms to no avail, and then they finally got one into her tiny leg. I felt sick watching them hurt my baby and listening to her scream.

They took five flasks of blood. Her eyes rolled back when they were taking the last bit. They said she was dehydrated. I wanted them to leave my baby alone, but I knew that she needed the light therapy, so I let them continue.

She had a little bit of orange spit-up on her clothing, and so the doctor ordered an X-Ray for her in case of a bowel obstruction. I was really nervous about such a young baby getting an X-Ray, so I asked her if that was really necessary. She said they needed to figure out what was wrong. We then went to get the X-Ray, and the tech made me wear a big, thick lead vest. He told me to put her down on the table. He walked to the back of the room. I said "Wait, aren't you going to put a vest on her?" He said that you can't wear a vest for an abdominal X-Ray. I asked "But is that safe? Won't that mess with her fertility or something?" He said "No. It's perfectly safe. In fact, it's no worse than eating something out of the microwave." I had a hard time believing that. Nobody makes me wear a giant lead vest when I use my microwave. If it's so safe, why did I have to wear a vest?

I felt sick about everything. I felt so bad for her. She wasn't even supposed to be born for a few more weeks, and here she was being stuck with needles, IVs, blood draws, and X-Rays. It must have been so traumatic for her--it was for me. Finally, they sent us up to the pediatric unit and got her light therapy started. We had been at the ER for about 3 hours before she got any lights, so I was worried about the wasted time. They came and took her blood again every three hours. They told me to only take her out of her incubator to feed her, and to do so every 2 hours for up to 15-20 min.

I was up all night. I took a couple of short power naps in between the feedings, but with nurses coming in and out of the room, getting up to put her eye-coverings on every now and then, the bright florescent lights, and the beeping monitors, and listening to her scream when they took another little flask of blood from her heel every 3 hours, I only got about a total of 1 1/2 to 2 hrs of sleep.

Her level went down to 16 something by 3am, then 14 something by 9am, and then 13.6 by lunchtime. They told me that if her levels went down enough by 8pm tonight that they would turn off the lights and just monitor her overnight, and that if her level stayed down without the lights, we could go home in the morning.

Unfortunately, they came in and told me that her level is exactly the same that it was from the blood draw that was 7 hours before: 13.6. Luckily, that's not a terrible number. It's close to the point when she can turn off the lights. But the scary thing is that it didn't go down at all in 7 hours. They are doing another blood draw at midnight. I have now been living at the hospital since last Wednesday. I went home Sunday evening and spent one night, but tomorrow will make one week away from my boys. I am hoping that it will go down so I can take my baby home and see my little boys!