Monday June 24, 2013
This was one of the most difficult days of my life. I now look back and kinda laugh, but at the time it was so hard.
To start off our day we had to take our 3 day old daughter back tot he hospital to get her bilirubin drawn. The day before the pediatrician mentioned that she was a little bit jaundice. She wasn't eating well at all because we didn't know how to nurse and had lost quite a bit of her birth weight which is normal. So we got it drawn and then had to go to her newborn appointment to get the results as well as her check-up. All three of us were completely exhausted and hungry which made us on edge. We were late for our appointment because we drove around IHC trying to find the dumb office. At that point I was really ticked. Once we got in the office the dr. told us that we would need to put her under the bili lights that night because her jaundice level was pretty high for her age. He told us to feed her some formula so that she could have some nourishment. I was devastated that I was not able to provide what my baby needed in order to survive: FOOD. And then he left the room. We were confused as to how we would get the lights and were given basically no instruction from him. We sat there and finally opened the door and talked with the nurse who told us that they would be delivered to us.
We got home and I gave her some formula which nearly broke my heart. Like I said we were all a little emotional. I cried the whole time I fed her. I just wanted to be able to help her. It was so sad. Isaac did not like to see me this way and he cried as well because he felt like he couldn't help me or Laila. It was around 3:00 and we still had not received the lights, so I called the pediatricians office. They hadn't told us, but the company they use did not take our insurance. Magically I called right when she was going about to call another company. Long story short by the time the new company got in touch with us we were supposed to go pick up the lights somewhere. I asked the person over the phone what time the place closed and he kindly said they were open 8-5. I started crying and told him that it was 5:30. The guy on the other line didn't know what to do, but he was nice. It wasn't his fault but he was the deliverer of bad news. After I through yet another tantrum and ran to my room to scream and cry I held my little one close and told her I was sorry that I wasn't able to help her. We just decided that she would be alright and that we would pick up the lights first thing in the morning.
Around 10:30 at night I talked to my awesome sis-in-law, Laura, who is a Nurse and Lactation consultant, about how Laila and I were doing with nursing. I proceeded to tell her about our fiasco of a day and she sweetly said, "Caitlin, what is Laila's bili level?" i told her around 16.3 and she said, "Does your pediatricain know that you don't have the lights?" NO "Has Laila gone to the bathroom?" NO "You need to call the on-call pediatrician and see what they want you to do." At that point I was really worried. I called the ped and she said to take Laila to the ER at Primary Children's Hospital. I thought she was kidding at first, but then I realized that this could be potentially dangerous to Laila, so we left for the hospital.
We missed the exit to the hospital and started going up the canyon which didn't have any exits we could turn around on for like 5 miles. I was mad, Isaac seemed nervous (his driving was awful), and of course Laila was ticked. So here we are at the ER with a screaming child and they took her and started her on the bili lights as soon as they could. Laila was such a champ with the blood they drew for tests and the IV to hydrate her little body. I was not so much of a champ though. We were in the ER until about 2:00 and then Isaac had to go home to get some sleep because he had to go to work in the morning. I was all by myself in the hospital with my sick lil girl. They took us to a room and immediately a lactation specialist came and helped us during a feeding. While I was there I was able to receive some great help from those wonderful ladies. And by the time we were ready to go home the next day Laila was eating very well. I was so glad that my mother in law, Melissa was able to come and stay with me that morning. It was nice to have someone else there to help me through a rough day. There is more to the story, but I left it out. haha
The mask squished her little face
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