We have been extremely fortunate to have very healthy kids and to be very healthy ourselves.  Over the past year or so, we have seen other families go through some very scary and trying times with the health and well-being of their children.  We feel extremely lucky to have been blessed with two wonderfully healthy kids.

Before we left the hospital one of the things that they checked on Dylan, as they do all babies, is his Biliruben levels.  Biliruben is considered the extra blood cells that Dylan had after he was delivered that he didn’t need.  The body has to get rid of that and it does so through the liver.  Most babies, two-thirds in fact, can’t get rid of all of it and when they can’t, the baby gets jaundice and their skin turns a bit yellow.  Dylan’s levels came back at a 9 which is considered normal but on the high side of normal.  No big deal.  When we took him in on Wednesday for his checkup at the doctor they checked his levels again and this time they came back at 20.8!  This is considered very high.  With that, they wanted us to have him do some phototherapy.  Phototherapy for jaundice helps break up the Biliruben and allows it to pass through the colon and out in the poop.  While on this light therapy, Dylan has to be on the lights at all times except when feeding or being changed.  As you can imagine, this is quite difficult as we can’t take him out to play with him or just hold him. 

They had a nurse come out to the house and bring us the lights to set up in his crib and check is levels again.  Until he is off of the lights, they will have a nurse come out every day and check his vitals along with his bili levels.

At the start of day two of the lights, the nurse came out and checked him out and his bili levels had dropped to 16 which is wonderful news.  We had been keeping up with his pees, poops, feedings and temperature for the doctor to review and it was all going just perfect.  Our doctor said that with the pees, poops, feedings, and temps he’s been having, as long as his bili drops again to 14 or below today, he can come off of the lights.  The nurse has come and gone today and his vitals still look great.  He has gained weight again for the second consecutive day and he is eating well.  We will hopefully find out shortly what his levels are and whether or not we can get rid of these lights.  It is truly awful to see him laying there and we can’t pick him up or play with him.  Along with the lethargy that the jaundice has caused, it has made the past few days quite difficult.  Even Drew has been a bit sad that he can’t hold his brother but can only see him in the crib.

More later when we hear the results…

Tags: baby, Dylan