Well bringing Nate home didn't go as planned. Dr. Chelu told us the previous day that we could be discharged Wednesday Morning after the pediatrician came by to release the baby.
January 13th, 2010 9am.
Dr. Finnila came in to check on Nate and unfortunately he had higher levels of Billirubin 11 and we tested positive for Coombs. Nate is A+ and I am O+. Since our blood types conflicted, he was Asian and his billirubin levels were high she suggested that as a precaution we stay the day until 4pm (his next billi test time) and "cook" him under the phototherapy lights. Then this would combat the Jaundice and help us avoid possibly coming back to the hospital for further treatment.
10 am to 3:30 pm
Nate baked under the phototherapy lights all day. It was sad to see him in there because we couldn't hold him except to change his diapers and to feed him. The rest of the time he had to lie in the tube on his back with foam sun googles on and nothing but his diaper. If it wasn't for the glasses he loved it in there. It was a toasty 33 Celsius in the tube and he looked liked he was one the beach.
I was a worry wart because the doctor told me that the two most important things to combat the Jaundice was 1. the light therapy and 2. Ensuring that Nate was feeding sufficiently. The feeding would create bowel movements that would get rid of the billi. So this made me really tense since the phototherapy lights would make Nate very tired and thus more difficult to get to eat.
The lactation consultant came and offered a great suggestion, pump and supplement with the breast milk. She showed me how to hand pump and then syringe to ensure that Nate was getting enough to eat. I unfortunately had to supplement first with formula. I only gave Nate one syringe before I had expressed enough to give him my milk.
So the day was spent watching Nate cook under the lights and then feeding and changing him. We could not wait until 4pm for them to take his last billi test. When the time finally came they forgot to come get him and we had to remind the staff at 4:45.
We had hoped that the results would come back in 45 minutes and then I could be released. We started packing our bags and loading up the car. Mom had come in at 4pm to join us for the trip home. 6pm came and went and so did 7pm. We were getting hungry and irritated since it was 2 hours past the time we thought we'd be released. Finally mom got irritated enough to ask them what the hold up was. It turned out that one of the nurses forgot to run a test on me and now that it was afterhours the lab was working more slowly. They apparently had to run an Hep B test on me since we declined giving Nate the Heb B vaccine at the time of birth.
Secretly we think the Delores, one of the nurses, sabotaged us and forgot to do this test. Brent had run over her foot earlier in the day with a chair and this may have been her way to get back at us.
It wasn't until 10:30 that we finally got to leave the hospital. So much for a glorious homecoming. Poor Zee, she was at home waiting for us, we were super hungry and when we got home it was so late we were so disorganized.
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