In The LimeBluelight

Where did we leave off? Well, the monday morning after I was born (5:36 am on sunday, July 23rd) I had a bilirubin blood test ... a little jab and squeeze from my heel (of all the places). It was about 9 mg/dL (milligrams per deciLiter). Then, monday evening it had gone up to ~11 ... and tuesday morning up to ~14! The doctors got worried because I was premature, and my bilirubin was rising so fast. Premies have a harder time processing the 'rubin because their livers are usually not as developed as full termers. I told them I was really advanced, and I'd have it down in a bit, but despite my efforts I was admitted to the nursery during the day on tuesday, to undergo blue light therapy (see pic)! They throw you in a crib with blue lights above you, and a blanket with blue LED's below you, and little padded sungoggles to protect your eyes ... high tec, eh?
Well, I decided to just grin and bear it, and sleep as much as possible, but mom and dad weren't too happy because the doc's were pushing me to have as much fluid as possible, and they didn't really care if I got formula or breastmilk. Imagine! Substituting cow juice for liquid gold?? Anyway, mom was allowed to stay in the hospital room and come visit me every three hours to breastfeed me. She ended up pumping most of the time, so she could show the nurses how much I was getting (and avoid the "top-off" with formula to give me the minimum 30 ml). I took the opportunity to brush up on my bottle feeding skills, and once downed 40 ml of breastmilk in 60 seconds! (thank you, thank you, oh you're too kind) Needless to say I got to brush up on my burping skills too. By thursday evening I'd come down far enough in terms of my bilirubin levels (and stayed down, after being off the lights for 12 hours) that they let me go home, and I finally got to ride in a car for the first time. After that, I had my first nap at home, in my first organic cotton outfit ... ahhh, the luxury ...
Next post: settling in at home ...