She had initially gained weight, however, due to the excessive sleepiness nursing was always a bit if a challenge. She was very jaundiced, but that wasn't out of the ordinary, I guess. Well, we had to have a follow up visit at the pediatrician s office, just protocol for how jaundiced she looked. So two days later we went.
Well, she had lost weight. Uh oh. So they did a blood test to check her bilirubin levels and veal the jaundice. So we amped up her feeding to try to get her to gain. Well the next day, we got a call. Jaundice was up, so we went back. Lost more weight, and took another blood test. This time as they took the test, Greta only yelled for a small second, then she slept through it. Turns out she's so weak, that's why she had a hard time eating, nursing was too exhausting for her, then my supply was going down, and causing her jaundice to spike up even further.
So we started supplementing, and I started pumping and giving her what I could with a bottle. But that wasn't enough, she had still lost weight, so we had to go spend over night at the hospital. Greta was put under the UV lights to help her body get rid of the jaundice. Apparently it's just a domino effect, as the jaundice goes up, their energy goes down, causing them to eat less, causing their jaundice to go up, etc.
so we spent the night waking every 2 hours to feed, but keeping her in the uv box or tanning bed as I like to call it. The poor thing was so sleepy, it took her about 45 mins just to get through 2 oz. The nurses were so helpful, and thrilled to have a newborn in the pediatric wing. And I guess I said I wanted another day at the hospital right? The help, the room service and all that. Well, I'd give it all up for a healthy baby, obviously.
But it all worked out, after about 24 hours in the hospital her bilirubin went way way down and the doc let us come home. We just had to monitor very closely how much she was eating.
So now at 2 weeks, she is back to herself :) She is up beyond birthweight! 7 lbs 8 oz, and just over 20 inches long. She can now take a bottle much easier, and only getting formula about once or twice a day. I finally got the green light to stop waking her up at night to feed her, let her wake herself up....hallelujah !!! Just last night, she let me get a 3 hour stretch of sleep, it's a miracle. Her color is much better, still a bit yellow in her eyes and face, but the doctors think that will pass soon.
Greta had her first bath, and screamed for most of it, typical newborn. But we still had to document :)
It's been amazing having her in our life. I never could have imagined having 3 kids, but now we can't imagine life without her. She's amazing. Eve is absolutely obsessed with her, she sings songs about how much she lives her baby Greta, and how sweet and small she is. She wants to hold her ALL the time, the second I come downstairs from feeding her, Eve dashes to the bathroom and comes out saying, "I washed my hands! You can smell them! (That's how we check) Can I hold Greta now?!" It's so cute how much she adores her. Graham, well, he doesn't really get it yet. He is interested by her, he gets this mischievous look, and tries to smack her, but I think he does that because he gets a reaction out of us. Other than that, he's more interested in her car seat laying around than Greta.
Greta, you are delicious!
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