3 weeks and still here
Saturday, September 16th, 2006Tomorrow Owen will be three weeks old.
Lots has happened since my last post. We came home a few weeks ago. Owen was eating well, but seemed very tired all the time. He was also turning very yellow. It turned out he was very jaundice.
For those of you like me that want to know what that means, jaundice is a term for a very high level of bilirubin, a chemical produced by the natural breakdown of red blood cells. A person’s liver processes bilirubin, and many baby’s immature livers have a hard time breaking it down fast enough.
Owen’s bilirubin level was 18.6 at its peak, dangerously high for a newborn. He had to be put on phototheraphy, meaning that he had to sit on some special lights for a few days. It wasn’t an invasive process, but it was hard to not be able to pick him up for three days. He also had to go on a forumla-only diet. Apparently, formula makes the bilirubin level drop faster than nursing. It all seems to have worked, his bilirubin level is fine now.
We’re all just trying to find a rhythm now. I was able to help feed Owen for a while. Since we were feeding him formula, Amy and I could leap frog the night feedings, giving each of us some sleep. Now Amy’s nursing, which is great for Owen, but there’s just not a lot I can do during feeding time. So I usually get a good night’s sleep and Amy just sleeps whenever Owen does.
I’ve got more pictures posted:
Also, I changed the format of the photos section. If you see something broken, please let me know.