We have had an awesome week adjusting to a family of 5. Grandma Jenny has been with us to help - so I've had it easy so far. We have had a few unexpected trips back to Iowa City, so we didn't get as many "projects" done as we hoped, but it was still a very nice week.
Here is a picture of my three kids right before we left the hospital to come home on Saturday night, January 22. Elijah was barely over 24 hours old.
More "coming home" pictures..
Cute pictures of Elijah Michael!
The girls are still full of love for their little brother!
Sophia likes to hold Elijah, but we are still working on "nice touches."
Daddy loves his cuddle time with Elijah!
Grace is really good holding Elijah, she held him for about an hour one morning (she was also watching cartoons).
On Tuesday, January 25 we had the nurse visit for the home visit. Here she is taking Elijah's skin Bili test... which was over the limit it was supposed to be. Therefore Elijah and I headed back to Iowa City Tuesday afternoon to get his blood drawn and a more accurate test for Jaundice. At home his number was 19.1, then the blood test showed 17.7, so I was able to bring him home with the orders of coming back Wednesday afternoon for another test.
His lungs and heart sounded good...
And his weight was good as well!
More love from Sophia!
First bath - Wednesday morning. He did pretty well, but there were a few tears.
So Wednesday afternoon the whole family (minus Kirk, plus Grandma Jenny) headed back to the hospital for Elijah's blood test. I anticipated his number being down, but was sad to hear that it was over 18, and so Elijah and I had to stay at the hospital that night. The girls handled it fairly well. Here is a picture of the four of us before they left for home.
Elijah had to "go under the lights", blue lights which reduces the jaundice (somehow???). But the lights are bad for his eyes (something about the retina not being matured yet) - so he had to wear this cool "super hero" mask. Our little super hero did a great job under the lights, but it was hard to not be able to cuddle him. He had to leave the "Bili blanket" on the whole time, even when nursing. So the little bit of cuddles we did get while he ate was not quality cuddles because of the uncomfortable light I had to hold on his back the whole time. Elijah does make an incredibly cute superhero, though!
Here's the finished product. You can tell the lights were focused on his tummy, it is the least yellow in this picture. If you click on the picture to make it bigger, you may be able to see a little yellow spot a little above and a little to his right of his belly button. That is where his temperature probe was stuck on, and so it didn't get the lights. It's kind of interested to see how yellow he was. We were able to go home on Thursday, with a Bili number of 11.1, but with instructions to come back on Friday morning for another blood test. Elijah's heals were poked so many times, poor guy!
Friday's blood test showed his number back to 14.1, but that was low enough for us to come home and be done with blood work for a while. No more doctors for him until this Friday Feb 4 when he has his 2 week check up. Wish us luck! :)
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