Chris, Jaime, and Charlie

Tuesday when Charlie was admitted to the hospital they didn't let him eat. They took 4 tries to get an IV in him his sodium level was high so they gave him a bolus and started him on maintenance IV fluids. They rechecked his bili level at 2000 and it was down to 20 from 22.1. He couldn't eat and parents aren't allowed to sleep in the NICU and since he was under the Bili lights we couldn't even hold him. He was sleeping well and wasn't fussy at all. So, even though it was the hardest thing to do and I felt really guilty about it, Chris and I went home for a few hours to try and sleep.
I called the nurse the next morning around 5 and they had rechecked his bili level and it was down to 15. The NICU also makes parents leave between 7 and 8 am and 7 and 8 pm for nurse report. We came back in the morning around 8am and around 9 the doctors let him have 1 oz of breastmilk by bottle and he gulped it down. After that they let me breastfeed him for 20 minutes and then offer a bottle afterwards every 3 hours. He was eating well and at 1600 they rechecked his bili level and it was down to 12.8. Chris went home in the late afternoon to try and sleep and he came back around 11pm. I stayed until after the midnight feeding and then left to try and sleep and came back for the 6am feeding. Now his bili was down to 11.3. They did another hearing screen that was normal.

The discharge planner at the hospital had originally told me they would make us stay the night thursday night in the parent care unit to make sure Charlie continued to eat well. But the doctors came by around 11:30 and told me he could go home with the biliblanket light after Apria came to bring it to us and show us how it worked. Chris had gone home to sleep so I called him to tell him the good news that he could come pick us up. We were finally discharged around 2:30pm.

Friday we went back to the pediatrician's office. Charlie was 1 week old. His weight was up to 7lbs 14oz and he was 21 inches long. His bili level was down to 10 and they let us take him off the bili blanket light and we had to recheck the level again the next day it went up to 10.3 but they were okay with that and we didn't have to check it again.