Baby Aiden still at the hospital

We were ready to take baby Aiden home yesterday, but his Pediatrician Dr. Lepler had some concerns he was showing above average Jaundice.

Jaundice is yellowing of the skin in newborns. It occurs with high levels of bilirubin, which is in everyone’s blood and filtered out by our livers.  As newborn, their livers take time to develop and remove the bilirubin, which was filtered by the mother’s liver before the newborn is born.  From reading it sounds like this happens to 50 – 60% of the newborns, so it not that uncommon. If you’re looking for more info, here’s a link to a site that describes it well.

http://www.babycenter.com/0_jaundice_89.bc

When baby Aiden’s results came back he was on the low side of the “high” scale which ranges from 19 – 26, Aiden was 19. Fortunately we have an incredible doctor for him and by ordering the blood test, we were able to catch it before he went home with us, which would’ve could’ve been worse for Aiden.  They normally do a skin test for this and it brought back a number of 14, which is still acceptable, which is why there wasn’t much concern during our 4 days at the hospital and we were all planning to go home yesterday.

As a result, yesterday morning baby Aiden was admitted to the NICU and is under blue lights (which help reduce his Jaundice count) and getting fed more, since going to the bathroom is what removes the bilirubin, also make him less grumpy 🙂

Yesterday afternoon his counts were at 15, so it’s getting lower, so we’re optimistic about him coming home in the next day or two.

I took some pictures, he’s essentially sunbathing under some blue led lights. Melanie and I joke he’s getting his suntan on and in Hawaii. Both of us are hoping for good numbers today.

Click on the picture below if you’d like to see his most recent picks.

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