Zuri's week one was not ideal. At her first doctors appointment they did the jaundice test, even though they thought it would be negative and to everyone's surprise she had moderately high levels of jaundice. Not high enough to go to the hospital, but not low enough to just let it be. So, began a difficult week. We were given a billi bed, which was suppose to have overhead lights, but didn't. The delivery people told me it was the correct bed, so I went with it. Having the billi bed meant that she had to stay under the lights ALL DAY and ALL NIGHT long. She could only come out for feedings and to be changed. The first night Zuri was up from 2am until 7am, very unhappy. I fed her and changed her and kept her out for a little bit, trying to get her to go to sleep before I put her back in the lights. By the next morning I was EXHAUSTED.
We went to the doctor for her next blood draw and this one came back lower, but not low enough. Two more days of the lights. They suggested we get the correct billi bed with lights and a billi blanket (which is NOT a blanket like I thought). This became an ordeal in itself as they said they were going to be bringing these things to us by 5pm and then they said before 7pm. I called at 8:30pm and they said they had never heard of me. They didn't know what I was talking about. By 9:30pm, we were not sure what to do. Then we got a call from the delivery guy saying he was bringing the bed, but didn't know about the blanket. UGH! He finally found a blanket and it was now 11:00pm. He arrived and while showing us how to use the new bed, he discovered it didn't work. Are you serious?? So, we kept the blanket, which we could keep the light on her while I fed and rocked her. It was very awkward as it was about the size of a deck of cards, or two, and attached to a large hose like thing. We kept our billi bed and continued to use that.
Our nights did get better and it helped that she slept some and that we found a blow up bed for me to sleep on, on her floor. At this point 2 hours of sleep, multiple times a night feels like sleeping for days! Friday came and we saw another doctor. This doctor told us that her levels had to be super low for her to come off the lights. This doctor was ultra conservative. I was very worried, they had to drop from 17.9 to under 15. The other doctor had said under 16. We weighed her and she gained 5oz in two days! She weighed more than her birth weight at 6lbs 8oz on Friday, up from 6lbs 3oz on Wednesday. We got the call on Friday afternoon and it was good news, it was 13! No more lights!
The week has gotten much better without the lights. We have been sleeping and feeding well.
Her first week of life brought us a few of her firsts.
Her first walk:
Her first bath:
Her first football playoff game:
Cute outfit:
I have also started working out again. I have done the elliptical and stairmaster. I am starting off easy at about 20 minutes. I feel like I can go a lot longer, but I am trying to take it easy to start. I have also started doing lessons, practice and games.
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