Week 1: Breastfeeding, Jaundice & Settling In

(Below was written on the early hours of Thursday, 15th December 2011)

I am writing this blog post via my BlackBerry whilst lying in a hospital bed. Micah has been readmitted to the hospital to do 24-Hour Phototherapy treatment for his Jaundice. We have been here for 8 hours. Only 16 more hours to go… Or at least I just need to get through tonight, and then Enoch will be back at the hospital at 8am and I can maybe get some sleep. It’s hard for me to rest easy, as I constantly feel like I should be watching Micah whilst he’s in the incubator under the blue light, to make sure he doesn’t move his sunnies away which is protecting his eyes. In fact, just as I was writing this first paragraph, my boy has moved his head twice and the sunnies fell down from his eyes down to his chin! I only get to take him out of the incubator every 3 hours for a quick feed and a nappy change. Although our last feed at 9pm took forever to get him settled back under the light as he made a mess and needed not one, not two, but THREE nappy changes.

Oh well, I’ve given up on lying down now – that’s FOUR times in 15 mins that I had to get up and adjust his sunnies, lol.

Sometimes I cannot believe Micah is only 6 days old. We are so used to having him around and he seems so much bigger than his age. Our first week at home has its ups and downs. Thankfully, they are mostly ups. Micah is a champion at breastfeeding. Despite his jaundice condition, he feeds very well and continues to show signs of a healthy baby e.g. he has gained weight and he doesn’t have serious reflux issues. He actually keeps most of his milk down except for the occasional small sickies. I am so relieved that we make such a great team and that we have no issues at all in the breastfeeding department! Hope it continues to be all good for the long run.

Hubby continues to be an amazing support person, especially in helping me take Micah whenever he needs a nappy change, and getting me food / drinks / pills whenever I am “stuck” on the couch breastfeeding. He’s also been doing some handy work around the house e.g. modifying the change table so it’s taller and better for our backs, did most of the chores e.g. laundry and dishes, garden work with the help of a kind friend, ran errands and did shopping etc. On my birthday, when Micah was just 2 days old and I was still recovering, he bought me some chocolates and a birthday cake and wrote me the sweetest card. I don’t think I ever felt more loved than I do now 🙂

We’ve also been blessed by really caring family members who have not just visited, but also helped with chores around the house so we have one less thing to worry about. Friends from church have also offered us meals so even less things to worry about!

(Blog post continued Saturday, 17th December 2011)

We were allowed to go home after the 24-Hour Phototherapy was up as Micah’s jaundice levels improved significantly after the blood test in the morning. That was such a relief, as I have had only 1 Hour sleep during the night. Thankfully as soon as hubby as in the hospital, he watched Micah as I took naps in between feeds during the day. The next day, we went back to the hospital for me to attend the Postnatal Physio Class and then Micah had another blood test and it continued to improve so we believe his jaundice is getting better and better now. His skin colour seem to have improved too just in the past couple of days so Praise God!

As always, here are just some photos to summarize the happenings for the week 🙂

5 Day Old Micah doing a nice stretttccchhh…

6 Day Old Micah.. I wonder what he’s thinking…

Caught Micah smiling just as Heather arrived for a visit, unfortunately it was also the same day he was asked to go back to the hospital for phototherapy! But he looked so happy and healthy…. my poor little jaundice boy…

Arrived back at the hospital approx. 3pm on Wednesday, 14th December

Phototherapy began at approx. 3.30pm Wednesday, 14th December. Sunnies look really cool but kept falling off as Micah squirms around!

Hospital food.. in case anyone was curious! I was actually quite happy with the meals served at Casey Hospital. Most of the meals were quite comforting and reasonably healthy.

On Friday after Postnatal Physio Class and Micah’s bloodtest, we decided to give Coles a go and did some grocery shopping – we were very happy to finally be able to park at the “Parents with Pram” spots nice and close to the entrance!