Our little glowbaby

When Luke was 2 days old we found out that he was jaundice. His bilirubin level was at 12.9. Something I read online said that over 5 the face has a yellowish tint. Over 15 has the tint down to the mid abodomen. Over 20 is down to the feet. Because of this he had to go on something called a bililight, which turned our little baby into a glow worm. :) We had to take the light home with us and keep him on it as much as possible, and then had several follow up pediatrician visits until he got back to normal.







This picture was on Sunday at our first dr. visit. He looked like a little peanut on the table! We hadn't really noticed that he looked orange until we went outside that day. Turns out his number had gone up to 15.9, which made him more orange/yellow. At that point we had to start supplementing with formula to get him to eat more, then pee/poop more, which helps get rid of it. If his number went up anymore then we were going to have to take him in to go on a light at the hospital.


Poor little guy had a hard time getting comfortable attached to a cord!


Finally by Wednesday (almost a week old) his number was back down and his weight was back up, so we got to take him off that awful light.

His weight and levels during the whole thing were:
Birth: 9 lbs 3 oz
Discharge (Saturday am): 8 lbs 12 oz - Bili #12.9
1st appt (Sunday 4:15pm): 8 lbs 5 oz - Bili #15.9
2nd appt (Monday 9am): 8 lbs 8 oz - Bili #14.4
3rd appt (Wednesday 9:40am): 8 lbs 14 oz - Bili #10.9