Day 5 was a long day for both Mom and Caden but concluded it with a family walk to the park. It was our first walk together as a family. A day that I'll remember for a very long time.
In retrospect this was probably too long of a day for Caden. After spending the night at the hospital we then went to the park in the hopes he'll receive some indirect natural light to help his Bilirubin levels.
Jaundice as you know is a part of all of us when we are born. Some have it more than others and sometimes this is due to our culture or environment. For Caden is was due to him being a preemie. Sure he was technically only a week early but none the less he was born on week 36 and not all of him was fully developed and one aspect was his red blood cells. If I understand that correctly. So since his bilirubin count was at 17, the Dr. wanted him to under go some Phototherapy. We headed to the hospital that hour and started his overnight ordeal. It was hard for Mom because this meant another night in a sterile hospital room in which she just wanted to be at home with her new Son. Understandably so! The Dr. wanted to see his level drop to at least 15 in which she felt this was a manageable level for Caden to handle. By the next morning his level dropped to 13 and we were all very happy.
Going forward we need to watch that he has solid feeding habits as he'll get all his important nutrition from Mom. And so far this is working very well and the key to make sure he is awake to feed as Jaundice causes him to be sleepy. We also need to assure he is indirect receiving natural sunlight. Hence why we took a walk in the park.
We have an appointment later this week to check his status.
