Cry Baby, Cry Mommy

We finally got another series of blood test done for Myron.
His prolonged jaundice is more serious than we thought.
He will be heading back for more photo therapy.

Today at the hospital poor little Myron cried his lungs out when the doctor had to prick him twice and drained 3 tiny test tubes of blood for a series of tests.
Gadget-daddy was in the room, but busy with with on his computer (or just pretending to be?), so Mommy helped the nurse sooth the baby while he cried like for the longest time.
When they pricked him the second time, Mommy walked to Gadget-daddy. His turn was up. Now he patted Myron to try to calm him while the doctor drew blood from his tiny hand.

The doctor suggested "fasting" the baby off breast milk to see if that was the cause of the jaundice.
He warned us it would be difficult.
He gave some nice-looking pre-mixed formula in a bottle (look like for space travel!!) to supplement. more like for a replacement and then bring Myron back on Wednesday for more tests. Mommy has to be in another room, or the baby would smell me and refuse the milk.
He warned us it would be difficult.
He warned us that the baby will cry, and at the end, the Mommy will cry too.

He was right.
We actually tried only once.
After a long day of emotional stress for Mommy and baby, it was all we could take.
I took him back to nurse him in the room and tears just came down like someone had pressed the "on" button.

I called the doctor later and told him he was right.
We will bring the baby in for photo therapy tomorrow.
No need to wait till Wednesday.
*sigh*

What Confinement?

Thank you all for your well wishes.
You cheered me up after an emotional morning.

Myron's bilirubin level went down just a tiny bit after 20 hours of photo therapy.

The hospital called this morning as we were on our way there to inform us that he has to stay on another day. Sigh... so much for packing his clothes and a towel in the bag.

I know... I know...
It's just a phase. It'll be over soon and we'll never have to worry about this jaundice thing again.

It's just that right now it's just missing my little cutie.
I wish we could rent a machine home instead, but I suppose it's best this way.
After all, he is under the care of well trained nurses*...

So maybe it's somewhat good. Get me to go out of the house three times a day.
Hahaha... Some confinement this is.
At least I am still getting the good food and my herbal bath once a day.
I try to lie down whenever I can... more like taking a nap in the afternoon.
I'd really like to go walking at the mall or catch a movie, but I can already hear my mil and my mom scolding (brain-washed me),
"Walk the mall? You had surgery remember?"
"Catch a movie? Catch a cold-ah!"
"Rest more. You'll get backache-ah!"

Tonight, Gadget-daddy and I will visit him a little later.
He should have milk to last till 9pm.
We will go in later so that Mommy will have more milk to express for over the night.
... Oh, and bring home some sweet baby smell to give us sweet dreams of Myron tonight.





* Just now, I had just spoken to one of them, a very nice lady.
She had been a nurse for 15 years at the current hospital and was trained in England from when she was 19. She is now a mother of 3 and her youngest child is 25 years old. I enjoyed chatting with her, exchanging stories about our children and managing our home with the kids.
She also said I didn't seem like one going through a confinement.
Well, with three kids, and the baby in the hospital, "What confinement?"

Poop Watching

One of the things I'd learnt since Micah was born and had jaundice is to watch the poop.
(Was contemplating posting a picture of a dirty diaper but I'll spare the rest of the world.)

If the poop's colour is a nice mustard yellow then your baby coming along fine.
If it is pale then you need to watch the baby more carefully.
Greenish poop normally indicated that the baby is not feeding enough.
This is quite common when the baby has jaundice which makes it sluggish, sleepy most of the time, and won't feed properly.

As for nursing moms, we have to cut down intake of herbs*, namely Chinese herbs, because the baby's liver cannot cope with processing the essence of the herbs from the mother's milk on top of trying the clear bilirubin of the blood.

So we have been looking at Myron's poop (diaper gazing? :P) the past few days. Just now it was mustard yellow again, but the whole day today it had been a pale green.

We will continue to sun him, but if he shows no improvement then we might have to send him in for photo therapy again.
Sigh...
I hope not. I will miss him so so much.
So will the rest of the household.

* This does not include ginger and red dates. According to the doctor's advice these are ok. It's the more "potent" ones like tong-guai, etc. that should be avoided until the baby is well again.

Sunbathing

Myron has a bit of jaundice.

While I was forced to stay back an extra day in the hospital for observation*, Myron was sent in for photo therapy.


Now back home, we noticed he is still slightly yellow. So today we waited for the sun the break out of the morning's shower clouds and Gadget-daddy got Myron a nice spot to sunbath.


The nice treat for him sunbathing at home was he could still have his boopjuice at the same time.

After that it was a nice warm bath, more nan-nan and then a snooze.

Ahhh... What a life.

*Due to the position of the baby, the process of delivery might have caused some bleeding in the bladder. The doctor kept me in for observation but I was desperate to get home. I stayed one extra day and then insisted to be discharged. Yesterday I went in for a check-up and to have my stitches removed. The doctor was glad to announce that there's no blood in the urine. So Thank God all is clear.