Wednesday morning update

Another rough night for me....virtually no sleep, kinda in pain. Lydia's 2AM test results showed her bilirubin levels nearly double. Not a big surprise; we really expected her to deal with jaundice at some point. She's by no means at a very dangerous level but jaundice/bilirubin levels peak around the 4th day of life so she's got a long time for her levels to go up (currently her level is 11.9, up from 6.1 last night). So she's being treated now under the phototherapy lights. The hope is that we can keep her level down long enough that when she hits Friday-Saturday and her level peaks, it peaks no where near the dangerous level which is over 20-25. Good news is that she's still eating very, very well and is pooping a lot which is one way a body gets rid of the bilirubin. Her labs are being drawn again right now (every 8 hours) and then Jonathan & I intend to hold her/feed her for her noon feeding before I leave. Then, hopefully, I'll get some sleep tonight and arrive refreshed tomorrow to pick her up and take her home. Starting to have flashbacks with all we went through with Timothy and his jaundice and that's left me a little emotional. Try to remind myself that Timothy's level was much worse (his was 23) and that he only needed the lights for 2 days (1 day @ Children's; 1 day @ home) and that we all recovered well but then thinking about him so much makes me miss him so I'm just trying to focus on packing and waiting for the nurse to get us for her noon feeding. One foot in front of the other, that's all I can do, right? I really think I'll feel better after sleep (and having my baby home will certainly help!). Then we'll have to see what happens with her hearing.......*sigh* We're thankful that some of our (my) worst fears weren't even close to being realized. Thankful that she wasn't as big as she could have been, that her lungs were very mature, that she didn't need any breathing help, that she delivered safely and I didn't need a C-section, etc etc. Now to get her home! We'd appreciate your prayers!