Low Blood Sugars and Jaundice

The first week of baby boy's life was pretty rough. So many things didn't go as expected and it was a struggle being sleep deprived, recovering from the birth, and feeling conflicted.

Low Blood Sugars

I knew going into the birth that baby boy might experience low blood sugars... but knowing it might happen and then having it happen -- totally different things. He had to pass 3 blood sugar checks. He passed the first one. The second one, it got lower. Then the third one, it was too low. On his first day of life, he was born at 4:33am and by 11:30am, they took him to the nursery.

It was hard because that meant I didn't have him with me in my room... I also happen to be in the furthest room from the nursery!

When they took him, I decided I would try and get a few hours of sleep. I managed to sleep maybe 2 hours or so? Then I just needed to see him. It was still hard for me to walk, so a nurse wheeled me over to the nursery. When I saw him for the first time in the nursery, I just started to cry. I didn't realize that they'd have to hook him up to an IV and have fluids dripping. Seeing him hooked up to all those monitors still makes me cry today just thinking about it. They also had to poke his foot to check his blood sugars every few hours. It was just heartbreaking. They also started supplementing him with formula to try and get his blood sugars up... since my milk wasn't in yet. He wasn't in his own room, he was in a big room where there were other babies being taken care of. So, I couldn't stay in there 24/7 with him.

The routine went like this:

• Visit baby boy 
• Try to breast feed him 
• Give him formula 
• Pump afterward for 30 minutes 
• Go back to my room and try to sleep 
• Get up and repeat every 3 hours. 

The nurses actually tried to encourage me to skip one of the visits at night time so I can rest... I took them up on that, but I don't think I really "rested" -- I couldn't really sleep being away from him and with all the peri care -- it made it hard to rest more than a few hours, if that. 

On Day #2 of his little life, they did the 24 hour newborn testing on him and it turns out he had jaundice. Once his bili levels were high, they immediately put him under the jaundice lights. After that happened, they would only let me take him off to feed for 30 minutes at a time -- no longer -- every 3 hours. Before, I would be able to breast feed as long as I wanted and I could snuggle with him and do skin-to-skin. I would be int here for about an hour or more at a time. Now, he could only get off the lights for 30 minutes. Jaundice would eventually turn into its own little nightmare. I'll get to that a little later. 

His blood sugars seemed to get regulated and they started weaning him off the IV fluids a little at a time to see if he could maintain them on his own. Eventually by the morning of Day #3, he was 100% weaned from the IV fluids and they were able to remove the IV from his little hand. This was good news! 

Jaundice 

There was a big question mark if baby boy would be released from the hospital with me or if he would have to stay. I was getting released on Day #3 after birth. The said his bili levels were good and they were going to take him off the lights and then retest him. If his levels remained low, he could go home. If they went back up, he'd have to stay. So, the morning of Day #3 -- I was able to take him back to the room with me with NO tubes attached to him. 

It was so wonderful to have him in my arms and have him not attached to anything... I was getting discharged that afternoon and just hoping I'd be able to bring him with me... I would cry just thinking of not being able to bring him home with me. Well, they did his bili test and they said it was fine to bring him home (Yay!), but that I would need to bring him to the pediatrician the next day to recheck his bili levels. 

Day #4, I brought him to the pediatrician in the morning. She said he didn't look bad and that she thought it would come back fine. Then I received a call at 3pm and the levels were NOT fine. They were REALLY high. So high in fact, that baby boy had to be readmitted to the hospital. 

I was scared. I was devastated. We had just ONE night at home and now I would have to leave him in the hospital... and not to mention time away from my Little Guy... But I'll get to that in a different entry. 

Baby Boy got admitted to a children's hospital, different than the hospital I delivered at and further away. I was so heartbroken originally thinking that he'd be so far from me and not knowing how I was going to manage visiting him and leaving him alone for so long. 

When I got to the hospital, turns out that I could stay in-room with him!!! I didn't know this, since I hadn't been to that hospital before. I made arrangements for Little Guy to stay with his god mother and then I went home to pack up some clothes for me. At this point, there was no way to know how long he would be in the hospital. They re-took his bili levels and his levels went UP again!! Really high, only a few points away from the point of needing a transfusion... really scary stuff. 

They immediately put him back on the lights and I was able to stay in the room with him. My milk came in that day and I was actually able to pump and get something! 

We ended up staying in the hospital on Day #4, Day #5, and being discharged on Day #6. His bili levels looked good, but they still wanted me to get the pediatrician to look at him the following Monday. 

On the following Monday, Day #8, the pediatrician said he looked good and wasn't even going to check his bili levels. But I insisted that they check them, just to give me peace of mind. Plus, they were already doing his one-week newborn screening -- might as well do the extra test. Turns out -- his levels went back up AGAIN!!! But they weren't so far up to have to go back into the hospital. Instead, I got a bili blanket for home and I had to keep him wrapped in that all day. Same thing as the hospital -- only out of the blanket for 30 minutes at a time every 3 hours. 

We went to the pediatrician on Day #9 and Day #10 to check his bili levels. On Day #11 we were able to do a "trial run" and take him off the blanket for 24 hours and retest his bili levels again on Friday, Day #12, to see if they were stabilized or not. 

Finally we received good news -- his bili levels were finally stable. We could stop the bili blanket. 

He is still a little yellow... but at least his levels are stable. 

But I'm grateful that the jaundice and low blood sugar scares are behind us now. I don't think I became comfortable or felt things could start our new "normal" until these things were resolved. I was just so scared for him and worried that it meant something more. Luckily his newborn screening came back perfectly fine. So, nothing is wrong with baby boy. That was reassuring. We just had to let it pass. 

It was a tough first two weeks of life for my baby boy and tough postpartum start for me... More to come on postpartum stuff.