Our Littlest

We may have our first binky baby… Charlotte definitely likes the pacifier so far.

Landon LOVES to give his sister hugs, especially if she is crying.

Poor baby… she just kept getting more and more yellow. Both our boys had jaundice, like so many babies, but she has had the worst case of any of our kids.

At her nine-day-old appointment, they drew her blood to check bilirubin again, and we found out that afternoon that her levels were quite high, so we took her to the hospital. They drew her blood again and found that it had gone up even more, to 23.7. They put her right in the phototherapy lights to start trying to bring down her bili levels.

Because her levels were so high, they didn’t want us to take her out at all. We bottle-fed her through the holes in the box. We changed her diaper in the box. Every time the eye cover slipped down her face, we reached into the box to fix it. She screamed for most of the first hour, and I felt so horrible for her. She was under the lights like this for nearly 24 hours, and I don’t know how parents of babies who have to stay in boxes like this for longer periods of time can do it. It was so hard not to pick her up and snuggle her and try to make her feel better!

After an hour, I put out a plea for prayers and was overwhelmed by the support and love we received. Within fifteen minutes, Charlotte calmed down and stayed calm for the rest of her hospital stay, with the exception of when her eye guard slid down or she had her blood drawn. It was a great blessing for our whole family to see her seeming so much more peaceful.

They checked her blood several times, and once it was within a safer range, they took her out from under the lights but kept us for six hours of observation and another blood draw to make sure she stayed safe. A little after 10 PM the day after we checked in, she was discharged, and I got to bring her home. The 29 hours or so that I was in the hospital with her felt very long, but we are grateful to all the kind staff in the Pediatrics wing and so happy that she is doing better. She still has jaundice but shouldn’t be in danger of having any trouble from it as it leaves her system over the next few weeks on its own.

Charlotte has now met her great grandma Anderson, a few great aunts, and great uncle Sean, among others.

She attended her first Newark Days parade. She found it riveting.

We were lucky to have Cathy visit for a week. The kids are all sad to see her go.

Someday maybe we’ll get a picture of all three of them awake and looking at the camera, but for now, here’s proof that the boys quite like their little sister.