Slumper Party's Over

Yesterday the morning nurse was telling me about another NICU baby, name of Cara, who was pulling Clara's same tricks: content to be tube fed every feeding, very sleepy, and just content to exist forever in-hospital. She said that these two with similar names were in a slump and should get together for a slumper party.

Clara's still having problems with high bilirubin, leading to a diagnosis of breast milk jaundice, which can last up to six weeks. She's usually so yellow that I'm getting used to the color, and yesterday when her levels were down, she seemed unnaturally pale. She's been on and off the bili lights her entire life. She must be getting used to wearing her lovely eyeshades, although she hates getting them put on. (We're hoping this experience doesn't lead to a lifelong love of tanning.) The high bili makes her tired, so she doesn't eat well. Lab work also indicated yesterday that her hemoglobin is low, which could be contributing to her sleepiness. So they've started giving her iron, as well as a darby (?) shot, which will stimulate her bone marrow to make more red blood cells, to raise her hemoglobin levels.  After all this news, I was getting ready to gear up for an indefinite stay battling infant fatigue.

But the party is apparently over, at least for now. She ate well as usual last night when I went up to feed her. When I went in this morning, they told me she had only had one tube feeding all night, and had just taken off eating from a bottle. So, keep your fingers crossed that this lasts. As of 10:00 this morning, she'd had five consecutive feedings. I'm so pleased to finally be making some progress.

But I'm still counting on two more weeks. Two more weeks is what I said last week, and on Sunday, and it's what I'm telling myself today. You can do anything for two weeks. We won't count the days until they call us up one morning and tell us to come bring her home.