The Day We Learned About Hair Dryers

After coming home from Emily’s second hospital admission on Friday, we were thrilled when she continued to do well on Saturday.  She was eating and her color was great – in fact, she didn’t look like Oompa Loompa’s were her birth parents anymore.  So on Sunday, we were looking forward to a relaxing day at home.  Everyone had fun playing with her that morning and then Kyle and the girls got ready for church.  Since she was only two weeks old, we decided to keep her home and away from all the germs for another week.

After everyone left, I decided I should get ready for the day too.  But Emily just wanted to be held.  That’s when I decided to combine the two activities to see what would happen.  I put Emily in her car seat and she immediately got upset.  She wanted to be held.  But then, I turned on my hair dryer and she was instantly silent.  In about 5 seconds her eyes were closed and after about one minute she was fast asleep… until I turned off my hair dryer.  Apparently the soothing hum from the Infiniti by Conair was magical, so I did what any sleep deprived mom would do… I fashioned a holding device for the dryer and let that baby run until I was dressed and ready.  That is one of the nice things about doing this for a third time… I am a lot more creative about how we make it through the day and I don’t question a good thing when it happens.  Hair dryer = sleeping newborn = timely personal hygiene

The only down side to that afternoon was when I looked at that darling sleeping face in the natural light and realized that she was turning yellow again.  She also hadn’t been eating very well and her wet diapers were few and far between – all “warning signs” that her doctor said to watch for and to call in immediately if any ONE of them appeared.  Long story short, called in, blood test performed, bili number spiking AGAIN.  So at this point, the score was: Bilirubin – 3;  Emily - 0.   I wish that hairdryer would have worked some magic on her liver too.