So for Emily’s third round in her battle with jaundice, the doctors decided that one of two things was happening. First, after getting her bili number down twice with phototherapy and then watching it go right back up, they thought it was possible that she was unlucky enough to have had severe “regular” jaundice followed by breast-milk jaundice. Or, that there was something wrong with her liver. Since they weren’t sure, they worked on ruling out or confirming either diagnosis simultaneously. I was so grateful they were so thorough and weren’t wasting any time.
To rule out breast-milk jaundice we had to exclusively feed her formula for 48 hours while I hooked up to our “at home dairy center” sponsored by Medela. They also spent 30 minutes squeezing more blood out of her tiny little foot to run some liver tests. We were so grateful that it turned out to be breast-milk jaundice, which self-corrects after the 48 hour temporary break from breast-milk. I still don’t fully understand how that whole thing worked, but it was by far the easiest version of jaundice that we dealt with, so I am not complaining.
We didn’t know how Emily would do with a bottle or with formula, but fortunately, she takes after me and will eat anything and everything placed in front of her – no questions asked. She didn’t mind the formula at all and seriously chugged that bottle like it was fountain diet wild cherry Pepsi. Katelyn was so excited to give Emily her first bottle and Brooke was excited to supervise the operation.
2 comments:
Poor little Emily! I hope everything is back on track now. I, too, have a date with Medela every three hours. Little Ella gets too cozy with me and falls asleep.
I laugh out loud every time I read "fountain of wild cherry pepsi". I love you Ashley!
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