Yellow

Yellow.

It's not a bad color.  The sun is yellow.  Peeps are yellow.  It's a great spring and summer color.  I have a yellow shirt that I love.  Coldplay has an awesome song titled Yellow.  But not everything is great in yellow.  Namely babies.  Yes dear readers, I'm talking jaundice here.

Now, granted the topic of this post is slightly out-dated (remember the prior post on procrastination?), but I did feel the need to update on Stella.  So, on with the post.

Before we left the hospital, Amy noticed that Stella appeared a little yellowish.  Nothing to worry about, jaundice is quite common.  Apparently something like 70% of newborns get it.  So, she insisted that the nurse test her early, which they did.  Turns out (not a shock to me) that Amy was right.  Stella's bilirubin numbers were elevated.  But it wasn't too bad.  Fast forward to the day we head home and Stella's numbers have risen slightly.  Still nothing to be concerned about though so we took our little blessing home.  Fast forward again, this time to Stella's first doctor's appointment last Friday.  Her bilirubin numbers have risen and it is time for some intervention in the form of phototherapy.  Amy and I were worried that she'd be admitted to the hospital, but luckily the therapy was available in-home.  So the bilibelt was delivered and we began the therapy.

Now I know it could have been way worse and all is well now, but the 36 hours that Stella had to wear the bilibelt were not pleasant.  For Amy and I at least, Stella seemed unfazed by the cumbersome, lighted belt she was strapped into 24/7.  It made everything more difficult.  Holding her, feeding her, diaper changes.  But we shut up and did it.  The one silver lining to the yellow-tinged cloud was the fact that, with the bilibelt on, she glowed a bright blue and served as her own nightlight!  But the belt did its job and paid off because once we returned to the doctor on Monday (our 3rd visit in 4 days) her numbers had dropped significantly and we were able to end the phototherapy!

Again, I do understand that this brief inconvenience was just that, an inconvenience.  But that doesn't mean that it wasn't frustrating.  Luckily all was and is well with Stella and we are extremely blessed to have a beautiful, happy and healthy baby girl.  Tomorrow she will be two weeks old and I can't believe how fast time is flying by.  I'm just so happy that we have this summer all together to sit back, take it all in, and enjoy it.  HE certainly knew what HE was doing and we couldn't have planned or organized it any better.  So, now that things have settled down, we can spend the rest of the summer relishing in everything that is Stella!

Our little glowworm!

Jackson and Stella!  The bilibelt didn't bother him, he still wanted to hold her every second he could!

Braeden finally agreed to hold Stella on his own.  He too is now infatuated with her!

All is well, no longer yellowed, in Drosche Land.