Updates

The day after we came home from the hospital, Aren was acting out a little bit and Aric decided to take her with him wherever he went. We have a bicycle trailer and Aric hooks it up to his tot goat and Aren really loves it. Well, Aric comes in telling me that he needs the camera to take a picture of Aren; she fell asleep during the ride and her hair was all over the place and sticking to her face.This is a picture I took; they sure had lots of fun together and Aren did not complain about being cold although i think she was.

Aren has been really helpful and nice with the baby; she loves to kiss him and gets so excited when he is awake and she can see him. :D She gets jelous at the same time. The other day I took her to Chuck E Cheese and I used her stroller to put the baby with his carseat in it; she got so upset that she through a fit in the middle of the road. I kept telling her that we were going to Chuck E Cheese, and finally I had to put her on the top of the stroller and she was better. She throughs fits every now and then, but at the same time she is so gentle with Adam and I can't see her trying to do something bad to him out of jealousy.

We took a few trips to the doctor so Adam could be tested again and again. His bilirubin level went up and down and poor guy has been through a lot in his first week of life. They poked his so many times and his poor heels are all bloody. He was bleeding even after an hour of having the bandage on his heel; I pulled it off and it stuck to his wound so it started bleeding and I had to put the bandage back.

Adam is under the bili lights again; he has to stay there for the whole weekend and I have to take him back to the doctor on Monday so he can be tested again. I hope it will go away and from what I have been reading, after 2 weeks usually goes away. He was pretty upset when I put him back under the bili lights but now he is doing much better. He sleeps most of the time and I spend around an hour every other 3 hours with him; sometimes even every 2 hours. In the evening he even slept for 4 hours, but I don't want him to get dehydrated so I wake him up if he is not up after 5 hours the most. Before they told me to put him back, he even slept for 6 hours during the night. He is such a good baby and I could ignore his cry if I wanted to because it is so soft. LOL I can't ignore it though, he is so precious. :D

This is a little something that I found on the Internet about jaundice, if you are interested read along. Adam's bilirubin level was 18 and then it went down to 15 which is not as high, but the doctor still thinks he needs the treatment; probably from preventing it from getting higher or something. He still looks pretty yellow, but not that bad. The cause for Adam might be Blood group incompatibility; I am negative and he is positive. My blood type is really rare; Aren has my blood type as well and Adam has his fathers.

A common condition in newborns, jaundice refers to the yellow color of the skin and whites of the eyes caused by excess bilirubin in the blood. Bilirubin is produced by the normal breakdown of red blood cells.
Normally, bilirubin passes through the liver and is excreted as bile through the intestines. Jaundice occurs when bilirubin builds up faster than a newborn's liver can break it down and pass it from the body. Reasons for this include:

Newborns make more bilirubin than adults do since they have more turnover of red blood cells.
A newborn baby's still-developing liver may not yet be able to remove adequate bilirubin from the blood.

Too large an amount of bilirubin is reabsorbed from the intestines before the baby gets rid of it in the stool.

High levels of bilirubin — usually above 25 mg — can cause deafness, cerebral palsy, or other forms of brain damage in some babies. In less common cases, jaundice may indicate the presence of another condition, such as an infection or a thyroid problem. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that all infants should be examined for jaundice within a few days of birth.

Types of Jaundice
The most common types of jaundice are:

Physiological (normal) jaundice: occurring in most newborns, this mild jaundice is due to the immaturity of the baby's liver, which leads to a slow processing of bilirubin. It generally appears at 2 to 4 days of age and disappears by 1 to 2 weeks of age.

Jaundice of prematurity: occurs frequently in premature babies since they are even less ready to excrete bilirubin effectively. Jaundice in premature babies needs to be treated at a lower bilirubin level than in full term babies in order to avoid complications.

Breastfeeding jaundice: jaundice can occur when a breastfeeding baby is not getting enough breast milk because of difficulty with breastfeeding or because the mother's milk isn’t in yet. This is not caused by a problem with the breast milk itself, but by the baby not getting enough to drink.

Breast milk jaundice: in 1% to 2% of breastfed babies, jaundice may be caused by substances produced in their mother's breast milk that can cause the bilirubin level to rise. These can prevent the excretion of bilirubin through the intestines. It starts after the first 3 to 5 days and slowly improves over 3 to 12 weeks.

Blood group incompatibility (Rh or ABO problems): if a baby has a different blood type than the mother, the mother might produce antibodies that destroy the infant's red blood cells. This creates a sudden buildup of bilirubin in the baby's blood. Incompatibility jaundice can begin as early as the first day of life. Rh problems once caused the most severe form of jaundice, but now can be prevented with an injection of Rh immune globulin to the mother within 72 hours after delivery, which prevents her from forming antibodies that might endanger any subsequent babies.

Symptoms and Diagnosis
Jaundice usually appears around the second or third day of life. It begins at the head and progresses downward. A jaundiced baby's skin will usually appear yellow first on the face, followed by the chest and stomach, and finally, the legs. It can also cause the whites of an infant's eyes to appear yellow.
Since many babies are now released from the hospital at 1 or 2 days of life, it is best for the baby to be seen by a doctor within 1 to 2 days of leaving the hospital to check for jaundice. Parents should also keep an eye on their infants to detect jaundice.
If you notice your baby’s skin or eyes looking yellow you should contact your child's doctor to see if significant jaundice is present.
At the doctor's office, a small sample of your infant's blood can be tested to measure the bilirubin level. Some offices use a light meter to get an approximate measurement, and then if it is high, check a blood sample. The seriousness of the jaundice will vary based on how many hours old your child is and the presence of other medical conditions.

Treatments
In mild or moderate levels of jaundice, by 1 to 2 weeks of age the baby will take care of the excess bilirubin on its own. For high levels of jaundice, phototherapy — treatment with a special light that helps rid the body of the bilirubin by altering it or making it easier for your baby's liver to get rid of it — may be used.
More frequent feedings of breast milk or supplementing with formula to help infants pass the bilirubin in their stools may also be recommended. In rare cases, a blood exchange may be required to give a baby fresh blood and remove the bilirubin.
If your baby develops jaundice that seems to be from breast milk, your doctor may ask you to temporarily stop breastfeeding. During this time, you can pump your breasts so you can keep producing breast milk and you can start nursing again once the condition has cleared.
If the amount of bilirubin is high, your baby may be readmitted to the hospital for treatment. Once the bilirubin level drops and the treatment is stopped, it is unlikely that treatment for jaundice will need to be restarted.