My Birthday

My birthday was the day after we brought Marlee home from the hospital. It was the best birthday present ever! Here's a few of the other gifts I got too:) A new hair dryer, bread pans, waffle iron, towels, and a big box of 3 musketeers (yum)!

It took 2 of us to light all my candles! 26 is quite a few!

Cute family photo:)

She spent many days just like this on her billi bed.

Jaundice Jaundice Jaundice

Okay....... I wish I could post some pictures, but unfortunately we lost our battery charger to the camera. Hopefully we will get a new one soon so you can all see how big our baby is getting. She had a doctor appointment on the 8th. She weighed 7.7 and was 20 1/2 inches long! The doctor thought she still looked really yellow so we checked her billi count. It had gone up. The doc said she had breast milk jaundice, and it could last for a couple of months. He wanted to see her levels go down so he thought it would be a good idea to feed her formula for 2 days, then check her count again......... We got good news! It had gone down. But just to make sure it would keep going down, we checked it again a few days later........... and got bad news. It went back up. She is now on the lights again and we will check her in a few days. The doc isn't worried about it. He thinks it's just a matter of time before her system kicks in and flushes it out. He's thinking that it will just all of the sudden go away. But he told me he would do some research to see if there is any other test that we should run just to make sure that nothing else is contributing to the jaundice. She had her thyroid checked last week, and that is just fine. We are hoping all she needs is time. I will keep you updated. I'll try and get some pictures on here next time!

I finally got everything posted from Marlee's hospital experience. It is posted backwards, so you'll have to scroll all the way down to start at the beginning. Thanks to all of you for giving your support and prayers. We love you all!

Day 6, coming home!

I stayed over night at the hospital Saturday and Sunday night because she had been eating so good. They called me in my room Monday morning to tell me Marlee was ready to eat. So I go to her bed and she's not there! I asked the nurse where she was and she took me to her. They moved her into the nursery (NICU B, is what they call it). I was so excited when I saw her! She had no feeding tube and she was in a normal baby hospital bed. The doctor wanted to make she she was still eating good for the next few hours, then we could take her home!


At 5:30 Monday night she was loaded in her car seat and ready to go home!

At last, we are done with the hospital! It is so nice to be home with Marlee! Now we are catching up on lots of rest. Her jaundice is still high so she is on the lights for the next few days.

Days 4 and 5 in the N.I.C.U.

On Saturday her jaundice was high, so she had to have the lights on her for 2 days. They had to keep her eyes covered, she didn't like that very much ;)
On Sunday morning, her IV came out and they put in a feeding tube. She had been nursing pretty good. If she didn't nurse a full feeding, which is 8-10 minutes, then they had to supplement the rest through the tube. They had to supplement 3 times. In order for the tube to come out, she had to nurse full feedings for 24 hours with no supplementing. TheN she would be watched for another 12-24 hours to make sure she was still nursing good.
As soon as the IV came out the girls could hold her. So sweet, my 3 little girls :)

I thought this was a cute picture, she always sticks her legs up, and just hangs out for a while. Kinda funny :) Now I know what was kicking me in the ribs all the time ;)