Thursday, November 1, 2007

Bilibed anyone?

Well, Carter is our first to have a bad case of jaundice. Not bad enough to stay in the hospital, but bad enough to have a "Bilibed" delivered to our house to boost his bilirubin levels. I didn't think much of it at first, but when they said he had to be on it 22 of the next 24 hours and only take him off to feed, well, that's kinda sad. You have a bundle of joy delivered into your life and after 2 very long days surrounded by tons of people in the hospital you have to go home and can't hold him for another two?

Well, great news. He's doing better and they picked up the 'bed' today so we've been enjoying him more than ever. He did pretty well, but it was sad to see him in there. Kaylee and Austin can't get enough of him and he's been sleeping really well so far. Even on the Bilibed. Last night he only woke up every 3 hours to eat. Can't complain about that for being 5 days old. Austin didn't do that until he was probably 1!!!! Okay, maybe a little exaggeration there, but it felt that way. We pray Carter will keep on keepin' on the path he's on now.

Kaylee and Austin seem SO big since Carter was born. Wonder why?

The infamous Bilibed, aka "Blue glow"

7 comments:

sarah said...

He is so cute. I am glad to hear that he is doing better. Luc broke his collar bone when he was born and we had to keep him wrapped for more and 2 weeks. It sucked. The things these cute kids go through.

Anonymous said...

Oh my, how I wish I could just kiss those little cheeks. I'm glad Kaylee is taking care of that until we get to see him. What a cutie pie!!! Love to you all, Mom

Unknown said...

Hey Congratulations Price Family!!!
Way to go Jess. What a perfect and beautiful boy. We just found out that we are having boy number 3! Our Owen also had a BIlibed and we called him our Glow worm. Glad the worst is over. Congratulations and love!
The Bates Family

Anonymous said...

how much can i purchase one of those for?

Seth Price said...

not sure about purchasing one, but they rented it to us for $100/day I think. luckily insurance covered it all.

Anonymous said...

Hi,

Can I just offer a little comment?
The Bilibed is not meant to boost the Bilirubin levels, the bilibed is meant to actually *reduce* the bilirubin levels in the baby's blood.
Phototherapy (light treatment) is the process of using light to eliminate bilirubin in the blood. Your baby's skin and blood absorb these light waves. These light waves are absorbed by your baby's skin and blood and change bilirubin into products, which can pass through their system.

Sometimes if the baby does not respond to underneath light treatment, the doctor will order an over head canopy of light therapy and a special box to protect your baby's eyes will be used.

The levels are raised for a number of reasons here are a some of the most common

*Premature delivery
*Forceps delivery
*Ventouse delivery
*Breast fed babies not getting enough milk.
There are other reasons but these are among the most common and sometimes the baby is just jaundiced anyway.

Usually staff are alerted to the baby's jaundice, simply because the baby appears yellow, but sometimes just looked tanned or a deeper red.

The baby can be unnaturally sleepy

The baby does not want to feed properly.

It is always important a newborn feeds properly, but it is even more important when the baby is jaundiced, as this helps flush the toxins out of the blood stream and lower the bilirubin levels in the blood.

The good news is as the first hours pass the sliding scale for bilirubin levels in the blood increases, so even if the levels rise, they can still stay within or near normal limits.

I have made this post just in case anyone comes looking for information as I know parents and their relatives can get very very anxious about this.

If you have a jaundiced baby, if you know what to expect it does help you tremendously.

I hope this helps and sorry for butting into you blog.

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