Jack Update

We got home from the hospital on Thursday night and started getting settled in. The first night was a little rough with Jack waking up every hour and a half or so for the first half of the night. Friday night was much of the same, but last night our little man decided to give Mommy and Daddy some rest and went 5 hours before the first feeding and 4 hours before the second. I feel like a new woman this morning!

Jack is doing very well and we are settling into our routines. It's amazing how quickly the baby stuff takes over your house! It's also amazing how quickly the little man goes through clothing - between the spit-ups and the urine showers during changing (this has only happened to us twice so far, so I think we should consider ourselves lucky), I'm going to be doing a lot of laundry!

While we were still at the hospital, they were testing Jack's bilirubin levels daily (poor little guy had blood drawn from his heel 3 times, a Hepatitis B shot and most importantly a circumcision all before we left the hospital) because he was looking a little jaundice. Each time his levels were a little higher (Thursday morning it was 13), but they said he didn't need treatment because he's several days old and nursing very well. He also has a hematoma on his head - a very scary word to describe a bump of blood caused by straining during birth or nursing. They are not concerned about it - it goes away on its own after 2-4 weeks - but it is also contributing to the jaundice.

We went to his first pediatrician appointment yesterday and he is doing very well. He already weighs 9 lbs!!! It takes some babies 2 weeks to get back to their birth weight and Jack is already 9 oz. higher than his at 5 days old! My boy is a good eater!

The doctor was a little concerned about his yellow tinge though, so he asked us to go immediately to the hospital to have more blood drawn. His level had increased slightly to 14.3, but the doctor said he thinks that is the peak and no treatment is required unless he seems to get more yellow. Phew! Those bili light bed things are no fun for a baby! The doctor said to get Jack into the indirect sunlight (sun through a window) as much as possible, so we've now had two sessions of sitting just inside the window soaking up the sun with many more of such sessions to come - hopefully that does the trick!!

That's the update for now - I will post some more pictures of the little guy soon - he just gets cuter and cuter every day! We are so lucky for this little perfect blessing in our lives!