Baby tanning bed

When Samuel got dangerously high jaundice, the doctor explained it was because his and my blood type were incompatible - in short our red blood cells were fighting.  So one of the first things we asked when Evie was born was for her blood type to be checked ASAP.  Sure enough she and I are incompatible also, so hospital staff were on alert from the get-go to be on the lookout for jaundice. 

By the end of day one she was already showing signs of it, so we got her into a bili-bed right away.  Her levels kept going up, although not as bad as Samuel's since she was under photo therapy lights a full day sooner.  We were released from the hospital on Wednesday with a home bili-bed and instructions to have blood work done Thursday.  Sure enough, her levels continued to increase. Friday she had a checkup with her pediatrician and we had blood work done again.  Her doctor called us a few hours later telling us it had gotten too high and she need to be admitted to the hospital for stronger photo therapy.  I packed a bag knowing we'd be in the hospital for at least a few days and Evie and I got checked into the hospital Friday night around 7pm.  Here's Evie in her baby tanning bed...



Since we caught her jaundice quickly and it never got dangerously high, we opted to have her admitted to Jefferson Regional Medical Center in Festus, which is only 50 minutes from home, versus a hospital in St. Louis that is an hour and a half away.  Her pediatrician's office is also right across the street so they came in to check up on her each day.  Initially her jaundice went up a little, but by Saturday night it started going down and continually did.  By Tuesday morning, she was well below the danger zone and we were discharged.  Thank goodness for modern technology!