Jaundice

Maegwin's bilirubin levels when we left the hospital weren't too alarming but the pediatrician on rounds told us to follow up with the doctor on Tuesday. Yesterday we bundled up the babe and headed out. She did well with the doctor but then she had a tech come in to draw blood. Now, I have nothing against phlebotomists (my sister is one) or techs but what is it about them having something to prove with blood draws? I'm what is known as a "difficult stick" so I have quite a bit of experience with this. My veins tend to roll away or collapse when doing blood work. Every time I go to get it done, I hear "Oh, I can always get a vein" or "I only have to stick once, don't worry". They then proceed to try veins, dig around, back out, bruise me, and finally after I am very pissed off and in pain get it. Or better yet, they start calling in all the different people in the office who are THE experts and I get to be stuck by multiple individuals. I know and understand this, I sort of accept it will happen. Unfortunately it seems wee Maegwin has inherited this trait from me. The tech proceeded to stick her heel twice, grab some blood, throw it out and get a fresh lancet (I have no clue why) and then spend an hour squeezing between two sticks on each heel to get half the amount of blood she needed. The doctor finally came in and said they could do it with what they had and made the tech stop. She couldn't believe we were still at it. By that point I was crying and Maegwin was into her not breathing crying. It was pretty awful and she slept so soundly it took forever to wake her up to nurse later that evening.

This morning I got the test results back and her levels have gone up seven points in two days. She has to use a biliblanket for some phototherapy and get bloodwork done every 24 hours until her levels stabilize or drop. I'm now waiting to hear if I have to go pick up the blanket or if it is going to be delivered. The doctor's office thought it was being delivered but the company called and told me they weren't in network for our insurance so we'd have to pay out of pocket but they could send it on to another company. I really don't care who gives me the thing, I just want to get started. I'm pretty stressed out about it and worried. She doesn't look anymore jaundiced to me so I can't believe her levels shot up that much. She's still nursing well, making the amount of diapers she should, and has a lot of alert moments so none of the super lethargic behavior we were warned about. I snapped a pic of her yesterday in her little onesie. I swear those are the cutest garments ever.


In non baby news, I was selected to test knit a new project from Susan Pandorf of the A Few Stitches Short of a Full Row blog. I'm really excited about it. The pattern is called Taliesin and it is a buttonable scarf. I'm planning to use a really pretty yarn from Shibui that is 100% baby alpaca in a deep blue. No clue yet what I'll do for buttons but it is going to be really pretty.