Nine Days Old!

Hello Friends,

Not really any new info to report as of yesterday. Cora is doing great. They had the top of her bed open yesterday and she's regulating temperature well. Now she just needs to start taking food by mouth.
Lily's bilirubin level came down yesterday so they took her off phototherapy for the day. There's the chance it could come up enough to require it again today but at least she got a break from it for a day. The doctors and cardiac surgeons are meeting today to discuss her heart issues and come up with a plan. The loose schedule is still surgery Friday, but that's subject to change. They bumped her CPAP up a bit as they thought she was working a bit too hard to breathe. We think maybe her heart PDA valve being open could be a contributing factor to that, so hopefully, this surgery helps that.

For you non-kiddo folks that (like me, pre-Rose) don't know what "bilirubin" is...

"Newborn jaundice occurs when a baby has a high level of bilirubin in the blood. Bilirubin is a yellow substance that the body creates when it replaces old red blood cells. The liver helps break down the substance so it can be removed from the body in the stool. It is normal for a baby's bilirubin level to be a bit high after birth.
When the baby is growing in the mother's womb, the placenta removes bilirubin from the baby's body. The placenta is the organ that grows during pregnancy to feed the baby. After birth, the baby's liver starts doing this job. It may take some time for the baby's liver to be able to do this efficiently.
Most newborns have some yellowing of the skin or jaundice. This is called physiological jaundice. It is often most noticeable when the baby is 2 to 4 days old. Most of the time, it does not cause problems and goes away within 2 weeks.
Sometimes, special blue lights are used on infants whose levels are very high. These lights work by helping to break down bilirubin in the skin. This is called phototherapy."
https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/001559.htmv

Lastly, I added a tool to the blog that lets you put your email in and get alerted when a new post goes up on the blog if you so desire. It's on the upper right-hand corner of the page. I tested it out, and it requires a confirmation email to be sent to you. My email filtered that message to spam so if you don't see it in your inbox pretty quickly maybe check there.

-Joe

Hopefully, Cora will be home soon!

Poor Rose was pretty tuckered out after a big day at the hospital visiting her sisters.