Today Sydney is four weeks old (she's holding up "4" in the picture!), and we took her to another doctor appointment to check her bilirubin level. I was confident before going in, because her little body is starting to look more pink (and pale!) to me, but her face is definitely still yellow (although the doctor said last week that her face and eyes will be the last thing to turn un-yellow). However, after taking her bilirubin level subcutaneously (with a little hot glue gun-looking device applied to her forehead), the doctor said they needed to draw more blood. This time, instead of pricking and "milking" her heel for blood, they took it from her poor little arm! As horrible as this was, it was a lot faster than taking the blood from her heel. Thank goodness Chet was there...he was the one who helped hold her down, while I sat on the other side of the room and cried. After that, we waited around for her blood results, and her bilirubin level was a little higher than last week (not good). Thankfully the rest of her blood results were perfectly normal, so the doctor thinks her bilirubin level is still elevated because of my breast milk (which is okay, it's just important that we know the reason). So...in order to rule out any other issues, we're feeding Sydney formula for the next two days, and we'll go back to the doctor Friday to check her bilirubin level. If it's much lower, my breast milk is the culprit, and all will be well (and she'll be able to start drinking it again immediately). If not...I'm not sure. We'll just have to see. By the way, she weighed 7 lbs, 8.2 oz today, which means she gained 3 oz this week (compared to a whopping 10 oz last week!). She's only in the 10th percentile size-wise, but the doctor says those numbers don't matter as long as she grows continuously and proportionally.Pre-Doctor Cuteness
Doctor's Office
wo-week well baby appointment that morning. She was a little jaundiced when she was born, and the doctor thought she still looked pretty yellow on February 10th, so they pricked her heel again to run some blood work. Indeed, her bilirubin level was still elevated, so we made another appointment for the following Wednesday (which was this past Wednesday, February 17th). The doctor thought she STILL looked yellow at that appointment (and she is), but her legs are a more normal color, so her yellow-ness is starting to diminish. The doctor gave us the option of pricking her heel again to draw more blood, or waiting until the following week to see if she looked any better. We opted not to prick her heel (the doctor agreed that it wasn't worth putting her through that again) and made another appointment for this coming Wednesday. He thinks her jaundice is simply due to the fact that she's breastfed, and isn't worried (and I am finally starting to worry less). Speaking of food...Sydney was back up to her birth weight (6 lbs, 11.4 oz) at her two-week appointment, and weighed 7 lbs, 5 oz last week! She gained 10 oz in one week (the little chunk!). Actually, she's far from chunky, but I think she's about to outgrow her newborn clothing because she's getting too long!
