We were parents. It had sunk in. We were in charge of this tiny little bundle for the rest of his life. How exhilarating the thought of it all. (If you missed ..Part I.. and ..Part II.. of Elijah’s birth blogs be sure to check them out for the whole story.) A moment to breathe, or so we thought.
From the beginning our poor little guy had it rough. He didn’t want to come out, and after two hours of pushing and all other measures used, we finally had him in our arms. Because of everything he went through his sweet little head had been pulled on, yanked on, and tramatized. The nurses explained that he probably had a headache from it all, which was why he fussed quite a bit every time he was being moved. It’s crazy how busy a baby’s first day in the world is with birth, a bath, everyone coming to visit, and even endless tests.
The following day during routine tests, one of the Doctor’s came in to explain that Eli’s bilirubin levels were high. To us that was like Chinese. So after listening to him explain, it meant that Eli was getting jaundice. It is a yellowing of the skin and eyes caused by the liver not extracting the bilirubin from his blood. I managed to keep my composure with a straight face while hanging on to every word the Doctor said. He explained that Eli had to stay under the bilirubin lights. They would help to bring his levels down so that we could safely go home and stay home with him. As soon as the Doctor walked out, I burst into tears. Looking back, I knew that our baby didn’t have an extreme condition to his health, but to me it was really unnerving as a new parent. I just wanted to be normal and take him home.
As soon as the diagnosis was made, they wheeled in the bilirubin lights and our little guy had to stay in his bassinet the whole time. I could only hold him to feed him and then he had to go right back under the lights. It was detrimental to me as a new Mom and wanting to cuddle and hold our baby boy. Even when he came out he had a cord that had a blue mat underneath him. We nicknamed him our ‘glow worm’ and ‘Avatar baby’. He had to wear these soft ‘sunglasses,’ which he was constantly knocking off. When friends called I tried to look at it in a positive light, saying he was tanning under the blue sun rays, when really all I wanted to do was take him out and hold him. He was dropping weight even though I was nursing, so we had to supplement with formula to help inch his body into recovery.
A day later, on schedule I was released from the hospital. Eli had to stay. So we would either have to leave the hospital and go home, or if they could accommodate us, we could stay in our same room. Luckily, we were able to stay with Eli. We were getting slightly discouraged, test after test came and gone to see if the bilirubin levels were dropping. So two extra nights in the hospital and then the phone call came. It was the nurse telling us that the Doctor agreed that Elijah could leave the hospital, but only on the conditions we went to see our Pediatrician first thing on Monday morning. We wholeheartedly agreed. Anything to get our baby boy home. I’ve never rushed so quickly in my entire life. We got him dressed and in his carrier faster than anyone had ever seen. Our nurse was quite surprised how quickly we had packed up…but I wasn’t!
Monday morning’s appointment brought the weight checkup and he had finally gotten back to birth weight. He was still yellow, but our Pediatrician said it could take awhile for his skin and eyes to regulate. Four more weight checks followed and our little boy had already exceeded most infant’s trips to the Doctor. We weren’t done there. The weeks following probably could have been some of the most trying times. They were filled with infections between Eli and myself, colic bouts that we used a chiropractor for, and then we found blood in his stool. Yes, blood. After eliminating dairy from my diet, we found out that Elijah had a milk allergy. With lack of sleep, a huge adjustment to life, and all of the health issues, it became tiring. We needed help from family that couldn’t be there. I cried out for normalacy. That’s it, I just needed it. We were hanging on prayers, lots of them.
After two weeks it finally disappeared. All of it. His skin was returning to it’s pinkish tone and his eyes were white again. Both of our infections were gone. His colic stopped. AND we were learning how to keep milk out of my diet so not to affect Eli’s system. FINALLY life returned to as close to normal as could be. We were thankful, ever so thankful that life finally slowed down to let us breathe and take it all in.
My Grandma and Uncle came. My Grams first great grand baby.
Brad’s sister Laura, her husband Nick, and Elijah’s cousin and partner in crime, Lukas came to visit.
Proud new parents!
Under the blue sun…
It wasn’t easy at the time juggling everything that life threw at us being alone as first time parents, but together we figured it out. We have our sweet little boy and while we had quite a few things to go through to get to normalacy, we can certainly count our blessings that it wasn’t worse. If you prayed for us, thought of us, or sent us well wishes during that time, thank you again. They meant the world!
..NORMALACY..
love, echo
