jaundice

the bug had a jaundice problem. her bilirubin counts kept climbing in the hospital, but they released us saturday anyway, although we had to return sunday for a blood draw. this is an issue that is usually resolved within a day or two of birth, faster if the baby is formula fed. since bug is nursed, it would take longer. but i didn't think it would take as long as it did. for 5 days straight, we had to get blood drawn. the poor kid didn't have that much to begin with and her heels looked like pin cushions. the doctor sent a bili light home for us. this was not the innocent 'blanket' we pictured, but some monstrous hose and machine we had to sleep with. when i asked the doctor how long bug had to stay on it, she replied, "put her on and don't take her off." that was quite scary. and sleeping with it was not comfortable either, although it did lead to a cute nickname of 'lightning bug' for awhile.
finally they discovered that the bili counts were due to ABO incompatibility, which basically means that while bug was in utero, my body considered her a hostile body and made antibodies to fight her off. the antibodies crossed the placenta and attacked her blood cells, which caused the jaundice. she has kisu's blood type, not mine. at least we know, with pooka we never knew her blood type until diagnosis.
we were very relieved when we were told to stop using the bili light, but it wasn't until we went back and looked at some pictures that we could see just how yellow bug was. she looks practically orange in the photos! thank God she's healthy now.