The Drapela Family: Hospital stay...

We got moved to our room right around daylight time and started settling in with our little man.

Nana & Knox

My mom brought the girls right around lunch time. Pais came in with a BIG smile so ready to meet her BROTHER. B was still a little un-sure but they loved getting to love him. They were soo excited he was finally "out of mommy's tummy!"

Our first pics as a family of 5.

She absolutely adores him! She loved checking out every inch of him.

The hospital provided a "sibling" cake for the girls! This they loved!! :)

The blood test from birth indicated Knox had an elevated Bilirubin level (3.6)--meaning he was a little jaundiced. They were a little concerned as to why because we had the same blood type.They repeated the test that afternoon and it was up to 6.7. This meant photo-therapy. :( They brought in the lights around 9 pm and he was stripped to his diaper and eye mask. We were to keep him under lights at all times, only out to feed him on a strict every 2 hour schedule. This was HARD!! These poor babies come out and you immediately do skin-to-skin and keep them swaddled and warm. We held him all day and then SUDDENLY he is stripped of all clothes and mommy's touch and left under these lights. We tried to comfort him when he cried but it wasn't the same. :( The way to get rid of jaundice is 1. the lights & 2. peeing and pooping. This meant I was to nurse him every 2 hours and then pump immediately after and we syringe fed him the pumped colostrum/milk.

He was re-tested at 6 am on Sunday morning and the level was up to 8.4. They brought in a second light to double-light him and the feeding schedule was to be kept the same...nurse every 2 hours and then pump and feed. Tiring & stressful!!! We had already been up since 5 am on FRIDAY morning. Then we didnt get rest Saturday night as he whined/cried while under the lights. It was rough!! But still so thankful because we know there are worse problems out there.

Even pushing through the extreme pain that breast-feeding brings the first few days/weeks I enjoyed that time because I could actually hold my baby!! They re-tested him Monday morning and he was up to a 9.4. We did have a 24 hour spell with no BM so that was concerning. The minute they were prepared to go in back there he pooped everywhere. Perfect timing!! :) After evaluation, they decided we would be able to go home on Monday. We were both released Monday evening and got home around 8 that night with a follow up appt already scheduled with our Pedi Tuesday Morning at 8:30. Talk about tired!! :)