Getting our little GLO worm home

Rory's first morning with us went better than I had expected. We stayed a little longer in the labor and delivery room to let my epidural wear off and then we were transferred to the High Risk Post-Partum floor since all the other Post-Partum rooms were full. 

We had family and friends come visit us. I even got in a shower that morning! Uncle Josh brought Van in to meet his baby sister and the two hit it off almost right away. Van was actually a little shy and hid behind daddy before asking, "me hold MY Rory?"

love at first sight

someone is sleepy

That looks really uncomfortable! After seeing D try to nap on this chair I decided he needed to go home at night and sleep in a real bed. This also allowed Van to sleep in his bed so he didn't feel so out of sorts.

Angie & Luci came to meet Rory

Rory's God-father Uncle Jereme couldn't get enough of her

"Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true."

Van watching cartoons on one of his visits.

getting loved on by Uncle Josh

But that afternoon as Uncle Josh was holding our sweet baby girl, her nurse came in and said Rory's doctor needed her to go back to the nursery. She came in later to tell me that Rory had Hemolytic Disease of the Newborn or ABO Incompatibility which means my blood type (O+) and Rory's blood type (A+) were incompatible and my immune system had produced antibodies that were attacking Rory's red blood cells. This had caused her to become very jaundiced and would require phototherapy treatment until my antibodies had been cleared from her body. 

Rory was placed under dual phototherapy lights immediately and I would only get to see her for 30-40 minutes every 3 hours so that I could nurse her. The hardest part of all this for me was not getting to hold my little bean. I knew I needed to do what was best to get her healthy so she could come home with us but I longed to hold her in my arms and watch her sleep. 

Visiting my little GLO worm (the nurses nicknamed her this)

getting a sun tan with her sun shades on

I felt terrible that she spent hours in there all alone with no one holding her. Even looking at this picture makes me tear up.

The nurses did a blood test every 12 hours to keep a watch on her bilirubin levels and at every blood test her levels would rise. So her doctor recommend she wear a bili-blanket anytime the nurses took her out from under the lamps. This earned her the endearing nickname - little GLO worm. 

Being under the phototherapy lights all day and night made Rory so tired that often times when they brought her to me to nurse, she wouldn't wake up to eat. I did everything I could think of to wake her and sometimes my tickling would work but she wasn't getting enough milk and by day two she had lost 11% of her birth weight. So I had to start pumping after every feeding and her doctor asked that she be supplemented with a formula bottle while she was under the lamps. 

Like I said before, I wanted to do what was best for Rory but this upset me because I felt so helpless. I couldn't even give my child the nutrients she needed to have energy to get better. Instead it felt like me nursing her was doing the opposite, making her expend all her energy nursing and not getting anything in return. 

This was not how I thought my hospital stay would go at all. But I knew we were both in great and capable hands and everyone was doing what was best for our baby girl. I prayed every night and day that her levels would stop rising so we could go home and be a family. Not only did I not get to hold Rory but I only saw Van for maybe 30 minutes a couple times a day. I missed my little man too. 

My mom spent the night with me on my last night in the hospital. It was so nice to have some company, someone to talk to and someone to help me keep Rory awake while nursing her. Derek always looked so sad when he left me at night but Van really needed one of us to be home with him. 

Mom, thank you for staying with me, for trying to sleep in that uncomfortable chair bust most importantly thank you for just being there. You are the best mom ever and I love you more than words can describe. 

Our prayers were answered on that fourth day when her bilirubin level stabilized and she went from an 11% weight loss to an 8% weight loss! Thank you to everyone who prayed along with us and kept us in their thoughts. I knew this wasn't a serious condition and Rory was going to be more than fine after her treatment but the separation was hard on this emotional mama and I am so grateful for all the love we received from our family and friends. Because everything was looking up, Rory was taken out from under the lamps but we couldn't be discharged until after they did one more blood test to make sure her levels didn't start to go back up. 

It was a wonderful day of lying around with our little GLO worm and just staring at her. 

playing dress-up already. the bow is bigger than her head!

Nana bought Rory her own GLO worm to keep her company while she was in the nursery. 

At 5 pm, we received our discharge papers and we started packing to go home! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I knew God was with us the whole time. I felt his presence in all the nurses, doctors and lactation consultants we saw. I heard his words in all the texts, emails and voices of our family and friends. So again, thank you to everyone who knew exactly what to say or do that made us feel so very loved and supported.