Where to Begin?

*** Warning: Long Post
We had a very LONG weekend. On Friday, we took Kylie to the pediatrician and found out that she had what we thought was a mild case of jaundice. To be safe, Dr. Hermaud sent us to Vaughn Hospital (the local hospital in Selma) for further testing and to get a better count of Kylie's bili ruben (sp) level. We had a horrible experience at the hospital, the folks in Selma had absolutely no clue what they were doing and watching them try to stick Kylie was one of the worst things I have ever had to watch in my life. Anyway they finally got a count of her bili level and it came back at 25...WAY above normal. So they had to call in Angel Care One which is an ambulance that will come from Baptist South's NICU unit in Montgomery. They came on Friday and picked Kylie up to transport her to Montgomery to NICU asap. I am in tears and devastated beyond belief at this point. For those not familiar with jaundice and bili levels, basically this means that Kylie was not able to flush out cord blood from birth and the higher the levels increase the more the bili can spread which can result in a baby needing a blood transfusion.
Anyway, we finally get to Baptist South late Friday afternoon and there they begin to test her for all kinds of things and prep Lee and I that if the bili levels do not come down she may need a blood transfusion. SCARY! After Lee and I arrive at the hospital, we are sitting in the waiting room waiting on some information. A young guy from NICU comes to the waiting room and says "Ms. Calame, you need to come with me. They want you to come see your baby before she goes into eye surgery"...WHAT??? Lee and I start freaking out, I am balling and we make our way to see Kylie. Come to find out he had miss understood when the nurse told him to bring us to the iso room, which is the isolation room...NOT eye surgery room. The poor guy felt so bad but I was beyond devastated at that point. But VERY relieved my baby was NOT having eye surgery. We get to see Kylie first in the iso room, she was placed in isolation at first while they ran tests on her before she was placed in general population with the other NICU babies. Most of those babies were severely premature so they had not been exposed to anything outside the hospital yet, so they just had to test Kylie for any kind of infection or anything like that. All of her tests came back fine except for the really high bili count so in she went with the other little babies in the NICU nursery. They placed her under many lights and started pumping her body with fluids and formula to help her dispose of the bili ruben. I hope none of you ever have to see your baby get an iv...babies have the biggest veins in their scalp so they place IVs in their head. Talk about something you wish you never have to see your child go through. We left the hospital at about 2am on Friday and went to stay with a family friend in Montgomery. They told us Kylie could be there for a little while. Yesterday, her levels were way down and she was eating and drinking good. We got to go see her last night and she had been moved out of NICU to the extended care nursery. She looked cute as ever, her IV was gone and she was sleeping away in what looked like a mini tanning bed. She is doing much much better...and will get to come home today. We came to Selma last night, the nurses told us we need to go home and get a good night sleep and our baby will be home in our arms tomorrow. This morning I talked to the nurse and Kylie's bili level was down to 9 which is great! We are heading back to Montgomery this morning to see her and meet with the pediatrician at Baptist South. Please please pray that she will be home with us this afternoon. Our families are here with us and everyone is just ready for her to be HOME! Especially Lee and I, I couldn't even walk past her nursery last night without crying. I miss her so badly!
Oh yeah...one reason that caused the bili to be so high is the fact that I have been trying to breastfeed and my milk never came in. The lactation consultants told me to continue to breastfeed and my milk would come in. Well it didn't...causing Kylie to be dehydrated, which resulted in her body not being able to flush out the bili ruben. So after all of that, I am now making the move to formula. Point of this being...go with your gut and not everything that everybody tells you is going to be the right thing for you or your baby. I felt so much pressure to breastfeed from that stupid nursing class (which was a blog a while back). We are so DONE with that. Now if we can just get Kylie home today and hold her!
Below are some pics of Kylie in the extended care nursery. She is sleeping away and getting a good tan under the lights.