aby born but need help/info

Posted 01/13/2013
Hello ladies! I was hoping to come here and get some advice.

Sophia was born on the 11th at 0054 in the morning. Some how, they didn't bother reading my chart to realize that she was an RH baby, so even though I asked them about everything, they never did any real testing on her. Long story short, at 0700 that morning, they rushed her to the NICU with a bili level of above 13.

Over the last two days her bili and hemo levels have fluctuated a lot. They took her off the dextrose bag yesterday afternoon and she has started to bottle feed my milk as well as donor milk as I'm not producing much yet. She will come off the antibiotics today as well but I am just not sure about the rest. She is on a 3 bili light system right now as well.

As of right now, her bili levels are at 11.6 and her hemo levels are at a 28 and I know once they hit 25 they will do a transfusion.

I guess my thing is, what have your experiences been with this??? Were babies able to pull through without having to do the transfusion? If they did the transfusion, how quickly did they get better and when were they able to come home?? I'm so confused and honestly, really scared. I don't even really know what questions I should be asking the docs. Every time I ask what they think they always tell me they don't really know anything and won't for a while. What is a while?? We live 2.5 hours away from the hospital so things aren't as easy as we thought they would be.

Please help if you can! I don't even know what to think anymore! My head is really spinning!

Why do we feel safe under blankets? It's not like a murderer will come in thinking "I'm gonna ki...-ahh damn! She's under a blanket!"

Comments (1)

Posted 01/13/2013

Hi there! Well to be honest, for the next few days (at least) things probably will be very up and down. You will get a good Bili count then a bad one, good blood count, then low one...etc. Every situation is different but for us it was a NICU rollercoaster for 2 full weeks. One transfusion and one round of IVIG and multiple phototherapy lights laters we were finally able to come home. After being home we had an extra 3 months of blood count testing at the Childrens hospital weekly until the Antibodies were finally out of my daughters body. That was an additional 4 more transfusions done at the clinic. Transfusions usually don't require a hospital stay so we always were home by the evening. BUT even though this all seems so scary especially since no one ever really knows how to answer your questions remember that the majority of these babies have great outcomes.

 The docs may not know what to say with the bili issue because its not always clear when babys liver will be mature enough to filter the bili by itself. It does eventually happen but for some babies (especially our babies) it might take a little while to get rid of SO much jaundice. So for right now the way our babies bodies get rid of all the bilirubin is by eating and excreating waste. So litteraly the more baby poops, the better!! =) Also, a blood transfusion is not a big proceedure. If baby already as a IV then all the would be hooked up to it is a bag of blood and baby goes about sleeping while its being done. Not painful or really dangerous what so ever. Depending on how early your baby was, most of our babies seem to come home within 2 weeks. If baby was really early and has premature issues on top of the Antibodies then it can be a little longer. My advice is to not focus on when baby will come home (Even though it seems impossible!) but to just get over each hurdle as they come.

 On another plus side, I have yet to see a baby on this board including my own who had any issues because of this. All of our babies turn out happy and healthy.


DS-Seth 6-20-2008 33w6d-Severe Pre-E, Sensitized

DD-Hannah 3-10-2011 36w5d-ISO Anti-D & JKa 5 Post Birth Transfusions

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