He's Here!

Todd and I went to the hospital July 8th at 7am. Baby Cole was in the vertex position (head down) so I was induced. My labor started about 11 pm and contractions were starting to get pretty intense. I had the epidural and had a pretty nice 2 hours of dilation and contractions. Then at about 1 am the nurse got the room and myself ready, Dr. Ehama came broke my water, and it was time to push. I pushed 2 times and he was out. He was born at 1:48 am on July 9th, a special date to us because it was Todd's grandpa Dan's birthday. Cole was born 21 inches long and 6 pounds and 3 oz. He was the first baby that we got to keep in the room with us. Mason and Avery both were hurried to the baby nursery for breathing complications. He was awesome at breastfeeding and so so so cute and sweet. Todd and I loved spending this time with our new little guy.

Cole's Stats

Right after he was born

With Dr. Ehama (my amazing OBGYN)

Right after birth

Cole has hyper billirubin anemia. That means that he has too much bilirubin in his system. Also he is making too many red blood cells to compensate for the ones that are being killed off by my antibodies. When Cole was 2 hour so that his old his bilirubin was tested and at a level of 10 (which is very high). They started three bili lights on him immediately. This morning at 10 am they did what is referred to as a IVIG. This means synthetic red blood cells were introduced into his system so he would stop producing his own. It is a 4 hour process and done through his IV (blue on the right arm). After the process he was at 11.4 with bilirubin (very good that the number didn't go higher) and his hematocrits were 4 points lower (great). Every 8 hours he will be tested and continue to stay under the bili lights. He may have one more IVIG treatment. Every 8 hours we will play a game of cat and mouse (his levels that he is allowed will be higher because he is older, but the level that he is at will likely be higher than the day before until his little body can kick this. They are thinking 4 to 5 days. Worse case scenario and what we are trying to stay away from is having him go to Springs to Memorial hospital for a blood transfusion.

14 Hours Old

We get to hold him every 3 hours for 10 minutes. This is different from when Avery had this condition because we weren't able to hold her. They also will likely not send him home until he is completely free of the bilirubin.

Cole under the bili lights

Feeding him under the lights