The Bili Lights

Many babies get something called Jaundice. It occurs when the baby's liver is too immature to metabolize dead blood cells which occur naturally. It turns out that Chloe's red blood cell count was very high, which made the problem more acute.

The result was this:



She had to stay under these lights, in this position in the Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for three days. The only time we could remove her was for 30 minute feedings every 3 hours.

This was very tough for me and Kristi. Not only could I not stay the night with Kristi, but neither could her baby. All three of us were separated.

While in the NICU, the nurses and doctors found other things wrong with Chloe. They said she had Stridor, a breathing abnormality caused by a narrowing of the voice box. She could breathe normally at rest, but started to have difficulty when she cried.

It was very stressful thinking about your sick baby day and night. It added tremendously to the stress that Kristi and I would face when everyone eventually was discharged from the hospital.