Just when I thought we had it all under control, Austin throws us a curve ball. We were just starting to get the hang of this parenting thing: the late-night feedings, constant washing of baby clothes, and life scheduled around naps and feeding times.
This past Sunday, John had mentioned in church that Austin's skin looked a little yellow. I thought that it was probably the lights and didn't pay much attention to it. Yesterday, we went over to Dan and Katie's for dinner and when we got there I took Austin out of his car seat in the backyard. I immediately noticed that the whites of his eyes were very yellow in the natural light as well as his skin. Katie mentioned that she noticed it right away too. Of course, on the inside I was totally freaking out and was ready to run our little baby to the emergency room. Luckily Nate's doctor has a 24 hour hotline so, I called and the doctor said not to worry as long as he was acting fine and to bring him to the office in the morning. It did ease my mind a little bit but, even the littlest thought of anything being wrong with Austin broke my heart and sent me into a panic attack. I just didn't want the little guy to be sick or not feel good. It was a rough night. I barely slept and not because of feedings but because I just wanted it to be morning so we could call the pediatrician. Finally, morning did come but the doctor wasn't in until 1:30pm so I played a game of trying to keep busy to keep my mind off the clock. The good news is the doctor was not too concerned with his appearance. He is Jaundice and from what I understood in rare cases if a baby is jaundice when born, even slightly like Austin was, sometimes there is something in the mother's breast milk that doesn't allow the baby to break it up and get rid of it. So I was told not to breast feed for 2 days to see if he is able to get his levels down. If he does then they know that it was from the breast milk and we can resume breast feeding on Saturday. I think the next couple of days are going to be harder on me then on Austin. Aside from the fact that I hate to give Austin formula, it is our special time together when I am feeding him. I know that when he is feeding, he feels very safe and counts on me to provide him with that comfort. It broke my heart this afternoon when he looked at me with those big eyes and a pout on his face. Hopefully its only 2 days and we can go back to our normal feeding routine.
side note: the doctor weighed Austin and he's now 9lbs. 11oz.! He's gained 4 lbs. in 4 weeks....
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