The Lights are On

And nobody is home . . . .

It's 1pm on Friday as I write, and I'm all discharged and ready to jet back to Marietta with our beautiful baby girl.

Unfortunately, she's not quite ready to take off with her mom and dad.

Last night at about 1AM, Kate's billiruben levels peaked at 10.9, requiring her to be placed in a 'billi-bed' for phototherapy to help her body fight jaundice.

As it turns out, Kate and I have different blood types, which causes her body to fight off a few toxins here in her first few days of life. She's going to be just fine . . . her case is just a little north of 'mild' . . . . not exactly something to freak out about just yet.

The only freaky part: we may not be bringing her home tonight.

I'm pretty certain that WON'T happen. Her levels were down slightly by 6AM this morning, which is certainly positive. The nurses and doctors are doing everything they can to get us home with Kate . . . including finding us a way to go home with a billi-bed to keep her in at our house over the weekend. They are working VERY hard to get us ALL out of here tonight . . . so I really do think it's going to happen.

And, if not, then Jim and I will move out of room 569 and into the 'family room' near the infant nursery. We'll stay here over night, snoozing on the couch and making ourselves available for feedings whenever Kate requires them. Feeding PLUS the billi-lights really will help her push out the toxins, so I'm not going anywhere that would prevent me from taking part in that process. She's nursing like a champ, and we're going to keep that up . . . at any cost.

For now, we wait . . . they've taken Kate from two billi-lights to one, and we have to wait for more blood work results to come back before we can make any further decisions. That will take all day . . . but hopefully by 7:30 or 8:00 pm, we'll be heading back to Marietta with a snoozing newborn cozy in the back seat.