That Billy Rubin is nothing but trouble!

Here we are at the hospital again, on the pediatric floor. I'm on the hospital bed, blogging away. Melody's in a chair next to me enjoying American Idol. And Carolina? She's in a bili bed, trying to get rid of her jaundice.

She had to stay an extra day at the hospital because of her jaundice, but was released to go home Saturday afternoon. We took her in to see Dr. B. Monday for a check-up and her bilirubin levels had spiked pretty high. The decision was made, then, to admit her for a day or two for some extensive phototherapy to get the bilirubin down and some normal color back to her skin (she had begun to look pumpkiny).



So far so good. Her bilirubin had dropped from 18, to 15. From 15 to 11 and from 11 to 10.3. Dr. B wants to get it into the single digits before letting her go home Wednesday morning. The "acceptable" range for her at 5 days old was around 14, so she's well within that now as a 6-day old. I'm just trying to remind myself that she will be okay.

This has been hard. Carolina's heels are spotted red from all the times they've had to draw blood. Both Melody and I are a bit stir crazy from being in a hospital room for so long and it's just hard to see our Sweet Pea go through this.

We also battle feeling selfish. Here around us are all these children with real, serious illnesses. Things that may affect the rest of their lives. Our baby just has jaundice and, really, that's not so uncommon. It's possible that this could cause her some long-term problems, but it's not very likely. Who are we to think we have it so hard?

Keep us in your thoughts. We're trying to put a positive spin on all this. Carolina's health will be good and soon we'll all be at home together. Plus, she's just so adorable in her bili bed. She has these cool shades velcroed to her head right now. I think they look like stunner shades. I want t draw some horizontal lines on them so she'll look like Kanye in the "Stronger" video. Come on, tell me this:



doesn't remind you of this:



Hopefully we'll have more good news to share tomorrow.

--Jeff