Athena Comes Homes

Athena was born on Wednesday January 15...three days ago.
In the hospital she slept as expected; sleeping all day and night except to be fed and held. She loves being held.
We had one night in the hospital. The next day once she hit 24 hrs old the nurses took a blood test from Athena's foot to see how Jaundice she was. She was jaundice so they told us to schedule another jaundice blood test for the next day.

At home Athena has been sleeping most of the day. In the evening I have tried to hold her and wake her up so she would sleep better at night. It worked the first two nights at home.
The very first night at home she did not want to go to sleep and kept me up until almost midnight trying to figure out what she wanted. It turned out she wanted to be swaddled so she couldn't move and wrapped in a blanket so she would be hot.

Yesterday I did not wake her in the evening and she did refuse to sleep until about 1am. Luckily my amazing husband took her and stayed up with her when she refused to sleep. I had pumped a little milk that evening when Athena was refusing to wake up and eat when it was her feeding time. So Sterling bottle fed her while I slept.
This morning he got up with the kids and I got up to tell him to go back to bed. He deserved to sleep in! He did go back to bed for a bit. Couldn't sleep in too much because we had a doctor's appointment for Athena. My parents took the boys to church and we went to the doctor.

Athena has had to get her foot pricked and blood taken every day since she's been born. Poor girl! Her jaundice level has risen every day! So every day we have to go back to the hospital to see if it gets better.
We have been giving her time in the sunlight, about two hours a day, multivitamin drops for the vitamin D in them and lots of liquids to help her get the nutrients she needs and poop more. She has been pooping about 4 times a day. I have also been taking vitamin D pills my dad has. But even with all these efforts her jaundice level continues to increase. Today her level was 16. If it goes up to 20 then the hospital will send us home with a UV blanket to keep her wrapped in.

Luke was very yellow and weird colored after his birth and his eyes were yellow too.  He was very jaundice but did not get a UV blanket.  Tiberias was a little jaundice but it was not a problem.
Athena doesn't look jaundice. Her eyes are fine and her skin is more red/pink than anything else. But her jaundice levels are so high.

We have to go back to the hospital tomorrow morning. Or, I do. Sterling will stay home because our furniture is being delivered from the furniture store.
My parents have been here for over a week and have been so helpful! They have cleaned the house and taken care of my boys...spoiled them even. But tomorrow morning they are leaving first thing! Luke has the day off of school for Martin Luther King Jr day. So Ster will stay home with the boys and I will take Athena to the doctor again.

Sterling will not go into work all week. He's on daddy leave. That will really help me by not making me go out in the morning to take Luke to school. Ster can take Luke and the two youngest will stay home in the warm house with me.
It is hard not to clean the house and do my normal stuff...being at home. But I have to rest and recover from the delivery. So I will take advantage of Sterling being home...put him to work. Get him to clean and do laundry and take the boys out for some fun now and then.

We are all healthy and happy. Mom had gotten the flu then Luke got sick. But everyone is feeling fine now. We are so happy because life is amazing!