Baby's First Checkup/Mom & Dad's First Panic Attack

Madeleine went in for her first visit to the pediatrician this morning.

First, the good news - she's in good shape. She's definitely gotten the best of both worlds - daddy's girl in terms of height and mommy's girl in terms of weight. She checked in at 21 inches and 7 lbs 14 ounces. That puts her in the 90th percentile for height and the 51st percentile for weight.

Then, mom and dad got their first baby health scare. The doctor had been concerned about jaundice and the fact that she hasn't been making as much of the #1 as the doctors would like. (As an aside, Brian made up "In" and "Out" charts to keep track of feedings and evacuations during the first few days since he knew the doctors would ask - the doctor was impressed with the effort and asked him to continue but offered a few refinements to the style)

Mom and dad knew that most babies are a bit jaundiced in the first few days as their livers play catch-up, so we hadn't been overly alarmed at her coloration knowing that she would see the doctor today. (for more information on this, there's an excellent resource at http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/infant-jaundice/DS00107 - thanks for sharing, Felisha!)

At the end of her exam, the doctor mentioned - almost nonchalantly - that he wanted us to go the emergency room to get her bilirubin levels tested. We kind of did a double take on the words "emergency room." The doctor explained that a third of babies experience jaundice at this point in the process, and about 1/30th of them have something medically significant that's causing it. So, off to the emergency room we went.

We hadn't expected to be back at the hospital so soon, so mom and dad explained to Madeleine that we weren't taking her to the returns department! The hospital staff let her in right away and they were terrific the whole time. The technician who came to draw her blood, who was reasonably close to Brian's size, got choked up at the thought of making her cry and tried to find another tech to take the blood. When he couldn't find one, he came in and did it and got a little teary eyed during the test. Thankfully, mom and baby were right there with him.

We had to wait awhile for the test results to come back in - probably the longest hour of any of our lives. At the end, the emergency room doctor came back and told us that her test was fine. On the bilirubin test, 4.0-12.0 is considered normal - and Madeleine was a perfect 10, just like she is in the looks department. We have to take her back to the pediatrician in two days but we don't have to put her under a lamp or anything like that, thank God.

Then, as her way of telling the medical community what she thought of today's excitement, and to prove that her liver is working, Madeleine promptly made #1 all over the emergency room bedsheets while her parents were trying to change her - and threw in a fresh #2 for good measure.

After a very stressful morning, mom and baby went home and zonked out, although Madeleine woke up long enough to prove the strength of her liver again with a fresh #1. Dad still has enough adrenaline in him now to power a small city (hence this post!).