The longest week

This has been quite the week for our family. G (Big Brother) was completely uprooted and went to both grandparents houses and we had a new baby. And that was only the start of it.

Big Brother handled the week exceptionally well. In fact I think he loved every minute of it.

My c-section went really well. No complications at all. Although I must admit it was quite the unpleasant feeling. I can honestly say I have never felt anything so disgusting in my life as when the Dr.s were poking around inside me. After the c-section I was give morphine and was really really sick. I had the worst nausea ever and no amount of zofran helped. My face set into a permanent frown and nothing I did could remove it, even when I was happy. After my bout with percoset and my wisdom teeth and then the awful day of morphine (they took me off it early) I had them change the percosets to another medication. As long as I only take 1 I am ok.

And then came  Little Sister. Sweet adorable Little Sister. It was so awesome to hear her cry and so great to see her. And she was so sweet. And we only got to see her for a little while. Her direct coombs test came back positive. The doctors sent out bloodwork and confirmed she had an ABO incomaptibility. Basically my blood created antibodies that crossed the placenta and were attacking her. This left her with antibodies that were attacking her red blood cells, anemic and jaundiced. It was quite the week. Little Sister stayed in the bililight incubator for 6 days only coming out every 3 hours for 20 min to feed. Family and friends tried to stop by near feeding times so they could see her for 1-5 min depending on how long it had taken her to eat.

I feel that ABO incompatibility should be discussed during prenatal visits, just as Rh- is. The majority of the american population is O+, and any woman with O blood type is at risk for this happening, depending on the father’s blood type. It’s hit or miss, although there is an 88% chance this will happen to any future children we may have.

Thankfully our hospital tested for this right away. Little Sister’s levels never reached dangerous ones. Our doctors were very proactive and we were blessed. Many of the stories I have read were of babies that it wasn’t detected for a full day, and those babies had high levels, ended up with injections and exchange transfusions to keep them from getting brain damage. While those treatments were on the table in the beginning of the week, after a couple of days everything was looking up for us.

The hospital allowed me to stay on until Little Sister was discharged, but that left me with a lot of alone time and very little sleep. And this time the Baby Blues have hit me hard. Crying has become a way of life. I am not proud of some of the things going through my head but we’ll get through it. Coming home today has helped immensely. We are praying about it and I am prepared to go talk to someone if it doesn’t get better soon. No one ever told me about the Baby Blues, I had only ever heard of more severe Postpartum Depression. It came as quite a shock with Big Brother and now with Little Sister it’s downright scary.

As for Little Sister the road doesn’t end here. She is still anemic and might need a transfusion, thankfully a normal one and not an exchange transfusion. In addition to that they are going to check and see if she has any enzyme deficiencies towards the end of the week and to be honest I am scared. Our next few months will be filled with Dr.s appointments.

However inaccurate it may be, I feel responsible that this has happened to her. I think the road ahead is long for me too.