Rebecca spent most of her first 2 days in an isolette, which helped her keep warm, and meant that all the energy she gained could be used to grow rather than maintain body temperature. We still got to hold her occasionally for feeds and baths etc, but it was a little sad to see this tiny person in big plastic container.
As the days progressed, they turned the temp in the isolette down and she was better able to maintain her own temp until we were able to take her out for the last time on Monday morning.
She was checked over by the paediatrician on Sunday and given a clean bill of health. On Monday they weighed her and found she had lost only 60grams, which is less than normal, and a very good sign. After each breast feed she is being topped up with formula from a cup (see photos). Babies tend to loose weight in the first week because they come out with a tummy full of muck and dont eat a real lot for the first few days. 2 days later and she had lost another 25g, which meant that the weight loss was slowing, another good sign.
We started to think she was looking a little yellow about day 5 so she had another blood test and was diagnosed with jaundice, another fairly common complaint, so she had to be put back in the isolette under some bright lamps. The photos of that look really striking (we’ll have them up soon).
A couple of days later she had put 60g back on and today she had put on another 45g to take her past her birth weight to 2060g. She will probably still have to stay in the nursery until at least the end of next week, at least until she is consistently feeding well and putting on a fair bit more weight.
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