Grady's Issues Last Night...

Last night, we thought we may have to go to the ER. Grady's umbilical cord was stinky & his belly button looked kind of red. I called the pediatrician who was on-call at 9:00pm. She told me to take him to the ER because he might need to get an IV of antibiotics if infected. We called around to see what hospital didn't have a wait. They all had huge waits...

I didn't know if I wanted to take him to the ER and expose him to who-knows-what-kind-of-germs-and-diseases. I decided to call my midwife & get her opinion. She told us that the stinky cord was normal because it is a dying piece of flesh. She thought we should get some Golden Seal and put it on the cord/belly button. So, Jon ran out at 9:30 and got the herb for babykins. Almost immediately the redness went away & the odor lessened.

This morning, the umbilical cord fell off!!! Woo hoo. His belly button looks sooo much better.

The other issue is, he looks a little jaundice to me. His bilirubin was only 9.8 (it is fine under 10) on Monday. But, it looks like his arms are a little jaundice now. He legs are not, so I don't feel too concerned. I am now rotating breastmilk & formula with every other feeding. (That is what I did with Trey and it worked....and his bilirubin was really high.) If he is still looking yellow tomorrow, I will take him in to be tested.

After all that...I needed to get out for a little excitement. So we went to Paradise Bakery for lunch today. Rock on. That was our big adventure for the day. Jon was able to meet us there between clients. I don't know how I am going to function in the real world with 3 kids 3 and under by myself. There is so much to juggle!!