New Kid On The Blog

6-Nov-2009:

Apart from being thrombocytopenic, the baby is doing great. Emily was discharged from the hospital when she was 8 days old, with a platelet count of 100. Three days later we went back for a blood test and her platelet count has dropped to 55. She already had 3 doses of IVIG (Intravenuous Immunoglobulin - like what I had in London) and that costs us RM7k. My total hospital bill when discharged came up to RM11k. She needs to be monitored on a weekly basis and her last platelet count was 61. What happened was I am thrombocytopenic myself. The doctor said that it is an auto-immune disorder whereby my own antibody recognizes my platelets as a foreign substance and starts attacking them. During my pregnancy, my blood got transferred to the baby through the placenta and causes her to have a low platelet count as well. She will only return to normal after my antibody in her blood stream wears off, which may take a few months. Breastfed babies will take longer to recover since the mother's antibody passes through breast milk.

When I brought Emily home, she was fully breastfed but the doctor 'suggested' to stop breast feeding for a week and 'see how it goes'. Emily has been on formula for 1.5 weeks now, i.e. formula during the day time and breastfed at night. Why breastfed at night? Because it is simply too much work for me to feed and then still have to express milk. Anyway, I hope this will not go on for too long.

Emily was very tiny when we brought her home - even tinier than when she was first born. The skin on her legs was all wrinkled and she looked very fragile. She slept all the time and didn't wake up for feeds and I was getting quite worried. She also didn't poo much. I woke her up every 2 hours for feeding anyway and within 2 days she began to look better. By the 3rd day, she was poo-ing 5-6 times a day (a sign that she's getting enough to eat) and she weighed 2.90kg (a slight decrease from her birth weight which was 2.92kg).

Now, Emily has a very round face and she has double chin! Since a mother is hard to satisfy, I now wonder if she's over fed. :p Her weight, taken on Monday, was 3.22kg. She's doing fine in terms of weight gain, although I think she's a small eater. She also wakes up on her own for feeding now.

She's doing fine in other departments as well. I find myself comparing her with Dom when he was her age. I recall that Dom had trouble sleeping in the afternoons as he was easily awaken by any sound in the house. This was probably due to the fact that we didn't live with my in-laws the last time and our place was quiet, so any noise no matter how small would be amplified. Contrary to that, we now live in a house with 5 kids. There is not a moment of silence and Emily sleeps through all the screaming and yelling. The first few nights were however slightly difficult as she refused to sleep in her own cot, but now, after some 'training' from mummy, she's out of our bed.

People have been telling me that she looks like Dominic but when I compare their photos, I don't see much resemblance. One thing for sure, she has huge eyes like Dominic. She was extremely fair when she was first born but after a few days she has tanned a lot. She's now 3.5 weeks old and she can ... let me see ... (1) Cry loudly (2) Move to her favourite spot in the cot (my FIL there must be some magnetic field causing her to position herself the same way, same spot every time) (3) Smile (4) Laugh (5) Drink from a cup and (6) Lift her head when lying down on her stomach.

# posted by Skye @ 10:36 pm