The Sixth Element

So I am sure many of you remember the movie with Bruce Willis called "The Fifth Element." Well, the morning after L was born, he was hooked up to some lights that made us think of that movie! We noticed early that morning (July 3rd) that L was looking mighty yellow. No surprise. We had been down this road with J. One of the pediatricians came over and ordered bloodwork to test his bilirubin levels. We weren't too worried. With J, we just took a biliblanket home and had to keep it on him for the first week or so of his life. Easy breezy. Not the case here. The nurse came into our room around 11 a.m., said his bilirubin levels were way too high for a baby that wasn't even 24 hours old yet, and proceeded to take him out of my arms and tell us he had to be put under light therapy in the nursery. It all happened so quickly. And honestly, with a little more urgency than J's situation, so it did make our heads spin a little. JMcD and I headed down to the nursery with L - watched as they put him in a warming bed under blue stadium-like lights and attached the alien eye-protection contraption to his head. For the next couple of hours, JMcD and I took turns sitting with L in the nursery, until one nurse walked in, saw us standing there by his bed and said, "You know we can put that bed and the lights in your room?" WHAT? Yes, please, now. By 3 p.m. JMcD had completely rearranged our teeny tiny post-partum room so the nurses could wheel the whole bed, bililights, etc., down and put L in our room. What a WONDERFUL thing! Of course, we had to leave L in the bed except for a feeding every 2-3 hours, but having him in the room with us was what mattered most. And the super-duper new stadium bililights they used made his levels drop enough that we were able to take him home the next day. Whew - we were so ready to leave the hospital and get home to an anxious big brother!