My Little Glow Worm

Our poor little Ruby has had a few health struggles since coming home from the hospital.  The first of which was her weight.  It is normal for babies to drop some weight after birth, however, it apparently becomes a concern when MORE than 10% of their birth weight is lost.  That is the predicament we have been in.  Ruby dropped down to 7 lbs 2 oz and we have been working to get her back up to her birth weight.  At Ruby's 2 week check up she still was not back up to her birth weight so we are on an every 3 hour formula feeding schedule and checking back with the doctor for frequent weight checks.  The second of the health problems was Jaundice.  A lot of babies have problems with Jaundice so I wasn't paranoid about it, but it was not fun having to watch Ruby get her heel pricked 5 billion times for the bilirubin tests.  Poor kid!  Her bilirubin levels were really high the day after we got home from the hospital so poor Ruby was "sentenced to the lights".  But the good news was technology has come a long ways.  Instead of having to lay in a suitcase looking thing with blazing lights on her and wearing annoying goggles to cover her eyes, they have this cool strip thing now that you wrap up in a blanket with them.  So for three days Ruby was in nothing but a diaper and was swaddled in her blanket with the glowing light strip.  She looked like a little glow worm.  But I won't complain because I was able to hold her and feed her and snuggle her the entire time.  And being a glow worm for a few days did the trick.  Her bilirubin levels came down enough and we were able to take her off the lights and actually put some clothes on the kid.  And last (HOPEFULLY) of our health issues...an eye infection.  Monday I went to pick Ruby up in the morning and her poor little left eye was glued shut with this NASTY green goop.  It looked a little excessive to me (eye "sleepys" don't usually get that bad I thought) but I didn't worry too much about it.  I got a wet wash cloth and washed away the green goop.  I fed her and she went to sleep again.  Within an hour of her going to sleep all that nasty green goop was back on her left eye.  My concern grew but luckily we had a doctors appointment that afternoon.  The doc looked at it.  Took a culture of it and gave me a perscription for this ointment junk to put in her eye.  The ointment is working great so far. So IF we've got this green goop problem under control I think the only thing left is getting Ruby's weight up.  We have anonther weight check tomorrow so we are crossing our fingers that she's put a little meat on her bones.

Our Glow Worm

"Beam me up Scotty"

Grandpa's Finger

Tigger is keeping an eye on the Glow Worm

Ruby and Tigger having a staring contest