Daddy's little Angel - Part 1

It's been slightly more than a week since Cherise has invaded our lives in the most beautiful way ever. Our lives pretty much revolve around her now...I don't really feel like doing anything else other than to stay at home and carry her in my arms. She's such a joy to look at, both when she's sleeping and when she's awake. You just can't help but to stop everything you are doing and just watch her in her cot, exploring the strange new world in her own way. Now I truly understand what they mean by love at first sight.

But things were not easy at first during the first 2 days when Cherise and Hunny got home from the hospital. We suspected that she was probably still trying to adjust to her new surrounding, thus she was quite insecure especially at night. We literally could not put her down cos' she needed to be cuddled to sleep. Both hunny and I were ready to be admitted into the zoo as pandas by the end of the second night. Hunny was the milk-cum-cuddle machine, and I was the burping-cum-diaper changing-cum-bathing-cum-cuddle machine. There was just no rest for the both of us cos' the cycle was continuous- feed, poo/pee, cry, feed, poo/pee, cry.....even throughout the night. Oh did I mention that Cherise was a "Barracuda Baby"??? She would literally champ down on mummy's breast and not let go. She had some problems latching on properly initially, so although she was getting plenty of milk, mummy was enduring plenty of pain, to the point that mummy had to express the milk cos' her nipples were too painful.
Also, Like most babies, Cherise was diagnosed with Neonatal Jaundice. Her condition was not too serious, however she still needed to be placed under indirect sunlight in order to break down the bilirubin so that she can pass it out via her stool and urine. But the weather has not been very cooperative this couple of days, thus there was very little or no sunlight for our little girl at all. After the first review by the paediatrician, the doctor said that her jaundice level had gone up. She suggested that we could either ward her so that she can go under the phototherapy bed, or we could rent a phototherapy bed so that she can stay at home with us. We opted for option 2 cos' we really wanted to continue with full breast feeding for Cherise, plus we didn't really like the idea of a hospital stay for her...not at such a young age at least. So we rented a Bilibed for 3 days. This system would have been more effective with the Bilicombi but the company which we rented the device from did not have it. The eyeband that came with it didn't really work as well as it should, thus we had to literally sit there and watch her while she goes on the Bilibed cos' we had to keep the band on her eyes so that they don't accidentally stare directly into the light. Here are some pictures of Cherise on the Bilibed:




Cherise tends to heat up pretty quickly so we cannot leave her on the Bilibed for too long, even though the instruction was to leave her there all the time except when feeding or changing. We had to constantly wipe her down so that she does not perspire too much.

But praise the Lord, after the check up today the doctor said that the jaundice level has gone down so she does not have to use the Bilibed anymore!! We still have to sun her whenever we can though...but at least she's getting better.