Carissa's Blog

Carissa is 5 days old today. Everything is going well today. We had to go back to the hospital to get her bilirubin test for her jaundice. She was at 15.6 (or 260) which is still in the acceptable range. On Saturday she was at 13.4 (or 228). Jaundice is supposed to peak at day 5 or 6 and anything below 20 is safe right now. We need to give Carissa some more sun time in the windows, If she does not get better we will go back to the hospital on Wednesday.


We were able to see our pediatrician today. Her name is Dr. Kathleen Foster-Wendel. She was very nice and said Carissa was doing very well. Carissa has gained another 3 ounces and is up to 6 pounds and 12 ounces (close to her birth weight). We also found out Carissa has O+ blood type. Some interesting facts about O+ blood type:

• Almost 40% of the population has O+ blood
  
• Patients with Type O blood must receive Type O blood
  
• About half of all blood ordered by hospitals is Type O
  
• Type O blood is the universal blood type and is the only blood type that can be transfused to patients with other blood types
  
• There is always a need for Type O donors because their blood may be transfused to a person of any blood type in an emergency

While we were out and about in Ames we stopped by the police station to get her car seat inspected. We were glad we did this since the base was not securely fastened and her harness was too loose. Ames provides this for free and I definitely recommend it for new parents.

We will post some new pictures later tonight.