Little Glow Worm

When I was pregnant, we explained to our older daughter that we would soon be having another little baby and it would come live with us. She would often give me her Glow Worm and tell me it was her baby. Maybe I should have taken that as foreshadowing.

Our daughter was born a few weeks early and had some nursing issues in the beginning (ones that I still promise I will write about) and was pretty jaundice. By pretty I mean she basically glowed a nice yellow color, even with the lights off--I'm kidding, sort of.

I guess she was a Glow Worm after all.

Now, the only way to get rid of the yucky jaundice is for them to poop. The only way for babies to poop is to eat. The only way my baby was eating at that time was from me. Can we say exhausting?

My doctor gave me strict orders to get up every two hours no matter how long baby wanted to sleep and wake her up to eat. He allowed only one long stretch of no more than four hours per night. It was so difficult to hear my alarm go off and have to wake my baby. But, she needed it. The jaundice, he told me, was making her sleepier, but she couldn't get rid of it unless she was awake.

Night after night, I set an alarm, woke her up, fed her and repeated the process every two hours.

At first I thought "why am I doing this to my poor child? And HOW can my husband just snore through my alarm!" However, she got better and our nursing relationship got better as well. It was a long week or so, but soon our little Glow Worm was a Glow Worm no more.

Though, it was fun to freak unsuspecting people out that first week with our neon yellow baby!