About two days after we were home, I noticed that Dax hadn't pooped since a couple of hours of being home from the hospital. I started getting nervous and talked to Jason about my concerns. So we decided that if he didn't poop by 3:00 that day we would take him to Children's Close To Home (Urgent Care). It was a Sunday and so we couldn't get him into the pediatrician. So they took an X-ray to check for bowel obstruction and then did a blood test to check his biliruben levels. The X-Ray looked great, but they found his biliruben levels were extremely high at 25. The doctor that saw him told us that at a 28, he would have to have a blood transfusion. So she told us we would have to admit him to Children's Hospital. She said that he would have to go under some bili lights and would probably get to leave in one or two days.
When we got to the hospital, we found out that he was dehydrated and an IV would be necessary. They began doing heel pricks every six hours to test his bili levels and make sure things were headed in the right direction. The problem is that a newborns blood isn't stable like a bigger person and so his blood kept hemalizing and clotting and so they weren't able to get an accurate reading. So that meant more heel pricks for him.
One day went by, then two, we started seeing his levels decreasing, but never enough to go home. Three days, then four they took him off of the lights for six hours to see how his levels would react and they jumped back up, so that meant more lights and more foot pricks. They kept us on the pediatric cancer floor in the hospital because he was a full grown baby and was too big for NICU and it was the cleanest place in the hospital for a newborn. The rooms in between our rooms both had long time residents who were being treated and were missing all of their hair. As I sat in my room with Dax, all I could think about was how grateful and blessed we were that this was all we were being seen for. But it was so hard to be there knowing what these other families around me were going through. Still they had no answers as to why Dax's levels weren't dropping. They did more blood tests, testing liver enzymes which came back negative. Finally after six days of being in the hospital, they had good news, they would release us as long as I took a wallaby(portable bili-lights) home and took him daily to Urgent Care and had his bili levels checked. Yep, more heel pricks.
By the time we left the hospital in both heels he had been pricked over 40 times and they could no longer squeeze blood out fast enough, so instead they had to do peripheral blood draws (out of both arms). I was a complete wreck, here was this poor helpless little baby and he just couldn't get a break. They still had no idea what his diagnosis was and so we were referred to a hematologist. Finally 3 weeks later we had a diagnosis. Hereditary Spherocytosis. Apparently it has something to do with the protein breaking down the blood cells and causing them to be so fragile that they burst which causes anemia. Now that we know that, I have to check occasionally where his spleen is and make sure that it is soft. Other than that most children by the age of six have a spleenectomy. So, so, so scary to hear when you bring a new baby into the world, but I am so grateful that he is home and not at the hospital and that our family is together and whole again. Not seeing my children and not having everyone together was so hard, I don't know what I would have done without all of the help that we received from my parents. Also having Jason by my side in the hospital while all of this was happening, really made things so much better because it would have been so hard to go through it alone.
My little couch potato.
Oh, I miss the days where you can put your child down on the couch and you know that they aren't going to roll or move because they haven't developed the muscles to do it yet.
Nice, relaxed and comfy.
So the nice part about his hair is that it naturally goes into a mohawk without any product in it.
Either my hand is really big, or he was really that little. Time flies...
I think I've seen this same pose on a movie called Zoolander.
I miss the cuddly newborn phase where they can just fall asleep anywhere. I can't even get him to fall asleep on me anymore.
So Teiggy proudly shows us that his primary teacher at church taught him how to trace his own hands without any help.
Unfortunately, she forgot to mention to just use crayons and not markers. Thanks Sister England.
But it's okay because daddy was there to let him know how proud he was of him.
I was so happy when Dax turned 1 month. I couldn't believe that we had made it so far. Yes I was tired and yes I was semi-delirious, but he was here and I thanked the lord for his existance every single day.
Kasyn and Teig have been so good at adapting to having him here. They talk to him and hug him and kiss him. Kasyn even lets him pull her hair. It's nice to be a normal and happy family.
Once again, like always, Jason was on call over Easter weekend. I saw this cute craft while I was at the hematologists office with Dax and wanted to let the kids do something fun.
So on Easter, I took the kids to church and because Jason wasn't home yet from the hospital, the kids took a nap after church and it was then that the Easter Bunny showed up.
That Saturday before Easter, our neighborhood HOA had an Easter Egg hunt. So we walked down by the pond where the hunt was and Kasyn and Teig were able to get a lot of candy and prizes.
Teig didn't know when to stop even though his basket was overflowing with eggs.
It was so cute, on the way home Kasyn grabbed him by the hand and walked all the way home together like that. 
The day after we got home from the hospital with Dax, we decided that since my family was still in town and since we didn't know what was going to happen healthwise with Dax, we would give him his baby blessing. Since he was still on the wallaby, we knew we couldn't do it at the church.
It was really nice just having a small number of people there for the blessing and I think that it helped a lot with Jason's nerves. He did a really great job on the blessing and it was the first time that my dad was able to help bless one of his grandchildren.
I asked Brother Dean to come over and help out with the blessing and he was nice enough to come over and be there for it. Afterwards, I felt a lot better knowing that at just 10 days old, he had a blessing, things were starting to look up again.
Grandma is just trying to talk to Dax about his upcoming bath.
I don't think the talk worked too well.
Why does he hate bath's so much?
Ahhhhh, so glad that's over. Now it's time to get some sleep.
One day went by, then two, we started seeing his levels decreasing, but never enough to go home. Three days, then four they took him off of the lights for six hours to see how his levels would react and they jumped back up, so that meant more lights and more foot pricks. They kept us on the pediatric cancer floor in the hospital because he was a full grown baby and was too big for NICU and it was the cleanest place in the hospital for a newborn. The rooms in between our rooms both had long time residents who were being treated and were missing all of their hair. As I sat in my room with Dax, all I could think about was how grateful and blessed we were that this was all we were being seen for. But it was so hard to be there knowing what these other families around me were going through. Still they had no answers as to why Dax's levels weren't dropping. They did more blood tests, testing liver enzymes which came back negative. Finally after six days of being in the hospital, they had good news, they would release us as long as I took a wallaby(portable bili-lights) home and took him daily to Urgent Care and had his bili levels checked. Yep, more heel pricks.
By the time we left the hospital in both heels he had been pricked over 40 times and they could no longer squeeze blood out fast enough, so instead they had to do peripheral blood draws (out of both arms). I was a complete wreck, here was this poor helpless little baby and he just couldn't get a break. They still had no idea what his diagnosis was and so we were referred to a hematologist. Finally 3 weeks later we had a diagnosis. Hereditary Spherocytosis. Apparently it has something to do with the protein breaking down the blood cells and causing them to be so fragile that they burst which causes anemia. Now that we know that, I have to check occasionally where his spleen is and make sure that it is soft. Other than that most children by the age of six have a spleenectomy. So, so, so scary to hear when you bring a new baby into the world, but I am so grateful that he is home and not at the hospital and that our family is together and whole again. Not seeing my children and not having everyone together was so hard, I don't know what I would have done without all of the help that we received from my parents. Also having Jason by my side in the hospital while all of this was happening, really made things so much better because it would have been so hard to go through it alone.
So about 26 hours after I delivered Dax, we were finally able to take the cute baby boy home with us. I was so excited because of all of the help I would have with having Jason for three days and my parents for another 10 days. Everything was going so great until...
Dax was born on March 11 at 10:45 a.m. and a few hours later my family got a chance to meet him.
He looks so cuddly in Grandpa Cammack's arms.
Teig couldn't be more proud than to be able to meet his new baby brother. 
Kasyn, like always, was very intuitive and asked her daddy a lot of questions about her new brother.
Grandma Cammack had been waiting for so long for the opportunity to meet her newest and final grandchild and I was so grateful to have them here to meet him and help with Kasyn and Teig.
Dax just had his first bath. Doesn't he look happy? He still isn't thrilled about the idea of getting in water.
So apparently when I was delivering Dax, they found meconium in my amniotic fluid after my water broke. Which basically meant that he pooped during delivery. The concern is having it in his mouth and ingesting it during his first breath of life can cause infection, so he wasn't able to cry and so they had to breathe for him until they were sure he was okay.
Wow, how similar in weight he and Teig were. Teig was 8lbs 4oz. I love having a baby with hair, I think it gives them more personality.
This was the team that helped pre-delivery. Nurse Cara was amazing and treated me so well, unlike the horrible time that I had during the night with the first nurse. I'm grateful that she was the one to help walk me through everything. 
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