6 weeks old

Sorry for the delay between postings but I'm sure you have an idea of why I might not have too much time on my hands these days :)

Jackson is 6 weeks old today and is doing pretty well overall - he weighed 6 lbs 14 oz at his doctor's visit on Tuesday which is just awesome. However, he is still anemic and is bordering on having severe anemia at this point. Basically, he has two things going on - anemia of prematurity (which anemia is common in babies in general but usually their numbers begin to level off and go back up by 6-8 weeks of age) and he also is dealing with hemolytic disease of the newborn .. which is just a fancy way of saying that he and I have different blood types. When he was born, some antibodies that I made because of this passed on to him and basically attacked his red blood cells. So these two things together are causing his red blood cell count to continue to decline. They did another blood test on Tuesday and his numbers had dropped to 7.5 and 22 (they like them to be around 11 and high 20's at the least).

Even though he hasn't had any major symptoms, he will need a blood transfusion regardless if his second number gets to a 20 or below. They also did another blood test (they had to draw it from his little arm) and they should be calling with the results of that hopefully today. That test will tell them if the iron drops, multivitamins and formula with iron are actually working in terms of helping his anemia even though his numbers aren't indicating anything yet. We want his number to be high on this test .. either the doctor or the nurse will call with the results once they are in. I'm praying it's today.

Jackson has been a little bit more fussy, hasn't eaten as much as he has been (just since yesterday afternoon and he's been eating like a champ) and he's been quite sleepy, all of which are symptoms of anemia. BUT it's really hard to tell if it's just him being him or if it's related to the anemia directly. I'm trying really hard not to make symptoms up :) I don't want to be paranoid, but at the same time if he is exhibiting any symptoms, he'll also get the transfusion regardless.

So if you would, please pray for him and for us. That his numbers will plateau and then begin to increase again over the coming weeks and for us that we'll be wise in discerning whether he really is showing symptoms or if he's just being himself. Obviously, his weight gain is a great thing - the doctor said that the first symptom is usually lack of appetite. And since he's gained another 10 ounces this past week, we are encouraged about that. We just really don't want him to have to have a blood transfusion. But if it becomes necessary, then of course we'll do it.

Thanks for praying :) We appreciate it very much! I'll try to post more pictures soon - they are on the other computer.