My newborn son was readmitted to the hospital the day after we were discharged home. He was admitted with jaundice and needed to be in light therapy. Being a new mom, this was very overwhelming for me. My son was struggling to eat and was vomiting often. His bilirubin levels kept getting higher and he was getting more and more dehydrated and lethargic.
We were on the pediatric floor and Valerie was floated from her department there. Valerie spent a good portion of her shift in our room helping my son with nursing and teaching us techniques for at home. She taught us multiple ways to help our baby feed better. She gave us recommendations for certain bottles and ways to properly burp him without causing him to vomit. Through that night, my son was able to keep his milk down and was finally making more dirty diapers in order to excrete the bilirubin.
By morning, we could tell a big change in our baby and we owe it to Valerie for taking the extra time to come in our room for every feeding and answering all of our questions. She was always eager to help out and devote the extra time to us. We were able to be discharged the next day and although his bilirubin trended up for a few days it is now trending down and has avoided a second hospital admission. I think if Valerie didn't spend the extra time with us to teach us what we needed to do for our son to help him get better, we would have been readmitted again for the same thing. Valerie was truly a huge help and I cannot thank her enough for what she did for my family.