My wife has been colonized by a harmless (to adults) Strep Group B. usually not a problem as long as the mother has IV antibiotics. This is why we went into the hospital when we thought her water broke, for the antibiotics.
What we didn't know was that they need to be administered four hours before birth. So all day Sunday, we were being told not to come in by the midwives. At one point, they said we could come in for the epidural but the wife was thinking she wasn't going to do the epidural. They said that their big concern was that they didn't want her to come in on a false alarm and send her home. What they should have said was "get in here, those antibiotics need to be in you". We figured that as long as she had the IV during birth, that things would be cool. So we get there at 3ish, they pop in the IV, she's already 9.5cm dilated. But later we find out that no antibiotics were given through the IV. Reason: we waited too long to come in (!!!!!!!!!! This is when I start to get pissed off). My guess is that the midwife wanted to make sure SHE wasn't going to be at the hospital all day, or at least until the first playoff game was over.
So by being exposed during birth, he could pick up several different horrible things. And his blood tests show that he did start to fight some type of infection. So they have had to poke him, prick him, catheter him, spinal fucking tap him (unsuccessfully), etc. rather than taking another crack at a spinal tap, we opted to leave him for a week. So I am not so much concerned about his long term health as I am the things he has had to go through. I am concerned about my wife. She is sweet and kind but prone to depression (or we would live down the street from @Hookabelly ). Leaving our little guy will be tough on her. So I will be by her side until he gets home. We had her folks stay back East until he gets home. I know that my wife needs the rest I order to not fall apart. Parents would complicate things too much.
He's really cute. I keep thinking about Holly Hunter in Raising Arizona. "Oh Hy, I love him so much!"
UB sorry I am so very sick and I only signed in to answer this and GWN's offered loan of a Holland (I accepted gratefully).
Get that kid home ASAP. Get it on it's mama's breast. Her body will keep the beta hemolytic strep in check as it did for her. Do this before they pass the kid MRSA. If he needs antibiotics they can be given at home. As for the jaundice you can rent a light but it's not usually that necessary for bilirubinemia this far out unless they had to transfuse and even THAT they can do on an out patient basis.
I am resident for all kinds of flora and fauna you guys have not even heard of, Serratia Marcescens anyone? My kids are all old and mean now and I had the last 2 at home because of a hauntingly similar experience with my first and I am from the medical community, surprisingly many of us had our children at home! LOL
Nothing Holly carries can even compare to what we do not get off from under our fingernails at work even when we wash our hands, get that kid home! Do everything you can outpatient.
Simply EXPECT a good dose of post partum from Holly, with all this hubub etc.. Get her a grow light too it will help Get her out and walking that kid in the sunshine
hugs,
Annie