As I may have mentioned already, breast feeding has been a bit troublesome for us due to latch issues with Alchemy and my nipples getting more and more damaged as a result. Thankfully, I have the nipple shields to use while I am trying to heal them.
Monday I got a hold of a lactation specialist who was referred to me by my local La Leche League group that I contacted for help. She used to be the leader of the group a couple of years ago and came highly recommended by the new leader. Called her up and we made plans for her to come that evening to help me out. I was nervous, especially after I had such a bad experience with the postpartum midwife who came out to our house following the birth. When she (the PPM) left my house I was in tears, my baby was hysterical and I felt like a huge failure of a mother. Actually, I felt like Alchemy and I had just been very poorly treated physically and emotionally. This led to me booking my follow up visit for next week with someone else. Anyways, yes, nervous about the new person coming.
Thankfully, I didn't have to be. D arrived and was instantly the perfect gentle smile and hand for us. She had a lot of wisdom to go with her own personal experience with 4 kids, and is well studied on lactation issues and very thorough in her inspection of both me and Alchemy to try to help us. She started by checking for a high palate which she did not have. Next, she checked for a tongue tie, which she did see. I was happy someone finally saw what I had seen all along and asked about several times at the hospital, being told "no, she's fine". Tongue tie is a definite cause of latch issues because it keeps a baby from lifting their tongue all the way to the roof of their mouth, or sticking it out beyond their bottom lip. If they have limited movement, they can't latch to the breast correctly or pull the nipple back far enough to nurse correctly. While this may sound like bad news, it was actually good news because it is fixable with a simple procedure. D referred me to an ENT doc who is very good at diagnosing and treating tongue ties and told me to follow up with him. After that we weighed her, then nursed her in two sessions, weighing her at the middle and end to see how much milk she was taking in. She took in 3 oz in that hour and made good weight gain. If she isn't already, she will probably be back to her birth weight in a day or so. D helped us calculate how much milk she should be taking in per feeding according to her weight, and also told us that once she has returned to birth weight, we can stop waking her at night if we want and let her self wake to nurse (allowing us a little more sleep potentially). Overall, the visit was calming, reaffirming and left me feeling like I had a plan of action that would make things easier for us.
The next day we got in to see the ENT. He confirmed that Alchemy did have a minor and hard to see tongue tie, her frenulum being far back as it should be, but short and thick. The procedure they use to fix it is to numb it and cut it, releasing the tongue to move better. This of course sounds horrible and there was no way I could hold her steady for it even though I wanted to still be in the room, so two kind nurses held her and in 30 seconds, snip. She cried but stopped bleeding pretty quickly and was sucking on my finger for comfort immediately. He checked her twice more to make sure all was well, then sent us home, letting us know that while it may take her a week or so to relearn how to suck correctly, we should see a great improvement. Hallelujah.
Of course, there are still sore nipples to deal with, so I am still using the shields while we get them healed and then should see an improvement in her nursing better with me not being injured anymore. I got an awesome prescription nipple ointment made this morning that should help them heal well faster, so I have my fingers crossed. The last two days she has switched up the game on us and instead of eating then sleeping soundly for a while, she is eating, then screaming and fussing while being gassy before begging to eat again... and repeat. We have gotten very little sleep. At the pharmacy I found gas relieving drops and something called Gripe Water they say works great for indigestion and hiccups. We are going to see if those help and also have me off dairy for a couple of days to see if there is a change to end all this constant crying. (perhaps this will fix our headaches and exhaustion)
I saw the doctor this morning who said I am healing well, took off my steristrips and told me to take it easy but that all looks good. I have another follow up in early November to make sure everything healed perfectly. While at the doc they weighed me as usual, I almost fell off the scale in shock. I have lost 20 pounds since her birth- most of it probably being her and the placenta, but it's crazy that I am only 6 pounds heavier than my pre birth weight right now, and that is probably mostly my big milky boobs. Hopefully this means I should have a quick recovery back to my regular clothing, perhaps by January.
Getting closer to the weekend, I am looking forward to small moments of baby included happiness- Sunshine Gardens is having their plant sale for Fall/Winter plants that I am hoping we can get so that we have some plants in for this season. Our poor garden has taken a huge hit both from the summer heat and us being busy with work and the baby arriving, yet once life calms down a bit, I think we will be happy to have a fall harvest going again. Sunday there is a free musical performance in a local park that we could go to if we are up to it just to get out in the world for a bit. I am looking forward to being more healed just so we can get out more, I am a bit stir crazy always being home and mostly in bed.
Location:Austin, TX
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