Lip Tie

In the midst of tons of family, trying to pack a house, and remodel, I have had some difficulties feeding Wembley and getting her to gain weight.  When she was about 5 weeks, we discovered that she had a really bad lip tie.  I researched and read and talked to a lot of different people about whether this would affect nursing.  It is a fairly new thing to even consider isolated lip tie as a nursing issue, so I wasn't sure if I should have it lasered.  But the pediatrician noted that it was pretty severe, and so I figured when she gets orthodontia work, she will probably have to get it done anyways.  Might as well do it now and hope that it helps nursing.

When we went to see the ENT doctor, he was convinced based on her symptoms that she had a tongue tie as well before even looking at her mouth.  She, however, did not.  We decided to go through with the frenectomy.  I was really anxious: it was sad thinking about Wembley in pain, and I also felt extremely desperate for this to be the answer to her feeding problems.

It was a family affair, and Briz did a good job comforting her sister before the surgery.

She also spent most of the time taking selfies: her new favorite thing.

They took Wembley in the other room, which I had mixed feelings about.  I'm not sure I could have handled being in the same room, but I hated that I wasn't there with her.  When she came back she wasn't crying, her eyes were just swollen with tears :(  I nursed her immediately and she seemed to do better, but I wasn't sure if this was simply beause she was traumatized.  

Over the next week I decided to cold turkey the bottle and really try to hammer out nursing.  She did pretty good for a few days.  Her latch was significantly better and she seemed to be gradually eating more (although still not enough).  After a few days. however, she developed thrush again and then started puking like a maniac and immediately became even worse at nursing.  Finally at about 6 weeks, I decided that it wasn't worth my sanity anymore.  I was anxious about her lack of weight gain, was having to pump and supplement all of the time anyways, and I hated that she never seemed to be satisfied.  So we took a break from nursing.  I am now pumping and bottle feeding full time and its quite a pain.  But I love that she is gaining steady weight, that I don't worry about that, and it is nice to have a bit of freedom.  I haven't given up 100% on nursing.  I am going to continually try to introduce to see how she does, hoping that as she gets bigger and stronger, she may improve.