7 weeks and a tongue tie

Seven weeks.  Time is flying by!  My maternity leave is almost up (only about 5 weeks left, give or take).  This week has been crazy.  Poor Em has come down with strep and Nathaniel has had the sniffles.

The Good
At 7 weeks, I must admit, I still have it pretty easy.  While Nathaniel doesn’t sleep as much as he did when he was first born (Thank God!), he’s still a really calm baby.  He rarely fusses, and when he does, it’s usually when I put him down and he isn’t quite ready.  This is usually around 2pm-ish.  I haven’t really been putting him down for naps and have been feeding on demand.  He still is sleeping from 11pm to 2:30am and then from 3:30am to about 6:30am.  When he does wake up, he’s all business.  Get changed, eat, then back to sleep!
I really don’t like binkies but ok…
Breast-feeding has been going a lot better. Since my last post at approximately 4 1/2 weeks old, I have been exclusively breast-feeding (well, pretty much.  I have given him a total of 6 oz of formula or 3 bottles since then).  His latest weigh in was about 8lbs and 9 oz, which was on the 27th when he got his tongue tie snipped (more to come about that nightmare later…).  Currently, I’m on the hunt for a sling that will free up my hands a little while we nurse.
Challenges
So the challenges are still mostly aimed at myself.  I really struggle to practice good nutrition right now.  On the positive side, I’ve lost 30lbs since Nathaniel’s birth.  On the negative side, I haven’t been maintaining a healthy diet like I should, which leads me to be extremely tired.  It’s just so hard to find time to eat and with a gluten allergy, there aren’t a lot of snack foods that I can just toss back.  I feel like everytime I try to pause and get some food, Nathaniel either has a dirty diaper, needs to nurse, or is snuggled up to me and I don’t want to wake him.  
However, I have been looking for nursing sling so that I can potentially wear Nathaniel around, have my hands free, and he can nurse whenever he wants.
One of the other challenges I’m having with nursing is while Nathaniel is a lot more alert, he still falls asleep often when nursing.  This extends our nursing sessions.  He is also cluster feeding and still very much on a two hour nursing schedule.  Hopefully though, if I can find a sling that works for me, this will help out immensely.  I’ll be able to get some chores done, hold my baby, feed my baby, and have my hands free to feed myself!  Wouldn’t that be nice =D
I’m hungry!  Give me milkies!
The Tongue-tie
So lets talk about the barbaric tongue-tie procedure that poor Nathaniel and I undertook on the 27th.  After seeing two different lactation consultants AND his pediatrician, Nathan and I decided to have Nathaniel’s tongue-tie snipped.  His tongue-tie was definitely not HORRIBLE, but it was causing some latching issues and could, in the future, cause some speech impediments.  Everyone said it was an easy procedure best done when they are young because they don’t remember it.
Ok.  Great.  The worst that was suggested was that it probably stings a lot.
So, I went to EMMC and met with the pediatric surgeon who detailed how the process was going to go down.  I was horrified.
1. They put a clamp on the frenulum of the tongue.  There is no anesthetic such as lidocaine.
2. The clamp must stay on the frenulum for three minutes.  During this time, it is crushing this site, crushing the blood cells, which reduces pain, essentially numbing the site as well as cutting off the blood supply to the area.
3. During this time, I was told, Nathaniel is going to scream.  It hurts and they don’t like it.  They have to hold him down as well as hold his head.  It was suggested that I could wait out in the hall, however, I thought it was pretty terrible to subject my child to this medieval torture and not be there to hold him, so I made the decision to stay in the room and hold his arms in a swaddle.
4. After three minutes, carefully timed by the pediatrician surgeon’s iPhone, they would snip the frenulum, and I would be able to nurse him. 
Listening to Nathaniel scream for three minutes, was pretty hard and traumatizing for everyone in the room.  The nurse held his head while I held his arms down.  After the three minutes, the surgeon took off the clamp and had to cut twice to remove the frenulum.  I scooped Nathaniel from the table and nursed him for a good 30 minutes.  He calmed down pretty quickly, but I bet it hurt for a day or so.  Since then, he latches better (but still snacks and naps while nursing.  I swear I must have Ambien in my milk…) and I have noticed a difference in how he uses his tongue.  He sticks it out more, drools a little bit, and blows bubbles.  It’s pretty cute…  but now I’m definitely not looking forward to his pediatrician appointment on the 9th… 5 shots is probably going to equal a fussy, screaming child to further traumatize Mommy…
So, I’ll end this post with a cute picture from Easter!  Found the suit online at Walmart.com!  It’s newborn size and super cute!
Sleepy baby

Nate, Grampy, and Em

Everyone is always horrified to see Emma pick up Nat, but really she’s very gentle and very careful with him! What a great big sis!

Pretty Emmy
A dapper fellow

What a face!
Jamie Webster

About Jamie Webster

Just your average blogger. Married 2 years with two wonderful children who are 6 years apart. Little about me: I’m turning 31 this year (yikes), have had 9 foot surgeries in 8 years and have spent a little over 4 years of my life in and out of a wheel chair (or scooter). And today, I am training for a half marathon. I attribute two major changes in my life to my healing: the power of goal setting and going gluten free.