At the suggestion of the lactation specialist, Benjamin and I went to the Pediatric Dentist this morning to get a second opinion about his mouth issues. The dentist thought Benjamin was a good candidate for having his frenulum cut (the little flap of skin that is connecting his tongue to the bottom of his mouth). While she didn't say he actually has a tongue tie, she said she'd seen a lot of cases where babies mouths looked like Benjamin's and mothers reported a significant improvement when it was cut. She also said that by cutting it now, his mouth will grow more properly and the muscles in his mouth will strengthen better. She even said it might help avoid some possible orthodontic issues down the line.
The whole process took about 15 seconds, and I'd say at least 10 of those were the dentist and the nurse getting him to open his mouth the right way. He screamed while it was going on, but stopped immediately as soon as no one had their fingers in his mouth, and acted like nothing had happened. The dentist said if this doesn't make a difference she could cut more in a few days if I want her to.
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| sleeping in the waiting room |
She had me try to nurse right after the procedure and I DO think he was latching on much better, but it still hurt a good bit.... so I think I'm going to continue with Kay's instructions of bottle-feeding him expressed milk and in a day or so try latching him on again. I'm loathe to just try to nurse him now (even after the clipping procedure) since he gained so little weight last week. This is all so complicated! I had to pay for the procedure out of pocket, but they gave me the paperwork to submit it to insurance... I hope they pick up the cost!
Last night I ended up getting about four hours of sleep between waking up to pump, Benjamin not wanting to fall asleep, and our early morning dentist appointment. Then this afternoon I have my 6 week post-partum appointment at my doctor. Hopefully I can catch up on a bit of sleep in between those things!
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