Not tongue tied!
Welp, Mr. Ben is not tongue tied - yay! However he has some bad habits that he learned in the NICU while trying to control the flow of the bottles to protect his air way. And a poor latch. And I have vasospasms (loss of blood to the nipple during nursing, which causes pain) and a bleb (damaged milk duct on one side, then when it heals the skin grows over the hole, which could be the reason for recurrent clogs on one side). The bleb is the cause of my severe pain on that side, and it is exacerbated by the vasospasms so that's awesome.
So, we've got issues!
The plan of attack is to only allow him to nurse if he is actively sucking and swallowing, and limit him to 20 minutes at a time. If he's still hungry after that, offer a bottle of pumped milk and pump (pumping will be easier on the nips than his piranha latch). Apply heat after nursing to bring the blood back, put this anti-bacterial stuff on to keep the bleb from getting infected, write down all his feedings, come back Friday and weigh him and update the doc on what is going on. And work, work work on the latch. I think that's it.
So far it has been hit or miss. I've only given him one bottle, and when I pumped I actually got the same amount that was in the bottle so that was cool. It was really nice to not have a marathon nursing session last night. Also, he slept for 3 hours straight! And only woke up twice last night! We didn't get to bed until 11:30 p.m. and were up for the day at 7:45 so I'm still a bit tired, but totally loving the long stretches of sleep. Yesterday evening was a nightmare with trying to follow this system and him being fussy in general but I think it will take some practice. It's also hard because he likes to nurse before he falls asleep, so he gives hunger cues but he isn't hungry...put him on the boob and he will be out cold in less than 5 minutes, and a bottle will not do the trick. So I don't know if that is supposed to count as a feeding or not. I have been letting him do that sometimes. last night I tried for like 30 minutes to get him to sleep with the pacifier and he wasn't having it, so I nursed him and he went right to sleep.
I think I had gotten complacent with letting him just nurse lazily and use me for a pacifier. He was hanging out just waiting for the next let down to come instead of working for it. Nursing sessions would take 45 minutes sometimes, with only an hour between them. It's nice to get a bit of a break.
Part of me is anxious that he isn't getting enough to eat but we will weigh him again in 2 days. And I'm sure he'd cry if he wasn't getting enough, right?
The doctor was trying to make him cry so she could evaluate his frenulum, and so she changed his diaper...no crying. Put on his clothes...no crying. Poked and prodded him, no crying! She said he is a very good baby and I have to agree. :) He did finally start crying when he started getting sleepy.
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Miss M occasionally doesn't like to get dressed in the morning and chooses to wear her jammies to preschool. I let her, it is not worth the fight for me and I honestly do not have the time or energy to force a screaming kicking toddler to change her clothes. She isn't going to die from wearing her jammies; in fact wanting her to look cute is more for my own sake than for hers at this point, you know what I mean?
Well yesterday the jammies she happened to be wearing was a fleece zip-up sleeper. It got up into the 60's yesterday (yay!). When I got to preschool to pick her up she had changed clothes. Apparently she had complained that she was "itchy" so they just put her in some extra clothes they had there?? I told them no, if she doesn't want to get dressed then she needs to deal with the consequences of that for the day. Flustrating! It's not like I'm too lazy to get her dressed..she is learning cause and effect. And it's a process that should not be interfered with, IMHO. She is by far the most stubborn of all the kids. Oy.
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Y: Mommy, do I look cute in my red pants and green shirt?
Me: (hesitating).. Honey, you always look cute.
:)
I let them pick out their own clothes as long as they are weather appropriate. Sometimes I wonder what other people think...most of the time I don't care. Ha ha ha. :)
So, we've got issues!
The plan of attack is to only allow him to nurse if he is actively sucking and swallowing, and limit him to 20 minutes at a time. If he's still hungry after that, offer a bottle of pumped milk and pump (pumping will be easier on the nips than his piranha latch). Apply heat after nursing to bring the blood back, put this anti-bacterial stuff on to keep the bleb from getting infected, write down all his feedings, come back Friday and weigh him and update the doc on what is going on. And work, work work on the latch. I think that's it.
So far it has been hit or miss. I've only given him one bottle, and when I pumped I actually got the same amount that was in the bottle so that was cool. It was really nice to not have a marathon nursing session last night. Also, he slept for 3 hours straight! And only woke up twice last night! We didn't get to bed until 11:30 p.m. and were up for the day at 7:45 so I'm still a bit tired, but totally loving the long stretches of sleep. Yesterday evening was a nightmare with trying to follow this system and him being fussy in general but I think it will take some practice. It's also hard because he likes to nurse before he falls asleep, so he gives hunger cues but he isn't hungry...put him on the boob and he will be out cold in less than 5 minutes, and a bottle will not do the trick. So I don't know if that is supposed to count as a feeding or not. I have been letting him do that sometimes. last night I tried for like 30 minutes to get him to sleep with the pacifier and he wasn't having it, so I nursed him and he went right to sleep.
I think I had gotten complacent with letting him just nurse lazily and use me for a pacifier. He was hanging out just waiting for the next let down to come instead of working for it. Nursing sessions would take 45 minutes sometimes, with only an hour between them. It's nice to get a bit of a break.
Part of me is anxious that he isn't getting enough to eat but we will weigh him again in 2 days. And I'm sure he'd cry if he wasn't getting enough, right?
The doctor was trying to make him cry so she could evaluate his frenulum, and so she changed his diaper...no crying. Put on his clothes...no crying. Poked and prodded him, no crying! She said he is a very good baby and I have to agree. :) He did finally start crying when he started getting sleepy.
________________________________________________
Miss M occasionally doesn't like to get dressed in the morning and chooses to wear her jammies to preschool. I let her, it is not worth the fight for me and I honestly do not have the time or energy to force a screaming kicking toddler to change her clothes. She isn't going to die from wearing her jammies; in fact wanting her to look cute is more for my own sake than for hers at this point, you know what I mean?
Well yesterday the jammies she happened to be wearing was a fleece zip-up sleeper. It got up into the 60's yesterday (yay!). When I got to preschool to pick her up she had changed clothes. Apparently she had complained that she was "itchy" so they just put her in some extra clothes they had there?? I told them no, if she doesn't want to get dressed then she needs to deal with the consequences of that for the day. Flustrating! It's not like I'm too lazy to get her dressed..she is learning cause and effect. And it's a process that should not be interfered with, IMHO. She is by far the most stubborn of all the kids. Oy.
____________________________________________________
Y: Mommy, do I look cute in my red pants and green shirt?
Me: (hesitating).. Honey, you always look cute.
:)
I let them pick out their own clothes as long as they are weather appropriate. Sometimes I wonder what other people think...most of the time I don't care. Ha ha ha. :)
Other people think: "somebody got to dress himself today!" Or at least any sane, reasonable other person who has ever had a child that age thinks that. And who cares what anyone else thinks?!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the nursing. It can be a process. I remember being told once that if the baby stayed on for too long, she started burning more calories than she took in. Don't remember the source, so take that with a grain of salt. Point being, you might be pleasantly surprised at the weigh in!
Hate it when well-meaning people interfere with natural consequences. :)