3 Months Old!

Boy, I wasn’t sure we’d make it this far. :-) I think “roller coaster” is too mild a phrase for the up and down we’ve been on. I had no idea it could be so difficult just to keep a little baby alive. Some days I feel like that’s all I do. With all of Sara’s feeding and weight problems, it’s been more than a full-time job just to keep her full. I remember early on, in the first few weeks, feeling like there was something wrong with either me or my baby because I just couldn’t make her happy it seemed like – she seemed to always need to eat. It was probably 10 weeks before we realized that the problem was just that, even though she was nursing constantly, she wasn’t getting full. She was screaming because she was hungry! It was so sad to see her, fifteen minutes after eating, lying there screaming, clawing at her face, and chewing on her fist. At that point, I knew I couldn’t let her go on like that, so I decided we’d give her some formula. Just giving her 2-4 ounces per day has made the difference in her gaining from a couple of ounces a week, to a pound every two weeks.

We’re still working on the tongue tie thing. We went to the MD on Monday that Carla recommended, who referred us on to Dr. Cashman, an ENT, who will evaluate her on Thursday to see if she is truly a good candidate for clipping. We’re finally reaching the end of this long process! I can’t believe it’s taken three months to discover the problem, one that’s fairly common even. And the pediatrician, though kind, was no help. He and the lactation consultant there simply wanted to make sure Sara was gaining weight, and as long as she was, they didn’t seem to really care if it was from breastfeeding or not. And the staff was actually unfriendly. So we don’t plan to go back. The most help I’ve gotten was from the La Leche League, and from Jessica’s sister-in-law (through Jessica). The leader of the LLL is Kathy Freeman, the lactation consultant at Washington Regional, and she’s the one who actually “diagnosed” Sara with tongue tie. She was extremely kind and just wanted to help us, whatever it took.

But it certainly has not been all trials! She’s nine pounds now, so she’s getting stronger, and when she hit that magic 8-pound mark, she started sleeping through the night. I went from getting 1-2 hours of sleep at a time to getting 7-8 hours a time – literally overnight. She now sleeps from about 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. every night, sometimes even more. And she smiles! God certainly knew what He was doing when He made babies. He makes their cries so horrible that you are willing to drop what you are doing and do whatever it takes to make it stop, and He makes their smiles so sweet that you forget about the hard stuff. And He makes them so cute and cuddly that they’re sure to get held a lot! It’s so fun when I come back in the room where she is and get down to smile at her and talk to her, and she starts grinning and kicking and waving her arms with excitement. Sometimes when I’m talking to her and she’s looking up at me, grinning and watching my face intently, and trying out little baby noises in return, my eyes get teary because it amazes me how much I love her. I’m quite sure that “ah-goo” means “I love you, Mama!” :-)

Even though she’s small, she’s not behind on any of her milestones. Her first “social” smile was at 6 weeks, and now at 3 months, she’s already rolled over 3 times. No laughing yet, but I can tell she’s close. Zack and I sure do love her like crazy! It’s hard to think back and remember what it was like before her, even though it was such a short time ago in the grand scheme of things. Our lives are definitely changed and not our own anymore, but we’re already excited to see who God will add to our family in the future!

Sleep!

For the past 10 nights or so, Sara has slept through the night -- at least 5 hours at a time, and most nights around 7 hours (last night was 8)! I'm hoping this lasts. :)

Sara just rolled over!

True, it was more of a flop, but Sara was up on her tummy and plopped right over on her back.  I couldn't believe it, so I flipped her back over on her tummy, and she immediately turned right back over on her back.  I guess I can't leave her alone on the bed any more!

Finally -- some answers!

At the La Leche League meeting this morning, amazingly enough, the lactation consultant that I talked to on the phone the other day who was so helpful was the leader!  After the meeting, she looked at Sara and said she is most definitely tongue-tied.  She watched her latch on and also said that she should be sticking her tongue out when she latches, which Sara doesn't do at all and never has -- she actually kind of pulls her tongue back in.  She also confirmed that Sara seems to be chewing instead of sucking.  Anyway, she was very helpful and nice, and told me Sara is definitely a good candidate for clipping.  The only problem is that she doesn't know of anyone around here who does it.  That doesn't mean there isn't anyone, I'm just going to have to do some calling around.  But I feel like I've finally found an advocate in the professional world!  Hopefully I'll soon get to report that we've found someone to do it and all is well.  Maybe this will soon be all over...

Pediatrician

We went to the pediatrician yesterday to get Sara weighed.  That part was great -- she gained over a pound in 2 weeks!  So she's 8lb 13oz now.  Of course, that's getting some supplementing every day (2-4oz), so I still don't feel like the problem is solved.  The bad part was that they really only scheduled a weight check.  We didn't see a doctor, or even a nurse.  I told the girl who weighed her that I had been told by a lactation consultant that she had symptoms of tongue-tie, and I was wondering if any of the pediatricians there dealt with that.  She was really snooty and just said, "You'll just have to schedule another appointment for that."  Another appointment just to find out if they even handle that??  I don't think so.  These people have hardly been a bit of help the whole time, so I'm "shaking the dust off my feet" from that place; I don't plan to go back.

Today is the La Leche League meeting in Fayetteville.  Susan and I are going together, and I'm hoping that someone there can help point me in the right direction!  I'm sooooooo ready for some resolution to this!

EIGHT HOURS!!!

Sara and I went to see Dr. Sharma (my oral surgeon former employer) yesterday to see if she could be tongue-tied. He said that he usually only deals with the extreme cases, because simple cases are handled by the child's pediatrician, a pediatric dentist, or an ENT specialist. He also only does the surgery with general anesthesia, which is totally unnecessary for a baby like Sara. At her age, the frenulum is so thin that a simple clipping procedure -- with no pain-killer! -- is all that is required. Supposedly babies can nurse right away afterwards. SO, Dr. Sharma would not be doing any surgery on Sara, but he did say that though not extreme, her tongue does look tight. His recommendation was to just give her a bottle till she grows out of it, but now that I know this could be the problem, I'm going to ask her pediatrician about it today. In my mind, there is no reason to keep going through these feeding problems if it could be a simple fix.

On another note, as I've written before, most nights I give Sara a couple of ounces of formula because she sleeps so much better with a full belly. Well, last night, I decided I would see what happened if we didn't do any formula. She went to bed at 11:15, and now, at 7:35 -- over eight hours later! -- she's STILL ASLEEP!!!! No kidding! She did stir and whimper a few times in the night, but since she sleeps with me, I was able to cuddle her close and she fell right back asleep. It's hard not to get my hopes up that this will become a pattern. :-)

Recent pictures

Sara 2.5 months

Tongue-tied?

As I mentioned in my last post, we're wondering if Sara might be tongue-tied. As you can (sort of) see here, she definitely has a dip in her tongue when she sticks it out, a definite sign of being tongue-tied. We go see my former employer, Dr. Sharma (an oral surgeon), on Monday so he can see if this really is the culprit. I sure hope it's that simple!

3 Months Old

Sara is still having trouble nursing effectively, so we've been having to supplement with formuler.  Not something we wanted to do, but we don't feel bad about it since all effort has been made to avoid it.  Without it, she's in constant torments of hunger and frustration, which we're hoping will not leave a lasting impact on her.  The latest hypothesis is that Sara's tongue is too short to get a good latch, so Lauren is optimistic that there could be a quick fix.  If it doesn't work, I'm hoping we can get a dairy goat to keep in the back yard.

When she's not hungry or exhausted, she smiles a lot and loves to lie on her back on the floor and look around. 

Her favorite game so far is, "Wanna give mamma kisses??  Mua mua mua mua MUA!!"  She sure is cute.  

Still trudging along...

Last Tuesday we went back in for Sara's biweekly weight check. Eleven ounces in thirteen days! That's great, but it's still frustrating because it was with supplementing (pumped milk primarily). Sara evidently gains pretty well when I give her a bottle at least some. At night, I've even been giving her a couple of ounces of formula before bed because it makes the difference in her sleeping for 1-2 hours in a row and 5-7 hours! As anti-formula as I am/used to be, that's a no-brainer for me. Anyway, she's still having major problems with straight-up breastfeeding. She nurses for 40 minutes (that's as long as the lactation consultant said to let her go, after that it's burning more calories than she's getting), and then 15 minutes later, she's screaming and chewing her fist off. Jessica Ballinger thinks I should get her checked to see if she's tongue-tied. A lot of the "symptoms" are classic Sara -- losing suction easily, getting worn out quickly, lots of long pauses. So, I'm making an appointment with a pediatric dentist to get her evaluated. If so, it will be clipped, which supposedly is akin to getting your ears pierced -- they don't even anesthetize usually, and typically there is little or no blood. It's evidently a hereditary problem (which incidentally, Zack's brother had to have his tongue clipped). Anyway, I'll be so glad if it's that simple of a problem, because it supposedly makes all the difference in the world. On the flip side though, I'll be really irritated that the pediatrician, who has seen Sara 7+ times, and the lactation consultant didn't even look for it, even though it's an extremely common issue! Medical "professionals." Grrrrr....

Smiling Sara

It's a little long (about 3 minutes), but if you're patient, you'll get to see Sara's big smile!

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