Discouraging News...

Well, it's not tongue tie... We just left Dr. Cashman's office, and he said he didn't want to do the procedure because her tongue wasn't restricted enough. Back to square one!

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. :-)

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....

The Good and the Bad

Because Sara has been slow to gain weight, we had to go in Wednesday for a weight check. The news was good and bad.

The good news is, she gained weight like a champ (even more than average)! She weighed 5lb 13.5oz last time, and that was 13 days before, so she needed to gain between 6.5 oz (1/2 oz/day) and 13 oz (1 oz/day). She actually gained more than an ounce per day -- 15 oz total! Ha :-) I'm so glad we didn't go ahead with the formula supplementation like he wanted us to. So, she's almost 7 lbs now (funny to think she's still smaller than I expected her to be at birth!!), and she also grew 1.5 inches.

The bad news is that I noticed a bulge in her groin area a couple of weeks ago, a soft bump that sticks out when she cries. When she's lying still, you can't see it. Anyway, I asked him about it, and he said it was an inguinal hernia and will require surgery. :-( I can't stand the thought of her getting put under and cut on, but if we don't do it, her intestines could get caught in the hole and "die" from lack of blood flow. She also has an umbilical hernia, which we already knew, and doesn't require surgery, but he said that they would probably fix it while they were there anyway, even though it would heal on its own in a year or so. It's not an emergency he said, I just have to keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't show signs of strangulation (when the intestines get caught). He gave me the name of a surgeon in the area who does these, so I'm going to go ahead and take her for an initial visit, even if we put off surgery for a few months (the pediatrician said it probably wouldn't be necessary before 6 months, and maybe even later). Poor baby Sara!! At least it's fixable though (not a tumor or something like I feared!), and surprisingly common (about 1 in 20 babies have them). And it doesn't hurt her as far as I can tell, so that's good. I'm just not looking forward to the recovery!

Concerns

Sara finally lost her "billy" (umbilical) cord, as Zack calls it, on Christmas Eve. So, 2 days later when she "blew" all over herself, she got her 1st sink bath!



Sara had a weight check appointment today since she's so little and hadn't regained her birth weight by 3 weeks. She gained 4.5 oz in 9 days, which is at the very bottom of the range of acceptable rate of gain. SO they want to see her back in 2 weeks to recheck.

Doctor's Appointment

Sara had her check-up yesterday with Dr. Sara Meyers at NW Pediatric. Everything looks great, they say. She gained 9 oz (not a lot I guess, but they said for her size, that's a good amount of gain) and 3/4 inch. She had lost so much (down to 5 lbs) in that first rough week, that the 9 oz only puts her at 5lb 9oz, so since she's still 2 oz under her birth weight, they want us to go back next week just to make sure she's reached it by then. But, other than that, all is well!