The Tongue Tie Day

Having checked all the details (postcode, department area, time to be there etc...) we decided Dad could drive both Steve and I as the note said to leave 1/2 hr to find parking and Dad could just come back for us at a moment's notice which would alleviate any stress in that area!!

So off we went, Joel slept all the way there in his car seat (this was his longest journey yet!) and we found our way to the Childrens outpatient ward were another girl and her mum were sat with a baby of a similar age.  Turns out they were there for the tongue tie procedure as well!  At the same time!  It seems that the midwife had double booked herself and thought she'd re-arranged us for 1pm!!!  I showed her the email that she'd sent me to say 3pm as I'd have been there bang on 1pm had we been informed!

Anyway, she didn't seem to mind too much and after asking us some general questions she asked Steve whether he'd like to hold Joel whilst the cut was made.  He went a bit pale and said he felt it was something a health professional would be better doing!!  She asked if I wanted to and I was feeling a bit emotional and said I didn't want to be a wimp but I wasn't sure I'd be ok to do it, so a nurse came in. 

She held Joel and the Midwife (Jenny) bent over him and it was all very quick, I heard a snip snip and a 'waaaah' which wasn't a normal cry, it was a  pained and bewildered cry and she handed him over to me dabbing inside his mouth where I could see a little well of blood emerging.

I then had to pop a boob out and get him to latch on and straight away I could see his jaw dropping a lot more than it ever had before.  He was obviously able to get much longer sucks out now whereas as before he was just getting a little and taking ages to take his fill.  I hadn't realised what a difference it would/could make!

It was a bit gross though as I could see his milk dribbles were pink having mixed with his blood but it didn't bleed for very long and we transferred into a breastfeeding room so he could finish his mid afternoon snack!!  (He had been asleep for a good couple of hours so was a hungry boy!)

We then drove home and he whimpered once on the journey but slept the rest of the way like a good baby and has been fine since.

We've seen the tongue coming in and out a lot!  It's like he's learning he can do more with it now and it must have been quite restricted before.

I'm going to try and get to a breastfeeding class in town on Tuesday to enquire about his latch.  I feel that sometimes he's struggling now and especially on my right breast, that one seems to hurt quite a bit after a feed and gets very twingy so it'd be good to see a breastfeeding support worker again.  I really want to give it a good go and there's so much support available it's silly to not approach it.

So that's that.  He just has a white ulcer looking thing under his tongue now which will heal away shortly and he's none the wiser, just a lot freer to feed properly so lets hope we see a difference very soon!  :)