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PG/TTC TF Mamas Chat - Page 7

post #121 of 130
12/11/12 at 10:28am
Update:
DS and I have had a VERY rocky start with breastfeeding. It hurt me from the very beginning, but everyone just kept saying that was normal. It has gotten worse every day of his life with nipples cracked and bleeding. He has a very strong suck and was determined to latch and so I thought nothing was wrong with him and that I was just being wimpy about the pain. He was also gaining tons of weight (7 lbs 10.5 oz at 2 do, 8 lbs 6.5 oz at 8 do), but the pain was so unbearable that I had to get some answers. Well it turns out he has an upper lip tie and a posterior tongue tie that are preventing him from getting a deep latch. Basically rather than sucking on the nipple with his tongue he has been clamping down on it with his gums and then sucking hard enough to keep things in place. We spent the last couple of days driving across the state seeing experts. We're going to see if we can stretch out the lip tie enough to work around it, but we went ahead and had the tongue tie clipped because no amount of positioning and latch correction was going to help with that there. Now we have to basically relearn how to nurse and it is so hard because before I was in pain but he was happy, but now we're just both super frustrated. I hate to see him so upset, he thought the way he was latching before was just fine. Any advice would be very appreciated.
Other than bfing everything is great. Cloth diapering hasn't been difficult. He really is a perfect baby, and unbearably cute. It looks like he's going to be ginger like his dad was as a baby. I can't believe I get to keep being his mama every day.
Hope everyone else is doing well.
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post #122 of 130
12/13/12 at 8:09pm

Katealicia, as soon as I began reading your post I thought Lip Tie!  Tongue Tie! lol  I'm so glad you were able to find out about it right away, as it took us nine months, much pain, and DD losing weight/FTT before we found out.  (she gained very well for the first 3 months due to my ample supply)  We had her lip and tongue lasered by a dentist a few weeks ago and don't regret it at all.  It can take a while for baby to learn to relatch properly- my DD still hasn't got the hang, though she is much older of course.  If anything BF is now MORE painful, but that could be from pregnancy too. 

 

What are you doing for follow up?  Are you stretching the area?  Seeing an IBCLC?  Going for osteopath/chiro/cst?  DD has had a lot of improvements with her crawling (she hated being on her tummy due to the tightness in her throat/neck) and general mobility after beginning Osteo.

 

There is a great group on FB for tongue tie babies, I don't know how to link it here but you can search for it and request to join.  Tons of info from experienced moms, LC's etc and lots are into TF and gut health. 

 

Hope that helps, please ask for any more help or support as this can be such a hard thing to deal with.  hug2.gif  I'm already so worried our next baby will have it...

post #123 of 130
12/14/12 at 10:25am
Thanks for your response! We are definitely stretching the site of clip and also following some other exercises to get him to move his tongue around and loosen his jaw, which he had gotten used to clamping. My midwife is an IBCLC and I have also been talking to another one (La Leche League leader) and also another LC that works at the birth center. And I have to say that I think things are slowly improving. Yesterday we had a lot of good feeds that only hurt a little, and it seems like my nipples are healing. The left one is a lot better, but the right one still has a big bleeding crack so I have been giving him that one second. I really hope things are moving in the right direction smile.gif
post #124 of 130
12/16/12 at 2:06pm

Hey katealicia I'm sorry about your rocky start!!  That was so sweet when you said you can't believe you get to keep being his mama every day that made me want to cry, so sweet!!  I just wanted to add that when I had DD and had super sore nipples I alternated between Motherlove nipple cream and Lansinoh, and I only nursed off of one boob per feeding and have done that the whole 3 years or so that i've been breastfeeding, I've never nursed from both boobs in one sitting!!  Just FYI, you find what works for you, and that is what worked for me/us.  The LC's that I was dealing with all told me I was "doing it wrong"!  Sorry, a mothers instinct on how to nurse her child is never wrong!

In the beginning with all the pain, I found that only nursing from 1 gave the other a nice break as well :)

post #125 of 130
12/16/12 at 8:23pm

That's what I did before the milk came in when it was just colostrum, I might try it again. Especially because the right one just still won't heal, it scabbed over and now it's bleeding again :( LO has come down with what seems like a cold so I feel like we've regressed a little bit, so I hope we all get better soon.

post #126 of 130
12/16/12 at 9:57pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by katealicia View Post

That's what I did before the milk came in when it was just colostrum, I might try it again. Especially because the right one just still won't heal, it scabbed over and now it's bleeding again :( LO has come down with what seems like a cold so I feel like we've regressed a little bit, so I hope we all get better soon.

Oh I'm sorry :(  When DD was a few months old, I accidentally cut my nipple in the shower with my razor on my way up to shave my armpit! blush.gif  I didnt nurse from that breast for 4 or 5 days (I tried to pump it a few times bc at the time I was in nursing school and needed to send bottles of breastmilk with her to daycare, I got bloody milk and it hurt really bad!), then resumed when it was healed, and it was just fine, still produced just fine and still does :)  Even giving it a days rest would help a lot I am sure!  Sorry again that you are going through this, and it is so tough when they are sick at such a young age.  DD was sick constantly starting at 2 weeks old bc she went to daycare.  When I took her out it was like magic- hardly got sick at all!!  You might try eating lots of fresh garlic (maybe swallowing them like pills with holes poked in them), buckwheat or manuka honey, ACV, etc, it will go through your breastmilk.  Are you taking fermented cod liver oil?  That vitmain D will help too.

post #127 of 130
12/17/12 at 10:21am
I forgot to order more of the FCLO so I have just been taking the cheapo one from the store. What's really confusing me is that he doesn't go anywhere that I don't go, and I'm not sick. I thought the point of breastfeeding would be that the antibodies I'm producing are passed on to him! It breaks my heart to see him cough when he's still so little greensad.gif
post #128 of 130
1/4/13 at 1:17pm

How is your son doing now?

post #129 of 130
1/5/13 at 10:52am

     It turned out that the cold my son had was really RSV, so when DS was 19 days old he ended up being admitted to the hospital for 2 days because he was having trouble breathing. Luckily it was as low-impact of a hospital stay as possible. He slept on me the whole time, he never had an IV, they let us keep using the cloth diapers, and he never had any medicine. He had 2 nebulizer treatments and he was on oxygen, but that's it. When we discharged they said he would still have a cough for 6 weeks but it went away within a few days.

     After he got well again the breastfeeding became a lot easier. On Christmas the feedings were so painless I could nurse him for 45-60 minutes and even nap during it. Unfortunately this week we've been having issues again, he's been clenching his jaw and biting down again, which hurts. But compared to the pain I was having before his surgery it is absolutely nothing. I wouldn't say that we're to the point where breastfeeding is enjoyable, but I don't dread it anymore and I can even comfort nurse him which I couldn't before.

     At 5 weeks he's having a lot more quiet alert time, where he's working on focusing and extending his vision and holding his neck up, but this new interest in the world is making him disinclined to nap at all ;) Luckily he still sleeps really well at night.

     How are all of your pregnancies going? Do we have any other new babies on here now? Thanks for listening :)

post #130 of 130
1/5/13 at 1:29pm

Oh wow!  Well glad he's better now, and that's the best hospital stay I've ever heard about, that's wonderful!!  :)  I remember around 2 months with DD we had a few days where nursing became painful again for some reason, but then went away.  DS was always biting me, from newborn through present day!!  He always clamped his jaw down on my nipple, and when he got teeth it hurt even worse!  He never made me bleed, but there have been lots of yelps out of me that were loud enough to really startle and scare him and make him start bawling lol.  Sometimes as he'd fall asleep he'd clamp down, not on purpose, but he'd be asleep so I had to keep from shouting out in pain and stick my finger in there to get him unlatched lol.  I guess some babies are just biters!!!