Good morning little O :)
A few weeks ago when we went to get your photo taken at BabiesRUs I quickly went to the Mother's room (a really nice room set up for nursing and changing babies) in the store to change you and there was a mommie in there with her 3 month old. We were talking for a bit and got on the topic of breastfeeding and I asked her if she used a breastpump. She said, "no, it makes me feel like a cow." I had never thought about that and now when I pump all I see are cows.
Speaking of cows, your Daddy and I were driving around the other day and found out that we have cows a few houses down from us. Sometimes it smells like manure at our place and we always wondered where it came from and now we know. We'll have to go for a walk and show them to you sometime.
Oh, and back to breastfeeding for a moment. I have been having issues with breastfeeding so we had a lactation consultant come for a visit and she diagnosed you with type 3 ankyloglossia (tongue tie). Basically the little piece of skin connected to your tongue is too tight and doesn't let you move your tongue around that much. The problem is that you need your tongue to move a lot for breastfeeding. Because your tongue doesn't have a lot of mobility it makes breastfeeding for me hurt. Sometimes it's really really bad, sometimes it's not that bad but it always hurts. There is a really simple procedure where they just snip the frenulum and then you have more mobility. Apparently it doesn't hurt and there are only a few drops of blood.
When the lactation consultant told me this (this was when you were 2 weeks old) I started crying because the thought of having a part of your body snipped off seemed so wrong and I didn't want you to be in pain. I also thought the lactation consultant might just be really pro-surgery. So we decided we wouldn't do the surgery but the pain is still there months later.
This weekend at the childbirth class reunion one of the couples asked me how breastfeeding was going and I said, O is tongue tie so it's been hurting. They immediately said, our baby is too! We just got it snipped in his first month and nursing was better instantly. They were against it too at the beginning but they researched it online and found out that it was pretty common. Their baby didn't even cry during the procedure.
I've thought about it long and hard and decided that we're going to get your frenulum clipped. I hope it's the right choice. It's not only because of my pain but also because being tongue tie can cause speech problems and orthodontic issues for you in the future. I'm going to talk to your pediatrician about it at our 2 month check up on Friday and see what he says. Unfortunately our practice doesn't have someone to do the procedure so we'd have to go to another practice in Springfield.
Speaking of the check up, we're doing a bunch of immunizations on Friday. I hope they don't hurt you too much sweetie pie. Okay, I'm done pumping (mooooo) so bye bye for now. I love you cutie! Oh, and you've been laughing in your sleep a lot lately. It's adorable!
