Hi O!
Happy belated 9th week birthday sweetie pie. As of yesterday you're 12 pounds and 12 ounces...wow!
Yesterday your Papa Cesar and Lela Carmen came to pick us up to take us to the doctor for your frenulectomy (the snip of the piece of skin under your tongue). Papa Cesar took the day off of work so he could bring us...isn't that nice little O?
I was so nervous sweetie and kept wanting to back out but I kept thinking about you having speech problems or me not being able to breastfeed you for much longer and that gave me strength. The doctor's office is about 25 minutes from your grandparents house so we left with enough time and got there early. They took your measurements and temperature and everything looked good. I can't believe you gained 6 ounces in 3 days...crazy!
After that we met the doctor who would be doing the procedure and a resident who would be observing. He was so nice little O and you let him examine you without even crying. He drew us a drawing of what your tongue tie looked like (there are different types) and then I had to sign a paper consenting to the surgery. He swaddled you up and numbed your tongue with Orajel with long cotton swabs. You didn't like this at all and started crying a lot because he was holding you down. You were also having trouble swallowing so I had to pick you up so you could catch your breath. I was already crying by this point and your Lela Carmen asked, "was that it?" but unfortunately it wasn't.
After that we laid you down again and the doctor put a little instrument to hold your tongue up and then got out little silver scissors and went snip snip. It took only a few seconds but your cries were so hard for me to hear. The doctor put some gauze in your mouth to stop the breathing and rocked you around the room for a minute or two.
I was a whole mess so your Lela Carmen gave me a hug and then Papa Cesar returned to the room. I nursed you right away and it still hurt and didn't feel different but the doctor said it could take a week to feel a change. It was so sad to see blood around your mouth. Later in the day you spit up a little bit of blood as well but otherwise you seem like you've been okay and have been smiling and cooing like normal. I hope it was the right decision sweetie and I hope things get better...we'll see! Thank you to Papa Cesar and Lela Carmen for accompanying us!
This afternoon you and I went to Baby Massage class. To introduce ourselves we had to tell everyone how we chose our baby's name. I never know how to answer this. I have no idea how your Daddy and I chose Octavio. We chose it right away at the beginning of the pregnancy and started calling you that when you were a month old but neither one of us can remember where it came from. Your Daddy claims that we came up with it when we sitting outside of the Cheesecake Factory in North Carolina but we had picked your name before then so I don't know. Maybe it'll come to us one day. Do you know that we thought you'd be O right from the beginning? We did! Anyway, you seemed to really like the massage so I'll be showing your Daddy what we learned later today. Apparently besides feeling nice it also improves your immune system which you'll need once you enter childcare in a little over a month.
Speaking of which, I'll be going back to work in a few weeks and I don't like to think about it. I know you'll be happy in childcare with all the other babies and you get along with everyone so I'm sure you'll be fine but I'll miss you so so much sweetie. I love being with you and I still think of you as my little human pet. I would stay home with you much much longer if we lived in a country with better parental leave, like say Bulgaria that awards its mommies 45 days paid sick leave prior to her due date, 2 years paid leave, and 1 additional year of unpaid leave, but what can you do?
I love you sweetie!
