It has been a bit of a stressful and busy month. Lil Bub has not been gaining weight the way a newborn should, we have had some problems feeding him and Wifey has been a trooper through it all. First, the doctor kind of blamed Wifey saying she did not make enough milk and gave her a prescription for domperidone. Shortly after that I realized that there may be a problem with Lil Bub’s mouth because of a comment from a mommy on one of my mommy boards; I suspected he might have a lip tie. That mommy recommended me to a lip and tongue tie group on Facebook and the people in that group were so awesome! I posted a picture and they said it looked like he had one so I made an appointment with the semi-local specialist. The problem was the doctor was at a conference in France and we couldn’t get an appointment for weeks.
So we fought with what we thought was colic as Wifey struggled to feed Lil Bub. During these weeks we realized Lil Bub was not gaining weight so I started supplementing him by breastfeeding him along with Happy Baby. I found that he didn’t suck but instead chewed the nipple, can I say OUCH! Within a week Lil Bub gained a pound with me supplementing, but it still wasn’t enough.
After weeks of ‘colic’ and low weight gain we finally got in to see the specialist who looked and said he had a lip tie and a posterior tongue tie. The specialist immediately did the laser procedure and told us how to do “exercises” to rehabilitate his mouth. The rest of the day and the next two days were horrible. Lil Bub went on an eating strike and screamed and screamed. Wifey was so upset and I don’t know how she kept going but she did. I ended up e-mailing the Le Leche League and they gave me a number to the only free lactation consultants in the area. I called them and they made an appointment right away.
Wifey talked to the LC and she pretty much said he was hungry all the time and that is why he was crying all the time. It wasn’t colic he was hungry... so sad. The LC gave Wifey a ton of tips and told Wifey to pump after each feeding then force another ounce into him. Anyone that has forced milk into a baby has to agree, it is NOT fun. He refuses bottles and tends to gargle/choke if we put milk in with an eye dropper. What we try to do is Wifey will feed him off both sides, then I will try to give him a side, then try to give him a little supplement. We are trying not to force the bottle on him too much and stop when he melts down.
The medication seems to be helping Wifey as is the pumping and he is doing a lot better over the last week. He has gained just under a pound within the last week yay! He is also a lot happier and more alert. He still crys, but rarely does he have the complete meltdowns he had before. We hope it will just continue to get better. He can also stick his tongue out of his mouth, something we didn’t realize he couldn’t do until the procedure. His lip looks pretty different too. We are tracking his weight and I will let you know how it goes!
PS In the middle of all that Wifey went gluten free to discover that tapioca gives her horrible gas and we think bothers Lil Bub as well. Oh, and tapioca is in practically everything gluten free. So Wifey went back on gluten and Happy Baby does not get any of Wifey’s milk but that is okay for now.
Look, he is getting a rounder face!!