Mom's Instincts are Grrrrrrrrrrreat!

So I've quickly (in 3.5 months) come to know, that your motherly instinct kicks in either while you are pregnant (you become protective of your belly) or as soon as your child is born! And that we should trust them because they are usually right even when the dr's, friends and family say otherwise! It's the same as the 'you're the only one that knows your body' thing.

As most of you know, I've definitely had an uphill struggle with breastfeeding pretty much the entire time! But I have also been 1000% committed to breastfeeding. Here's 101 Reason's Why I've been committed to it from the day I found out I was pregnant. I realize it's not for everyone, so I'm not a breastfeeding bigot - I just knew that it was the right decision for me!

Anyway, it seems like every time we've thought we were over the hump with breastfeeding something else would come up. Finally, my lactation consultant aka "The Boob Whisperer" - Judy Eastburn - came back last week so she could see what issues Riley and I were having and help address them. As she watched what I was doing, she told me everything was right - position, latch, etc. But when we weighed Riley to see how much milk he had consumed it was almost nothing! She was at a loss! Then Riley had one of his infamous meltdowns. This time I believe it was divine intervention! As he was screaming, she noticed that his tongue was not touching the roof of his mouth. This is something known as being tongue tied. Extreme cases of being tongue tied don't even allow the child to stick their tongue out or their tongue looks heart shaped when they do. She said Riley's wasn't that severe, but she wanted to send me literature on the topic. Then Kelly and I could discuss it and decide what to do. She also said based on her 35 years of experience, this was her hunch and best educated guess as to why Riley wasn't able to get milk out because everything else we were doing was technically fine!

After reading the literature, Kelly and I felt like it was worth looking into. Our approach was that if the ENT (Ear, Nose & Throat) Dr was sure he was tongue tied and could do the procedure in his office locally without anesthesia, we'd have it done. Otherwise, I'd just resolve to pumping from here on out. So Tuesday, Riley, GiGi and I went to see the ENT. He literally looked in Riley's mouth for a millisecond and said - yes, he's tongue tied. Then we discussed the options. I ended up having him clip Riley's tongue right then and there. When children are under 4 months old, they can just do it in the office, and there are no nerve endings in that area so they really get more upset about being held than anything else! Thank goodness GiGi was here to go with us because she held him! Mom was a wuss and didn't want to! I just wanted to cuddle him after it was over! And he literally was over it within a couple of minutes. It was like he was still crying, then all of the sudden he couldn't remember what he was crying about so he just went to sleep in my arms!

As soon as we got home from the dr's office, Riley stuck his tongue out at Kelly. Kelly couldn't believe the difference, so he started calling him Gene Simmons (the guy from Kiss with his tongue clipped to stick out really far!) When it was time for Riley to nurse - OMG! Nirvana!! Seriously, I could tell the difference IMMEDIATELY! And so could he! He was calm and nursed without fussing at all! It was more in line with what I thought breastfeeding would be all along! It's still not perfect but we're practicing! He's learning how to use his new tongue now so we have to give it a few days! And now he actually takes so much milk, I can't keep up so we have to give my body a few days to adjust to his new demand too! But it's amazing what the difference is! And the dr actually told me there is NO PROOF that clipping a tongue tied baby will have a positive impact on breastfeeding! Is he crazy? Have you ever tried to swallow without touching the roof of your mouth? Not very easy, is it? The main piece of literature that convinced Kelly and I to give this a shot was from Australia. They are WAY ahead of us in their studies of breastfeeding, and they just released a study that does show (via sonogram) that tongue tied babies do have difficulty breastfeeding. This is also something that is more prevalent in boys than girls! Go figure! Man, do I wish we had figured this out back in August! But more than anything I'm thankful to have figured it out now before I return to work in December! Hopefully this will give us time to get things all lined out before we have to cross that bridge!

And once again, it has been confirmed that when my motherly instinct tells me something just isn't right - it's NOT! Almost every time I have 2nd guessed myself on something with Riley because I'm a 1st time Mom, I've ended up being right in the end! And every time it happens, I tell myself to trust my instinct the next time...and I don't until the end! I'll get it eventually!

On another note, this has also given Riley a new talent! He can roll his RRRRRRRRs like CRAZY now! And his favorite thing is to say Grrrrrrr back and forth with Dad for as long as Dad will do it! I guess that's what you get when you combine a released tongue with all that slobber!! Gurgly Grrrrrsss! And of course, I think it's the cutest thing EVER! At least until he does something next week that's even cuter! :)