Update on Ruby

Almost from day one, something was wrong with Ruby's latch. When she nursed, I would feel horrible pain. After a few days I knew I needed to see a lactation consultant. Thank God, I told Laurie and she offered to find me someone to contact. Who knows how much longer it would have taken me to get on the computer and look something up. Laurie found a lady who would actually come to my house to see us.

I thought it was that she wasn't opening her mouth enough and the LC would show me how to get her to open up more and that would be that. But, no. She had a severe tongue tie. So severe it would have caused her to have trouble with eating and drinking and possibly speech problems later. Mellanie, the LC, gave me a list of dentists that work with infants with tongue ties and chiropractors. The chiropractors apparently help loosen up tightness. I'm not sure but she said it was an essential part of helping Ruby so we're going.

We went to the dentist and she said Ruby also had an even more severe lip tie. They measure the ties on a 1-4 scale. Her tongue tie was a 3. Her lip tie was a 4. Poor baby.

The actual procedure was quite awful. There was another baby there getting the same thing done and he was hysterical. Ruby didn't cry too much but she was obviously distressed. They put her in this sack so she couldn't move her arms or legs and goggles on her. I had to hold her head while they used a laser to cut the ties. It was awful. I cried from the moment the lady came in to explain the procedure until they let me nurse her after. Poor little baby.

Now we have to "stretch" the wounds at least six times a day to keep them from growing back together. You can imagine how much she likes that. But she has a much easier time nursing.