Kris' Tongue

Warning: This post talks about breastfeeding. I am going to use words like "nipple" and "breast". If you can't handle it, I suggest you come back later :) Also, it is really long. So you may have to come back later to finish reading it.

"Look Mom! I can stick my tongue out now!"

 Charissa is my Lactation Consultant. We met at a program called Celebrate Recovery. I work in the nursery, and Charissa has an adorable 2 year old that I watch. When we first met, it was a casual, "Yeah, she had a dirty diaper that I changed about 10 minutes ago". Then it migrated to me asking about her cloth diapers, because I had become infatuated with them. Then I learned she was an LC at the hospital I would be delivering at, and I think this is what brought us really close together. I asked her a million questions about breastfeeding, and she had so much knowledge on the subject! She had total faith that I would be able to breastfeed no problem. I truly think that God brought us together before I had Kris so that she could help me so much. Now, I don't know what I would do without her or her family. We have quickly become amazing friends. She is a huge part of this story, and I owe every bit of breastfeeding success to her.


Before Kris was even in my belly, I knew I wanted to breastfeed. I soaked up all the information I could about it. I learned that a big help in successful breastfeeding early in a baby's life is to have an unmedicated birth. I did a lot of research on the effects of epidurals, and other pain killers, and ultimately decided that if at all possible, I would have an unmedicated birth. It was a great decision, and I would do it again for many reasons.

Minutes after Kris was born I was able to breastfeed her. It was an amazing moment. She latched right on without any issues, and it felt amazing. I can't explain the feeling I had. I was the only person who could provide for my daughter in this way. She was looking up at me with those beautiful blue eyes and I was so thankful for this moment God had given me. Without this moment, I don't know that I would have been able to continue breastfeeding through all of the hard days to come.

Kris did great through the first night, but the next day things started getting different. She wouldn't easily take the breast, and when she did she would immediately back off of it and scream. I thought maybe I wasn't producing colostrum. This continued through the day. When Charissa came to see if I needed help, I shook it off. I told her she did great at first, we just needed practice. I don't know why I told her this. I knew that there was a problem, I guess I just didn't want to admit it. I am not normally a proud person, but I think it was pride that didn't let her help me.

That night was awful. Kris screamed constantly and every time we tried to nurse, she did this frantic head shake thing. She wouldn't even try to latch on. I would force my nipple into her mouth and she would try for a second to suck and then pull it out and scream some more.

I texted Charissa the next morning and asked if she would help with the latch. I thought maybe that was the only problem.

When Charissa came in the next morning we were trying everything to get Kris to eat. When she would latch, she would make this loud clicking sound with her tongue. This sound happened the first time she nursed also, but I thought it was normal. Apparently it is not. She wouldn't feed for very long and came off the breast screaming again. Charissa spent hours in my room trying to make it work. We tried a nipple shield, and she wouldn't even suck on that. It was a nightmare.

Charissa suggested I try pumping. I pumped for a long time and was only able to get a couple drops of colostrum out. So it seemed there were two issues, I didn't really have a supply, and Kris couldn't latch. After unsuccessfully trying for so long, Kris was a mess. She was so upset from all the shots and monitoring that day, she wasn't even trying to latch anymore. We laid skin to skin for a couple of hours while she slept.

I cried a lot. I knew Kris wasn't eating, but did not want to give her formula. At this point though, what other option did I have? The baby had to eat! Charissa encouraged me to keep trying and we would get this figured out.

When we got home, Charissa suggested I pump and feed Kris with a syringe. My supply came in kind of late. I think Charissa was worried that it wouldn't come in at all, but she never told me that. We would try at the breast for a while, and then syringe feed her, and then try the breast again. Charissa was at our house nearly everyday trying to help us get her fed. 

Charissa told us about this Craniosacral therapy that we could try. A woman would come to our house and give a little baby massage. So we called the woman. At this point we were willing to try anything-even if it did sound a little hokey. The woman came, and Charissa joined us to see how it all worked. After the woman massaged Kris a bit, she was screaming so we tried to nurse her. It was already a huge improvement. She latched on and tried really hard to nurse. She was still clicking pretty bad, but she was latched on. After she calmed down some, the woman, Nikki, massaged her some more. After she was done, Kris nursed really well for one session, and then digressed again. She wouldn't latch anymore, and there was no way she would be getting enough nutrition if we only gave her the breast, so back to the syringe we went.

I can't remember if it was the day after Nikki, came over or two days later, but Charissa sent me a text to have me call her. I called her and she very excitedly told me she thinks Kris is tongue tied. The reason we couldn't detect it sooner is because it was posterior. She told me a bunch of the symptoms to watch for, and it described Kris perfectly-tires easily at the breast, loud clicking, and acting frantic (among other things). She had already made us an appointment with an amazing ORL to have it checked out and possibly clipped. If the tongue tie was bad enough, it sometimes required a general anesthesia and a stitch. Though this was scary to me, I was so excited to finally know what the problem was. If tongue tie goes undiagnosed, it can lead to speech and eating problems later in life.

So on November 1st, Charissa, Greg and I went to the ORL, and she was right, Kris was tongue tied. The doctor said it was pretty tight. Greg held her while he cut it and she bled for a bit and I tried to nurse her. Sometimes baby will latch right on with no problems after the procedure is done, so I had high expectations.

She didn't latch right on though. When she finally did latch, it was better, but it wasn't this miraculous thing I was expecting. I left with not very high hopes.

When we got home, Charissa stayed for a bit to see if we could try nursing again. Still nothing was really working. She suggested we try the nipple shield again and then all of a sudden it worked. Kris was latching on great. When she sucked she was still clicking, but I was finally nursing my baby! I was really nursing her. The proof was in the milk dribbling down her chin.

Recovery was a little rough. She was still definitely in pain. We could tell the tongue was hurting her the first couple of days because she was still refusing to move it most of the time. She would try the nipple and then scream. So we were still syringe feeding her, but giving her the breast as much as we could. 

She drooled while she was sleeping because it hurt :(

Fast forward to now. We are still using the nipple shield, and I worry that we will never be able to wean her from it. She still won't take the nipple at all. She is still clicking a lot. She is a much happier baby now that she is getting nutrition though. She has started to smile and coo. It is so fun to hear those sweet sounds coming from her.

Look at those bright blue eyes. She looks so happy!

We are so thankful for Charissa and for all that she did for us. She spent so much time with us. If it weren't for her, we would definitely have formula fed Kris, which, as it turns out probably wouldn't have worked either. She couldn't suck at all, not just from the nipple, but a bottle probably wouldn't have worked either. I am so thankful that God puts people in our lives at the right moments. He knew how giving Charissa would be of her time. It was so awesome to constantly have an on call Lactation Consultant. She never once got frustrated, and worked so hard to help Kris get better.