Kris' Lip Tie

I wrote about Kris' tongue tie back here, but her tongue wasn't the only issue with her feeding.

After Kris had her tongue tie corrected everything was not better. She was still having issues feeding. She wouldn't take the nipple very well, and would choke when eating from the bottle. Desperate, I began to browse the internet. I looked at what a tongue tie looked like if it grew back. I Googled until I found my possible answer-a lip tie. I had never heard of this before. As I continued the research, I was sure that this was Kris' problem.

Kris' Lip Tie

This is what her lip looked like before the surgery. Do you see how that frenulum connects underneath her gums? It was actually tying her lip down to the top of her mouth. She couldn't flange the lip out to create a good suction.

I texted my good friend, the LC. I asked her if she had dealt with a lip tie. She knew what it was, but had never seen one. I texted her this picture, "holy frenulums, Batman!". I wrote about my friend the LC in the tongue tie post. Charissa has been my rock through this. She has been so encouraging, "What an eye, Momma!", and "I wish every mom I come in contact with had as much mommy instinct, compassion, empathy, and stick-to-it-iveness as you have in just 1 of your pinky fingers." She encouraged me to follow my instinct and have the surgery. After all my research, I felt so convinced that it would help.

When I visited the ENT he didn't seem convinced that surgery would help her nursing, but was willing to give it a try. He did say, however, that it would need to be done eventually to avoid teeth problems. Off to surgery we went.

 Preparing for surgery was the worst part. Kris was not allowed to eat for 6 hours before. This was awful because at this time, Kris was still eating every 2 hours. Poor girl was so hungry! Her daddy did so good at comforting her, though I think the only thing that would truly comfort her at this point was some of mommy's milk. I couldn't really even hold her because it reminded her that she was hungry.

 While we were waiting for the surgery to happen, we got to cuddle her as we talked to the doctor and nurses about what to expect. The doctor said it was a quick, 15 minute surgery, as far as surgeries go, it was easy!

 Handing her off was the hardest thing I have ever done-harder than childbirth with no drugs. I cried, a lot. I was anxious, I was upset. I kept going back and forth, was this really necessary, the doctor didn't seem to think it would help, what if we did this for nothing? Then Greg would remind me that she wasn't really eating, and even if it didn't help the nursing, at least we had it out of the way.

The procedure was only supposed to be 15 minutes. We sat in the waiting room holding hands, we paced the floor, we peeked out in the hallway, I kept asking Greg if it was the right thing to do. Forty five minutes later the surgeon came back to us and said the surgery went great, but it was worse than he expected. She had 5 stitches.

That says "fall risk"

After the surgery only one of us was allowed to go to recovery with her, I got to go because poor girl was hungry! She latched on right away and there was no 'clicking'. It was awesome. Kris was so sad looking though. She hadn't fully woken up yet and was very groggy. She would open her eyes, scream, then latch back on. This kept happening.The surgeon came up to us and put his hand on Kris' hand and stroked her head, "That was a lot worse than I thought" he said, "I don't know how she was even able to suck!" This made me feel so much better.

After recovery, we got to go to another room where her daddy got to join us. I was still nursing off and on at this point, but she was waking up more, and was very upset.

When all of her levels looked good we were allowed to go home.When they took the IV out, there was a lot of blood. I cried even more! Poor baby girl had been through so much!

It took Kris two days to recover. Those 2 days were rough. She was in a lot of pain and was very confused about why she was hurting. She would suck on her lip, and play with the stitches with her tongue. It was so sad.


Fast Forward to now. Her surgery was on January 2nd. Prior to the surgery she could barely eat, she wasn't gaining much weight, she was swallowing a lot of air, so she was hurting and she choked a lot on her milk. She was not a very happy baby. Most of the time if she was awake, she was screaming. Today she eats like a champ! We are off of the nipple shield, and she is very efficient. She will finish nursing in just 10 minutes. She is also a very happy baby. She rarely cries unless she is hungry or needs a diaper change. It is an incredible difference.

Lip tie is a newer diagnosis. A lot of doctors will not take it seriously. I have to say though, it can be a serious thing. It was really hurting our little Kris. I am so glad that my little pumpkin is so happy now. It makes my heart smile!