Monday, February 14, 2011

One Step Closer

I am one step closer to nursing my son for the first time.

We had a lactation consultant come out last week and she felt around in Aaron's mouth for like 45 minutes. She concluded that she was about 95% sure that he was tongue tied. He had a very strong gag reflex, a disorganized suck, and a high pallet. I told her that we had already seen an ENT (ears, nose, throat) doctor and he told us Aaron was not tongue tied. When she asked which doctor we saw, it became clear that we saw the wrong doctor. When I made the appointment 4 months ago (when the same LC told me he was tongue tied), the office told me I could get in sooner if I saw the other doctor. So we went in and the other doctor had no clue what type of tongue tie there were. He said that Aaron's mouth was great and there was not a problem. So we tried every other form of "fixin'" we could and nothing seemed to help.

When I called last week to make the 2nd appointment, I told them I wanted to see the other doctor. The nurse asked why and I told her everything that was going on. That we saw the other doctor and he didn't catch the tongue tie and the other one had the experience in what we were looking for. She transferred me to a nurse who promptly told me that she has been in the business for over 30 years and she has never heard of Types 1, 2, 3, or 4 tongue tie and that my LC didn't know what she was talking about and probably couldn't fix the latch so she was pawning me off on someone else. She also told me that some kids just don't nurse and that was probably what was wrong with my kid. I told her that I wanted a 2nd opinion about the tongue tie and tried to remain calm. Inside, I was so upset. How dare her tell me that. I've been struggling for 5 months to get my son to nurse because it is so highly important to me. I just knew it was Satan saying that to me so that I would lose faith in my LC and give up. But I had faith in what Deirdre said and I wasn't going to let that nurse bully me.

Today, Nuge and I drove out to Dallas and saw the correct doctor. He felt around in Aaron's mouth and said that he was, in fact, a little tight. He went ahead and clipped his tongue and that was that. Immediately, Aaron was able to stick his tongue out beyond his lips, which he has never done before. I gave him some breast milk and he calmed down.

So now, we have an appointment with the DO on Thursday to make sure that everything is good to go in Aaron's skull. Once we get that checked out, we will have Deirdre come back out and work with us on his latch.

All of this is working out the way the Lord has planned it. Every step closer that we get is because of His awesomeness. It is because of His strength that I have been able to continue on even though I've been pressured by so many people to give up and just feed Aaron formula. The Lord has carried me emotionally through all of this and I feel that His work is still not done yet. I feel that He will allow my son to nurse! And once he does, all the glory will go to my Lord, Jesus Christ. Because I know that it is not by my own strength that we have made it, but by my Jesus'. So I'm gonna continue to pray for Aaron to nurse and I'd like to ask you to join me. For those of you that know me, this has not been the easiest road. You know my struggles and you know how much this means to me. Thank you for your support.

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