No More Lip/Tongue Tie!!

It is finished (although we have a long way to go before nursing works and is close to normal)! Clear Fork Dental called and we were able to move her appointment up a day, so we did it at 3:00pm yesterday. Everything went great during the procedures. Dr. Cole is really awesome -- so experienced in this area. I saw 5 other infants in the office while I was there with Norah. People come from all over for the frenectomy procedures, and Dr. Cole is one of the best around. He trained with Dr. Kotlow, the tongue tie guru in NY, so he really knows what he's doing. I felt totally comfortable with him the whole time and the staff is so sweet and professional. We had an amazing experience. I would recommend Clear Fork to anyone.

Norah was so smiley at their office, it was adorable. This was the first time that I've noticed her smiling at complete strangers when they weren't trying to be funny. Loved it! Dr. Cole and his assistant Erika asked me a ton of questions and got a feel of how things were going for us before he examined her. It was so refreshing knowing that they actually cared about the little details about our situation, like how long we struggled and how I came to figure out this was our issue (my answer was youtube -- lol! That wasn't the first time they've heard that either). Norah laid in my lap while Dr. Cole looked at her lip tie first. I knew it was large, but their reactions still surprised me. It definitely was restricting her open mouth shape and completely keeping her from flipping those lips out. Then he lifted up her tongue and said "and there's the posterior". I was relieved. Just finally having someone who saw her lip AND tongue tie and knowing that all the hours and hours of research had paid off was so liberating. My job was complete at that moment. I did EVERYTHING I could do and now God needed to work through Dr. Cole as I sat back and took a huge sigh of relief.

They asked me if I wanted to continue with the procedures. Of course I said yes (I was on the cancellation list for two weeks, it took me an hour to get there, and the procedure takes less than two minutes!)... So we got started right then! Norah got swaddled very tightly, got comfy between 2 assistants in the treatment chair, and was fitted with some super rad glasses to protect her eyes from the laser. I got glasses too, but hers were much cuter. :) The actual laser tool is amazing - it looks like a really thin metal wire with a tiny glowing red dot on the end. Technology is insane. In whole, both procedures were complete in 90 seconds. SO FAST. She didn't start crying till about halfway through. We didn't use any anesthesia or numbing agents for her (nerves aren't completely formed), but they did put a special aloe gel on the areas right afterwards. There was very minimal bleeding, just barely orange spit!

{You'd be proud of me... I watched the entire thing from a very close up view, and handled it very well. I only had the mama bear urge to tackle Dr. Cole and protect my little cub once! ;) I honestly did have this thought for a split second when they started her lip halfway through. I just turned around and looked out the window for a second and was good to go. The thought made me laugh at myself and those bizarre instincts.}

I tried nursing right afterwards, but she wouldn't have it. They say it might take a few days until her mouth gets to be more comfortable. She is still taking a bottle of expressed milk.

Good Lord, post-op has been rough. I may need to cave and give her some baby Tylenol or something. Her upper lip is very swollen, but the surgery sites look amazing! She has cried more this past evening and into the wee hours of this morning more than she has cried in her whole life. Poor thing. They say it feels like a food burn (ya know, when you don't want to wait for the queso to cool off). ;) We have several stretches to do multiple times a day in order for the sites to not reattach. Believe it or not, it is getting worse before it's getting better. All part of the process! We are still in the tunnel, slowly inching our way towards that light!!