Guys -- I have a five month old baby. Weird, right? As of yesterday, I've been a mom for five whole months!! It's seriously mind blowing to me that in a few short weeks my baby will be half a year old!
She's great though. She's enormous and ridiculously strong. She doesn't fully sit up yet, but she's about a week or two away from fully crawling. Yeah, that's right, you heard me: crawling. What five month old baby already crawls?! I guess my she-hulk of a baby does.
Here are some fun pics I got of her a few days ago.
There were some that were a whole lot cuter, but for the sake of not putting an entirely nude baby on the internet, these were the ones I picked. I know they're basically all the same, but what can I say - I'm a mom and I think my baby is the cutest one in the whole wide world!
She's really funny these days. All she wants to do is babble and make wet raspberry noises either on you, or books, or with her tongue. She also is on the move and 6 days from potentially getting solid foods (fingers crossed the DDS says it's ok!). She smiles at her toys. She LOVES looking at herself in the mirror, always kissing and smiling and cooing at herself. She's super social with other babies. She's starting to show love in different ways. She reaches for people when she wants them to hold her. She laughs like crazy. She drools all over the place and chews on everything. She LOVES playing with her toys -- if you take a toy away she gets visibly upset unless you replace it or pick her up. Reading is her new favorite activity besides chewing on the books. Basically, she puts the sunshine in my life daily.
I'm putting ones that I got of her the day before her 5 month birthday on the other blog. If you'd like to see more of those, click the picture below :)
But they're not up yet. I'll set a click through link once they're posted!
Photography has always been something I've loved. A little hobby that brings a smile to my face. For years my favorite thing in the world has been taking pictures of friends and family for all their different occasions . . . but for the most part, it was always put on the back burner.
A few years ago, my friends asked me to take engagement pictures for them. Normally I'd think it was no big deal, but for whatever reason, I got super choked up! I mean, I was excited, but I didn't feel I had the goods to take someones engagement pics. I mean, those are super important! Well, they were to me. Anyway. Since then, I've been itching to take classes. Not that I necessarily think I don't know enough or am not good enough, but just to build my confidence and make me feel ok asking for and accepting money for my work.
Well, I've finally done it! I finally found classes, that I believed were legitimate and affordable. They're taught by a Brooks Institute graduate, which already had me weak in the knees. Ever since I first picked up a camera, I swooned over the dream of going to Brooks. But, my parents thinking it was just a phase I was going through, said it was too expensive. Which, has some merit. Brooks is a pretty expensive private school. Anyway -- this is like, the next best thing for me. One day, when the hubs has loads of moolah, and my babes are all independent, and we for whatever reason decide to move to Santa Barbra . . . I'll attend that oh-so dreamy school. But probably not until after I get that masters from Penn State I've been dreaming about (whaa-wha).
I'm just excited I'm finally allowing myself the chance to focus on me and my passion. It's not the traditional pampering of ones self, but for me, this is the best! I have classes and assignments. Oh gol-ly, I'm giddy!
Tune in for updates on my other blog. I normally don't do crossover posts. But this was just too cool for me.
*Disclaimer: This post may be a bit controversial, and is very long. To those of you who follow my blog, please know this is super dear to my heart. To those of you who stumble upon my blog, I'm speaking from first hand experience as a first-time mom. *** I do not take credit for any of the pictures included in this post ***
So I'm writing this post and updating my blog, because I've become pretty passionate about a few things over the last few months.
No one tells you how difficult it's going to be to feed your baby. You think, "Oh it's natural - people have done it for thousands of years,"which is true . . . but at the same time, it's so not. I had an especially hard time with my little Harper Mae. Because I'm a first time mom, I had no idea what to look for, what was right, what was wrong, what it was supposed to feel like, what it wasn't supposed to feel like -- that whole deal. I knew she had issues, but I didn't realize just how bad they were until two or three weeks ago.
Ever heard of tongue-tie? It's that weird looking thing some people have where their tongue attaches to the bottom of their mouth. It's known medically as Ankyloglossia:
Ankyloglossia, also known as tongue-tie, is a congenitaloral anomaly which may decrease mobility of the tongue tip[1] and is caused by an unusually short, thick lingual frenulum, a membrane connecting the underside of the tongue to the floor of the mouth.[2] Ankyloglossia varies in degree of severity from mild cases characterized by mucous membrane bands to complete ankyloglossia whereby the tongue is tethered to the floor of the mouth.[2]
Ankyloglossia can affect feeding, speech, and oral hygiene[3] as well as have mechanical/social effects.[4] Ankyloglossia can also prevent the tongue from contacting the anteriorpalate. This can then promote an infantile swallow and hamper the progression to an adult-like swallow which can result in an open bite deformity.[2] It can also result in mandibular prognathism; this happens when the tongue contacts the anterior portion of the mandible with exaggerated anterior thrusts.[2]
Basically, in infants, tongue-tie prevents babies from being able to eat effectively or stick out their tongue. They get fussy because eating is very difficult, tiring, and frustrating. Imagine trying to eat, drink, or talk while holding a skittle or two under your tongue. It's like, basically impossible. So not only are they not getting adequate food, they're not able to latch on well or suck well. Which makes them unhappy and many fail to thrive. They're pretty quiet too, because even their cooing is exhausting.
Well, Harper doesn't have that. Well . . . she does, but it's different and I'll come back to that later. Almost every mom, experienced or not, knows to look for one. But what they don't know (or at least I didn't), is to look for a lip-tie.
A lip-tie is where the maxillary labial frenum is attached, at some degree, to the gums and/or hard palate. Essentially there is a piece of skin that tethers the upper lip to the roof of the mouth preventing the babe from getting an adequate, or deep, latch. Babies with sever lip-ties fall off while eating and cause for an especially painful feed for momma.
They come in different widths, lengths and severity, just like a tongue tie. These also can cause oral hygiene problems. Food and milk can get stuck in pockets under the immobile lip as teeth develop resulting in tooth decay in baby teeth which eventually leads to tooth decay in adult teeth. But also issues with orthodontics. Many infants with tongue tie grow up to be toddlers with a huge gap in between their teeth and end up as teenagers with braces.
Now the maxillary labial frenum is essentially pointless. It doesn't have many nerve endings or a large blood supply, and is often cut when adolescents get braces anyway . . . but for whatever reason, doctors don't often advise to get the issue corrected as an infant. A moderate to severe lip tie can (this is speaking from personal experience) absolutely cause huge issues breastfeeding. Some issues related to lip-tie include failure to latch properly, painful feeds, low milk supply, poor weight gain, GERD, reflux, gas pains and countless others. This is mostly because when the lip is tightly tethered down, the infant cannot flange (or flare/flip out) their upper lip. Instead of their mouth looking like a tulip or fish lips, the top lip curls under while the bottom lip flares down.
Harper was gaining weight fine . . . but at my expense. She was eating every hour on the hour all day and every three hours at night. Which, for a newborn is totally understandable and find . . . but a four month old? Come on now, Momma needs a break! I wasn't able to leave her, because she was still insanely dependent on me. Not only that, her feedings included screaming to get on, screaming while on, and screaming coming off. Harper's feeds were incredibly stressful for me, and her. So much so that both of us dreaded it. We weren't bonding over those moments, in fact we were feeling alienated and distanced. I sat there crying wondering what I was doing wrong and why I couldn't get her to eat. While I'm sure she was laying in my arms wondering why this was so tiring and frustrating.
So we met with a consultant. She opened our eyes to the world of lip-ties and posterior tongue-ties. This is what I said I would get to later. A person can have a tongue tie, that's basically invisible. Tongue ties can be under a layer of skin on the bottom of the tongue, or so far back that you just don't see it if you don't know to look for it.
It was amazing. Everything our consultant was telling us just clicked. Everything finally made sense!! The tongu-tie was why Harper couldn't stick her tongue out or lateralize (move it from side to side). The tongue-tie is what caused the clicking sound every time she "fell off." The lip-tie caused Harper to continually slip off. The lip-tie was what prevented her from getting a deep latch. The combination of the two caused her fussiness, gassiness, and reflux. I felt as though I was once blind, but could now see.
Well, we knew the problem. Now what?
This is the icky part: getting the infant frenectomy. Many pediatricians, unless it's the tongue tie that first comes to mind, don't deem it necessary to get ties fixed. When they do, they're often referring out to a pediatric ENT. This is all fine and dandy . . . but why not go to someone who works on mouths, gums, and teeth all day every day? Pediatric dentists are equipped with tools to only use local anesthetics rather than put an infant or child "under." They also have lasers.
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Important:
Although an infant frenectomy is referred to as "surgery," by some professionals, it is not surgery in the traditional sense. It is as much "surgery," as getting a wisdom tooth pulled (not removed), having a root canal performed, or having a cavity filled is surgery. The numbing method used by the pediatric dentist is the same as for a child getting a cavity, but at a significantly lower dose. Harper received three drops of Novocain. The effects of which wore off minutes after the procedure was completed. Furthermore, the procedure takes no more than a maximum of five minutes.
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I'm sure what you're thinking right now is somewhere along the lines of, "UHM. WHAT?! You want me to allow some stranger to shoot a LASER into my sweet baby's MOUTH?!" Well . . . calm down. And yes. Yes, I absolutely do!
I'm a pretty anxious person, and am basically always afraid that Harper is on the brink of death. Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration. But the point is I'm very cautious with her. I take things slow and read as much as I can on the topic to keep myself informed. As someone who graduated with a BA in a Social Science, I've been trained to look for both qualitative and quantitative empirical, peer reviewed, journal articles. I understand that small sample sizes can lead to tainted data. This being said, I also understand that it takes a while for studies to build their sample size and for there to be enough studies out on a certain topic to really make an impact in the social and medical world. A truth can be a truth, but unless it's presented the way those at the top of the ladder want, it's often scoffed at and brushed aside.
But back to my point -- using a dental laser is ideal for this procedure. The DDS knows what he or she is doing. A laser provides faster healing as well as a more painless and bloodless procedure.
I'm lucky that my pediatrician said, go ahead and do what you think you need to, I don't know that it's necessary, but if you think it'll make a difference, go for it. Which I guess is a better reaction than most. So we went to a pediatric dentist. Who was AMAZING. The pediatric dentist called us that night to check in on Harper. He comforted and reassured me as I held her during the procedure. He even offered to have us come back multiple times a day to do the massage and stretch if it was too upsetting for me to do on my own.
Anyway: The procedure itself is heart breaking. You stand there holding your child's arms down, thinking, "I am a terrible mom," as she cries and cries and cries. Then when you feed her immediately post surgery you think, "WOW! I can't believe what a difference this is! What a relief, I've done the right thing." Then four hours later when it comes time for you to stretch her lip/tongue and massage the incisions, you turn back to the, "I can't believe what a terrible parent I am. Purposefully inflicting pain on my precious little angel," as she again, cries and cries, and cries. This goes on for about three weeks (I'm only at the one week mark, but I hear things get better).
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^^^ THINGS. GET. BETTER. ^^^
Now I haven't made it through all three weeks yet, but I have made it through one week. I also have seen my lactation consultant once in home and once in a weekly mommy-and-me breastfeeding group. I felt miserable until I saw the difference in Harper's pre and post feed weight.
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When we first saw our consultant, she was eating for somewhere between 2 and 5 minutes every feed and drinking only 1.2 oz per feed (hence the need for feeding every 45 - 60 minutes). But at the group, Harper ate for 6 minutes (still only eating for 3-6 minutes at a time) and . . . drum roll please . . . took in 6.5 oz!!!!
Seriously. It is worth it. My baby can go 2-3 hours between feeds, is satisfied at the end of every feed (unless she is just being a grump), laughs more, smiles more, coos more, sticks out her tongue, mimics more, and is all in all a much happier babe. It's so nice to see her so different. She has freedom in her mouth that she didn't have before and she LOVES it.
Long story short. If you're having troubles, check. If you're nervous, do you research. But in the end, if it's right for your babe, no matter how hard it may be on you, just do it. These few short moments of anguish will result in an amazing change. Plus you're much less likely to have to deal with speech impediments and a whole host of oral hygiene issues later.
My hope with this post is that it will help someone out there somewhere, who is looking for answers like I was.
** These videos are the ones my Harpers DDS recommended we watch.
