Tongue Tied

It's not just a figure of speech anymore at our house.  It is a very real thing.  My little Grady boy was tongue tied.  I had a very hard time nursing little Grady boy... everyone told me to just keep trying and it would get easier.  I tried and tried and tried until I finally just gave up and just pumped and gave Mr. Grady a bottle.  We were both much much happier that way.  I developed a very strange rash called PUPPS which is rare to get postpartum.  I had to go on an antibiotic that completely dried out my milk supply.  I did everything I could to get the milk back, but I finally had to just give up.  Looking back on that now I realize it really wasn't that big of a deal, and he was totally fine being on formula.  But at the time I was devastated and I felt like a failure as a mother. 

As Grady grew and started to talk and laugh I noticed a very strange thing... when he would stick out his tongue it almost looked forked like a snake tongue.  I also noticed that he couldn't stick out his tongue very far either. (see picture above for a little bit better idea of what I am talking about)

At Grady's six month check up I asked the doctor about it and he said that indeed Grady was tongue tied.  It is where the little flap of skin under your tongue is connected too far to the tip of the tongue.  So it was off to the plastic surgeon we went!  Grady had to be strapped down to a little operating table while two nurses held his head and arms still and I held his legs.  They put a clamp on the frenulum (the little flap of skin under the tongue) for about 30 seconds, quickly pulled it off and made a swift snip.  That was it... it was all over in about a minute.  But that minute was the longest minute of my life!  I was sobbing just as much as Grady was.  I have never seen a baby cry like that in my life! Poor little guy.  He bled for about five minutes or so and then he was totally fine!  It may not have affected him too much, but it could have affected his speech and I definitely wanted to get it fixed before that happened!  In my personal opinion I think if we had caught it earlier on maybe he would have had a fighting chance at breastfeeding.  But you never know, right?  I'll just hold out hope that my next child is not tongue tied! 

This little boy has been one adventure after another!  But we love him so much, it is worth every adventure that is thrown our way!