The Quinn Saga: 7 month Update

Just after I posted my last update on my little boy, one of my readers commented on facebook asking me a very important question. I didn’t realize how important it was at first, as I sat there for a minute kind thinking it was an odd question, but I felt drawn to look into it. She asked if we had looked into if he had an upper lip tie. A what? Exactly! I thought what the heck is that. So I did a google search (because how else are you going to find out medical information on something??) Dr. Google it is!

When I looked it up I saw this….

My first thought was that I had seen this before. It took me only a couple pictures to realize that I had seen it in my sons own mouth! A week before posting that update I had been talking and laughing with him and I noticed something that looked different. I had pulled up his upper lip a little and thought to myself that it looked different then the other kids mouths. But I just brushed it off as a mommy brain moment forgetting what a babies mouth looked like. I remember thinking that maybe when he gets more teeth it will look different.

Well, then the water works started. I began crying not out of joy, but kind of out of joy. I felt like all of a sudden It wasn’t me causing his weight issues. It was like there was an answer! I looked at other blogs where the moms shared their stories of how they had trouble nursing and how the upper lip tie had caused them to have a hard time latching on. Their babies began to sleep through feeds to conserve the little calories they had. The moms were in pain while they nursed. As I read all these things I realized that they were talking about my baby.

I remember having a conversation with my mom when Quinn was 3 months old about how he sleeps 12 hours a night and was an amazing napper. I don’t blame myself for this, but all I could think about after reading that was “my poor little boy” He was conserving calories as his little body was slowly starving. As I began to feed him more and try to get the thick milk to him, he began to wake at night. At that point I credited the waking up to his reflux. He probably had an upset tummy, I would tell myself. But really he was getting more calories so his body had more energy to do what it should be doing. We saw a totally different Quinn when all this started. He was more energetic and eager to do things I thought he was just too lazy to do.

So as I read all these things I started to cry more and more. I looked at my little guy and said “There is a reason, Quinn! A reason for your lack of weight gain and your lack of nursing!”

I then called the dr and made an appointment. This was step one to getting this fixed. The next step was joining a facebook group made up of moms and a few professionals who have all gone through or are going through this type of a trial. The more I read, the more I knew in my heart that this is what was wrong from the beginning. And while I knew it wouldn’t cure everything I knew it would cure a large part of the problem we were having. So I waited until we were able to get in to see his ped. so we could talk about what happened.

This week the drs appointment came. First I have to say while jumping up and down, that He is FINALLY on the chart! He is 14 lbs 3 oz! That makes him in the 3rd percentile. The calorie loading is working but even my doctor agreed that this is not a long term solution. I mentioned to him the upper lip tie and we chatted a bit about it. while he isn’t familiar with much about it he agreed to have us go to a specialist to get it checked out and see if we can get it fixed. There are 2 ways of doing it, by laser and by knife. I am hoping for the laser as it heals much faster and they are able to nurse right away.

We have an appointment with his GI doctor next week so I will be asking her about it as well to see if she recommends doing anything to fix it. I am hopeful that this will help with the weight and feeding issues, but with reflux running in our family I am sure It will not be a cure all. Thank you again for your prayers and thoughts. they have ment so much to me and my family. We have really drawn strength from them as we have gone through this.