DS is my third child and is 4 weeks old today. born 8lb 10oz and at last weigh in (on Tuesday) was 11lb neat so has gained nicely. When he was first born i put him to my breast and he seemed to have enormous trouble taking in my nipple. His latch was appalling and once he was actually attached he would pull off or fall off all the time. Persevered for the next 72 hours, got him latched on a couple of times but not without extreme effort. Sadly i dont think he got very much of my colostrum at all. At any rate i made the disappointing decision to go with formula as i could not keep spending all my time trying to get him latched on when i had DD1 (3) and DD2 (16m) to look after too.
With bottles i have noticed his latch is still not great but he has to work much less to get the milk out so it hasn't really been an issue until about a week ago when it all seemed to go to hell in a hand basket.
Suddenly his latch has deteriorated to the extent that he is sucking in air with every mouthful and cant seem to form a proper seal on the teat. The result is that he is writhing through most of the feed with trapped wind and i am having to stop to burp him after every ounce which i don't mind doing but after the feed he still seems to have wind trapped and is unsettled and in pain.
When he was born i asked the midwife and the hospital lactation consultant to check him for tongue tie as DD2 had one and my sisters kids had them too. She said he was fine. I was a bit concerned though because his tongue doesn't seem to extend beyond his gums. I keep trying to coax him to stick his tongue out to his lips and beyond but have never been successful. A part of me is wondering if he has a posterior tongue tie.
He will take a dummy but has enormous trouble keeping the small newborn dummy in but is able to keep a 6m+ one in. After a feed having his dummy and being tightly held (or swaddled) are the only things that soothe him.
I am honestly at a bit of a loss. I cant work out what has changed between this week and last that has caused this deterioration. He was doing just fine last week, had settled into a nice routine of 3 hourly feeds which took about 20-40m and was happily taking 3-4 oz at each feed. Now each feed can last upwards of an hour and are a scream fest. If it is a tongue tie, why is it suddenly now an issue when it wasn't last week.
I am so sorry that this has turned into such an epic post. All thoughts much appreciated.