Tongue tie and recovering from bad latch

[oliveroses]

Hi, my lovely son is 2 weeks old and has just been diagnosed with tongue tie. It was snipped today. Since he was born I have been on a 3 hour feeding cycle which involves skin on skin, breastfeeding (or trying), formula top up, expressing to maintain my milk supply. This all takes 1.5 to 2 hours so there's little time for anything in between. My nipples are in agony and needless to say I am very tired. My baby has lost a small amount of weight since previous appointment.

Today I had the appointment for the tongue tie and I'm just home and though I realise it doesn't offer an instant fix, the plan is basically that I continue on the schedule I am on, or a slightly relaxed version, and look out for improvement. At the same time I have been encouraged to bf more often. My nipples are still in pain when I try and bf though, & he still wanted a 70ml formula top up at the end. When will this
change? How do you relearn with your little one?

Does anyone have any experience of this or words of advice? My first week with my son was amazing but this is now really taking over. I have also received so much conflicting advice from different midwives and the health visitor: cut down on formula top ups to prioritise breast milk and production; don't cut down as he may lose more weight; use nipple shields to manage the pain; don't use them in case he becomes reliant; be more rigorous about the three hour schedule; every four hours is fine and you can even consider skipping a night feed if he doesn't wake up asking for one.

I feel at my wits end and am struggling to see a rational way through this, probably because I am so tired. I can deal with the sleep issues though, it's the pain that is so difficult. Last night I was counting the feeds until our appointment today in the hope things would suddenly change but I realise now that won't happen. Maybe I could deal with this if I was coming to it fresh but I feel exhausted. I don't even have a plan for the next feed. I would love to hear from anyone who has experienced similar in the past or who is going through it x

Thanks so much @oliveroses
Thanks to covid days like this aren't too different from usual!

Luckily I haven't had nipple pain so I don't need to worry about that side.
I've been trying to do paced feeding (and have the medela calma bottle) and need to make sure my husband uses it as he will let him wolf it down.

I'm not going to cut out the bottle completely straight away as it might cut out too much if his energy intake, but the bottles we do give I'll make sure are not associated with boob time, and will try to make sure they're breast milk if I manage to pump much between feeds.

Thanks so much for your help. I'm feeling a lot more positive about it (no tears today which is a good sign). But I'll also give myself a cut off point I think so if it doesn't work I can be at peace with moving to bottles

All the best with your future breastfeeding. It sounds like it was all with it

@123456789sw sounds great and I hope it goes well! Most importantly, don't give yourself a hard time if it's tough or doesn't work out. You've already done a great job xx

Hi again @oliveroses, I just want to say thank you for all of your advice and supportive words.

Seeing your post and then update gave me hope.

I'm currently giving only 1 bottle a day of expressed milk (mostly just so my husband can do this before bed while I get some sleep).

I'm not going to say how he's doing as he seems to be the "Prince of Jinx" and in the past, every time I've said "we've turned a corner" or "he's doing better now", I will find there's another corner or there's another problem... but I'm 3000 times happier than I was last week so take from that what you will

I hope everything is still going well with you and your family.

All the best,
Sophy & Raphael

X

@123456789sw it was so great to get your message, thank you so much for writing! I had actually been wondering how you were and how it was going. Sounds so promising and the most important thing is that you are feeling happier

Very best with everything!xx

That sounds hard, OP. My baby had a tongue tie divided at 14 weeks and the next feed was instantly better, but I had some on hand support with someone who is IBCLC qualified as I had it done privately. If you Google it, you get a list. Also, could you get some support from your local La Leche League group on Facebook? They're great. Would also recommend buying some Multi Mam Compresses to soothe your nipples. Good luck x

Oh sorry. Now seen your update, OP!

@blitzen no problem! I love those compresses, they kind of feel almost like pampering too, as well as pain relief!