Scary Beginning with a Missed Tongue Tie
Meet Teagan
Teagan was born at 34 weeks gestation at a whopping 6 lbs 13 oz... talk about big baby! Fortunately, we were able to bypass the NICU and go home with her immediately.
Nursing was painful, but I assumed it was just my breasts getting used to feeding a newborn again—but after our second night home, I was having trouble getting her to wake up and eat, so I reached out to Melanie.
We met with her the next day. After a few hours of not being able to wake Teagan, Melanie suggested we go to the hospital and I am so glad we did as Teagan needed more help than just nursing.
Failure to Thrive
Instead of gaining weight, Teagan was losing it. The hospital admitted her immediately with a diagnosis of failure to thrive, and we had to bottle feed her. My milk supply took a big hit, despite frequent pumping. She was so weak that when we were eventually released from the hospital, we were sent home with an oxygen unit to help her breathe.
We called Melanie the next morning, and with her help we arranged to have a procedure done to revise Teagan’s lip and tongue ties, which were preventing her from nursing efficiently. Melanie also helped me with techniques to build my milk supply up again.
the miracle of tie revision
Immediately following Teagan’s tie-revision procedure, she ate better than she ever had before! Oh, the relief! Teagan gained an entire pound and a half in one week.
“Teagan gained an entire pound and a half in one week.”
We followed the stretching guidelines to the letter, to prevent any reattachment after the procedure.
Teagan finally started to look less sickly, and more like a normal baby. To our delight, she never had troubles nursing again! We happily nursed for 21 months until I became pregnant again.
Melanie is truly a blessing. She helped save my breastfeeding relationship with Teagan, and quite possibly Teagan’s life as well.
She truly cares about mamas and their babies. She's very knowledgeable, and I will recommend her to any mom struggling with breastfeeding. I didn't realize how common tongue-ties were. I'm so glad Melanie was able to spot Teagan's and help us on our journey to successful breastfeeding.
Baby Bonds is a Boise-based company that serves mothers with lactation support specializing in tongue tie. If you’re interested in learning more, you can find our contact information here.