There is light at the end of the tunnel!

I wanted to post our positive story of revision for those of you who are going through it right now!

When my son was born I right away noticed that his chin was recessed. Several people who came in during our hospital stay told me it was normal and not to worry. My son also had a very shallow latch. It didn't hurt me, and I had nursed my oldest until she was 2, so I figured I'd be able to trouble shoot his latch on my own. Because of that, when LC nurse came into our room I chatted with her but told her we were doing great and didn't need any nursing support.

My son was crazy gassy as a baby. He spit up all the time, and as he nursed I could literally feel bubbles in his tummy. As a result he was really fussy and a terrible sleeper. I was using a lot of gas drops and they weren't helping, so I knew something else was wrong. I had heard of tongue ties in my local LLL page so I called the preferred provider in our area for an assessment. Sure enough at 5 weeks we found a PTT and ULT. His latch was so bad that he was gulping air while he nursed. He was in the 95% for weight though which confused me, because I thought he would be having trouble gaining weight. The provider told me that because I had a fast flow he had figured out how to get enough milk even with his inefficient latch.

Right after his ties were lasered he nursed better, still very narrow, but better. His reflux symptoms completely went away. I hated doing the stretches, but I was diligent in doing them as the dentist had told us to. There were a lot of ups and downs the first 8 weeks after revision and there were days I regretted doing it too.

I also had to go see another LC because his latch was still shallow compared to what they say a latch should look like. I spent a hour with a LC who watched him nurse. I had no pain, and his latch was good, just a little more shallow than the "textbook" latch. She told me as long as he wasn't in pain and I wasn't in pain that I didn't need to worry about getting his latch to look like what everyone else was saying it should look like. Today he is 15 months old, still 95% for weight and is still nursing!

So this was a long story, but I remember how stressful our revision was and I just want everyone who is going through this now to know there is light at the end of the tunnel!

- Emily Jaramillo