Watch Out Country Music

At the young age of two, my daughter has a slight obsession with Taylor Swift. It started with a simple request to “listen to Taylor” in the car and has escalated to “I want to be Taylor Swift when I grow up.” Since Taylor seems to be a pretty down to earth singer/songwriter we have embraced her obsession some and on this particular occasion I taped the Oprah show for Addison to watch later that evening. She was so excited to see Taylor perform that she had to get up and dance and I was able to capture it on video. So here is to the up-and-coming Taylor Swift backup dancer aka Addison Grace!

The Procedure

Our appointment with the ENT went well. He agreed with the lactation consultant that Christian’s tongue was tight and did the procedure right there in the office. There was minimal bleeding and he only cried for a second. I was able to nurse him immediately. It seems he has more mobility with his tongue already even though I cannot say nursing has improved greatly. I was told it could take up to four weeks for him to figure out how to use it so only time will tell. Even if it never gets better, I truly love the bond that nursing has made. Knowing that I, through the will of God, am responsible for his growth has been an amazing blessing all in itself.

Our Nursing Journey

For the last six weeks I have been nursing Christian and even though we can’t call our relationship a failure we definitely can’t call it a success. We have seen numerous lactation consultants and even made a visit to his pediatrician and my physician offices and no one was able to determine why nursing was painful for me. That is, until today. I assume our relationship started like any other since it seems a little pain and discomfort isn’t abnormal but with us the pain never went away. It actually probably got worse. We have an array of products from nipple shields to soothies to tubes of lanolin yet it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. I have researched every site possible and have been unable to determine what we are doing wrong. I have been on the brink of giving up more times than I am able to count but I have found support in people around me that have held me to a high standard to pull through because I told them I was going to succeed this time. Well, today we may have found the answer. I met with a new lactation consultant who believes Christian is tongue-tied. At first I was skeptical but as soon as I got home I did some research and it truly sounds like our situation. We have several of the “symptoms” that are associated with the diagnosis. So, we have an appointment with a ENT specialist on Friday for a second opinion.

A is for Attitude

When they asked me if I was interested in moving Addison to the preschool class six months early my response was “of course” like any parent who believes their child is a genius. Never did I expect, or even know to expect, that by moving her up to a class with three and four years old I was going to get a whole new level of attitude. It seems like everyday it is something new but the two phrases that surface most are “You’re not my best friend anymore” and “You’re not invited to my birthday party.” I have informed little Miss Attitude that if I am not invited to her birthday party then there will be no party as the mommy and daddy are responsible for putting the party on…to which she usually responds “Your invited then, but you can’t have any of my cake”. Seriously? Already?!? I can’t wait to see her teenage years!

Right There.... Yeah!!!

I have quickly learned that when you have more than one child it is very easy to compare the second to the first. In our case, some of the comparisons were very easy as Christian came out looking like a clone of his sister just 2 and a half years earlier. It was so neat to remember things she did when we would see him do them. However, from the beginning there was one thing that was unique to our baby boy… he loves having his head rubbed. He will sit still and even cock his head to the side to get a good rub in. It is adorable to see his expression when he realizes what you are doing.