It was a little bit of a roller coaster ride with the birth, but we were discharged from the hospital on Saturday. There was some concern because he has lost over 10% of his birth weight and he seemed to be struggling with breathing when he became upset, so they gave us orders to see the pediatrician on Monday.
My family came to the hospital to see us off, just like they did when Silas came home. Our first night was spent just with Josh, Declan and myself. Silas stayed over at his Bubby and Huny's house to give us a chance to settle in. We came home to a cleaned house and a little camp area already set up thanks to Josh's mom. We are super lucky to have such wonderful family members.
Getting around after a cesarean is no easy feat. I've been sleeping on the couch because climbing up the stairs is really difficult. I make a trip up once a day to shower and change into clean clothes. Josh has been wonderful in terms of helping me and taking care of Silas' major needs. Silas has also been very awesome at helping around the house and really taking on the role of awesome big brother.
At our appointment on Monday we learned that Declan has a lip and tongue tie, which is making breastfeeding (and bottle feeding) difficult and contributing to his weight loss. We've been supplementing with breast milk thanks to my sister and good friend Liz, but it's not been enough. Apparently poor Declan hasn't been able to extend his tongue far enough to pull milk out of the nipple (breast or bottle) and his lip tie is making his latching abilities less than stellar. My poor nipples have so much trauma from it that it made sense to look into the ties.
We went to a consultation on Tuesday with a pediatric office that specializes in ties. Not only did our own pediatrician recommend them, but a number of my mom friends have taken their kiddos in to see Dr. Agarwal and those who have needed the ties remedied have had lots of success afterwards. They agreed that his tongue and lip needed to cauterized and we were able to get an appointment this morning. They did the tongue tie first and the lip tie will be taken care of in a few weeks once the tongue has time to heal.
Declan was a trouper and Silas was very patient while waiting for the procedure to happen. When it was finished I fed Declan and could feel a difference in his latch right away. We have some oral exercises to work with him on and hopefully this will make his weight gain happen more steadily. In addition to the procedure this morning we also have a weight check with our regular pediatrician.
We had some down time before the second appointment so we took Silas to the Play Factory to reward his excellent behavior. Even the doctor commented on how well behaved he was even though we had waited over an hour and a half. Silas had a blast and Declan slept right through it all.
At the weight check we found out that Declan gained a little weight, but not exactly the amount we were hoping for. The boys' doctor is an IBCLC and she took a look at his latch and was very impressed with the difference from two days prior. We go back on Monday for another weight check and will probably make a few weekly appointments as we get a strong relationship established.
Declan has been super sleepy from the day's events and we are hoping that he won't be up all night long. Thankfully we'll have a few days at home with no appointments to rest. They've taken a lot out of me as well!
Silas loves being a big brother. He enjoys holding his brother and gives him kisses whenever he can. He gets so concerned when he cries and never wants us to put him down. It's really super sweet how much he enjoys his brother already.
Lots of Declan! He is so alert most of the time, but when he is sleepy is so super sweet!
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