The Frenulumectomy

Medical Jargon
Diagnosis: Ankyloglossia (tongue tied)
Procedure: Incision of the Lingual Frenulum

Layman's terms:
Excessive attachment of tongue to bottom of the mouth.

Baylee Before Surgery

Baylee had her tongue clipped this morning. I really was expecting the worst and so far, I'm pleased to say that hasn't really been the case!

Last night, I fed Baylee a dream feed at 11 pm just to keep her happy and sleeping through the night. I wasn't allowed to feed her anything except pedialyte or juice between midnight and 3:15 am, so at 3:00am I gave her 50% pedialyte and 50% water mixed just to hold her over this morning. She did great all night and started to wake up right around the time I needed to get her dressed to get in the car.

We arrived at the surgery center at 6:15 am this morning and Baylee was overall in good spirits and not fussing too much. We went into pre-op where they took her vitals and discussed the procedure with us. For this procedure, they give the child a little anesthesia through a mask over their nose and mouth and no IV is needed. They also use a local anesthetic to numb the area they are going to cut.

In pre-op, Baylee started to get a little antsy so I kept thinking they needed to get this over with or we were going to have one SCREAMING baby on our hands. Right about the time I thought Baylee was going to let loose and let me have it, the nurse came to take her back for the procedure. I stood there and watched her take Baylee away, a happy and smiling baby...*tear*. I didn't actually start crying until we got into our little waiting room. All those motherly thoughts swarming through my head and freaking me out about all the things that probably wouldn't but could go wrong.

It wasn't 5 minutes later when the doctor came in and told us it was over and she was back in recovery. :) She did great and he wants to see us in 10 days to check on her, but overall everything should be just fine.

When we got back to where Baylee was recovering, Brent and I sat next to her bed to wait for her to wake up from the anesthesia. She looked so sweet covered in her pink blanket from Aunt Missy and she was sucking on her paci under her oxygen mask. It didn't take her long to come out of it and when she did I grabbed her up and rocked her and she didn't cry at all! She just looked at us like, "Where the heck am I?" I gave her a bottle and she went to town on it but still seemed a little woozy.


We were home with her by 8:30 am. I gave her some more to eat when we got home and she gladly took all of it and I put her straight to bed after a little cuddling and saying hello to her sisters. She hasn't napped as well as she usually does and I suspect it is because the local anesthetic under her tongue is wearing off and she is starting to feel a little soreness or pain. I gave her some Tylenol after a few bouts of heavy crying and she peacefully went back to sleep. Such a sweet, sweet baby Baylee is. All of the nurses were just ooo-ing and ahhh-ing over her and asking us all about the triplets.

Baylee After Surgery

(sadly, this is the best "after" shot I could get...Baylee wasn't in the mood for photos :))

Speaking of the triplets! The girls are doing just fantastic! Brent and I weighed them last night with our at-home scale and Baylee weighs 14.6 lbs. and Addison and Reagan both weigh 14.10 lbs!!! Our big girls!!!

Reagan Riley, Baylee Brynn and Addison Ann

Christy will be here today to help me for the rest of the week and also get the girls down to 0 feeds each night and on a 3 hour rotating schedule. We can't wait to see her!

Also, we are the featured family on Christy's website this week, so go check out all of the pictures of the girls on the pages to her website at http://www.sweetbabydreams.net/.

Love to you all!