Another Kennedy Update

Kennedy is wide awake!


Cute little baby hand!


Silly face :) Look at that lock of hair sticking up!

On Saturday Brian and I took Addison and Kennedy to the Mt. Hood Conference high school wresting district tournament so Brian could see his old coaches and to watch one of our friend's brother's wrestle (who got 5th place!). Addison was thrilled to get out and run up and down the halls of the Sam Barlow High School gym with her Papa Jeff. We spent the evening with our friends, Mat, Shannon and Jordan having dinner and frozen yogurt. It was nice to chat and catch up, as the past few times we have met up it has been difficult to really sit and talk.

Sunday I had a follow up appointment with the lactation nurses at Kaiser to follow up on Miss Kennedy. It wasn't anything crucial, but they called and asked if I would like to come in and have a weight check on Kennedy and to work with her not using the nipple shield that we had been using due to the mastitis and a tool used to help her feeding with a "forked tongue" or "attached frenulum". What is this you ask....well, the pediatrician that we saw at the hospital said that Kennedy appeared to have a "forked tongue" which means that her frenulum (the piece of tissue that attaches your tongue to the floor of your mouth) is more attached than it should be. This is actually fairly common, but can cause issues when breastfeeding. Kennedy doesn't so much have problems feeding, but does show some signs related to her being "tongue tied". Some of these issues are she doesn't like to latch on without the nipple shield, she takes a long time to nurse, and she isn't gaining weight as quickly as she should. If the frenulum is a continued issue, they will simply go in and clip it and that should remedy the situation.

So, I felt that it certainly couldn't hurt to go in and see what they have to say, not to mention, I was curious to see how much weight she had gained since her check up on Wednesday. The appointment went very well. Kennedy was very hungry by the time it was our turn, so she was able to get a good feeding in with the lactation nurse. The nurse weighed her before the feeding and said she weighed 7lbs 15oz (gained 3oz since Wednesday) and then helped us eliminate the nipple shield which was pretty successful. After the feeding she weighed Kennedy again and said she took in just over 2 1/2oz, which is good! We are shooting for her to eat 2-3oz every 2-3hrs in order to gain 1/2lb a week, which is the goal. So, she is right on track and we will go in Friday or next Monday just to have a weight check to see if we are meeting those goals. Oh and she also felt that her frenulum wasn't an issue, so that's a relief :)