Leah's First Surgery

Leah had her first surgery , it went well only I didn't really know what to expect . I was led to believe that she would be nursing her bottle again in a couple of days , so I would like to share my experience with others so they will know what to expect just in case you don't want any surprises . First off this is painful Leah screamed and cried a lot , she was on Ibuprofen and Tylenol but your not supposed to give babies Ibuprofen under the age of 6 months so after the second day I had to stop giving her that but I had to keep her on the Tylenol for a while because the latham after a day or two can cause sores on the throat and tongue which makes babies feel like they have the strep throat , I also didn't know I was going to have to force feed her , I have never had to force feed before it can be emotionally stressful , you have to try to keep your baby from getting dehydrated , Leah would fight me every second when I would try to feed her so I couldn't get 3 ounces in her like the doctor wanted me to do so I came up with a plan to give her an ounce every hour and it worked . Another thing is I did not know that I was going to have to tighten the screw in this thing two times a day , this was a bigger shock than the force feeding but I am doing it , someone told my mom that they didn't think they could do that to their child , well that thought crossed my mind to but a mother will do what she has to do for her child , when I first started I didn't know what I was doing I just did it because I had to , I guess lately I have done a lot of things I never thought I would be doing , but it's really not as bad as it may seem , the first 3 days are the worst , I think by the 8th day Leah was starting to get back to her normal happy self and I am getting used to cleaning and tightening the screw even though I will never like doing it , I was not looking forward to the next surgery but I can't wait until this latham is taken out , even though Leah is already used to it now , I don't think I will ever be , when Leah first started taking her bottle again voluntarily I still had to squeeze it and help her , but after she got used to it now she is taking a 4 ounce bottle on her own so no force feeding or squeezing now :) . Most babies only have to wear a lathem for 3 weeks but in Leah's case it's going to be about 8 to 10 weeks but it will probably fly by , I will put a picture of the latham on here after her next visit to have it cleaned , I did however manage to take her for her 3 month picture before her surgery , Leah smiles most all the time , whenever I see her beautiful smile it makes me smile no matter what kind of day we are having , she actually smiled once right after her surgery but that was before the anesthesia wore off . GOD BLESS everybody and thank you for your prayers ......Dawn.