We have a very similar story Kim. My eldest was hard to latch, very slow to gain weight & she fed fairly constantly. At 8 weeks, I was told by a medical professional that my determination to breastfeed was starving my child so after much crying we made a slow switch over to formula. I thought it was me. My boobs were to small, my nipples too large or I can't make milk. None of those were true.
During my second pregnancy, I read every breastfeeding book I could find. I went to LLL & set myself up with a support network & watched every "how to latch" video on the internet. I was very prepared but this time it was worse. Amelie was very difficult to latch. It was a full 2 weeks of crying & frustration from both of us. Amelie maybe latched on for 1-2 feeds a day. At the end of week 2, we went out for dinner & in the middle of the restaurant something clicked with us both & Amelie latched easier. I spent the next few days in bed with her. From then on, she latched for every feed but feeding was slow & she never seemed terribly full & wanted to feed every hour. She was slow to gain weight & the phn (hv in u.k) started putting pressure on & wanting to weigh her every couple of days. Again, I just thought it was supply issues because we weren't latching during the first couple of weeks when I was engorged. Things got easier, at least I thought they were, around the 8 week mark. I was still feeding every hour or 2. Amelie never really went longer than 2 hours between feeds. She fed constantly in the evenings, which Maddy did too so I took no notice & then we had regular feeding through the night as well. Amelie started to sleep through irregularly at 12 months. By 15mths she was sleeping through quite regularly & she self weaned at 19 months.
No one ever mentioned tongue or lip tie to me. The first time I'd heard them mentioned in relation to breastfeeding was when Kirsty had William & I can remember thinking "Gosh, that sounds familiar". I looked up tongue tie & realised neither of my girls have that. They can both lick their noses with their tongues
A couple of weeks later, I saw someone mention upper lip tie & breastfeeding problems on facebook. A quick google image search & I knew that's what my girls have. Amelie's is worse than Maddy's.
At the age of 7, Maddy has a gap in her front teeth. She has her 2 new front teeth for the last 6 months & a baby front tooth, that won't fall out, sticking out perpendicular. I brought her to the dentist 3 months ago & they wanted to give it 6 months to fall out before pulling it so we should be getting a dentist appointment after the easter holidays.
Thank you for sharing your story Kim. Hopefully it will help someone with a newborn. I wish I'd heard of it when my 2 were still breastfeeding. I'm very proud of my 19months feeding Amelie & you should be proud of feeding Noah through it too. I feel the exact same as you. Would I do it again? Definitely!
by laceybat » Tue Apr 10, 2012 6:20 am 
Iris has a lip tie - she now has gappy teeth. We BF for 18 months. 
But it was a nightmare to establish BF. I think her (undiagnosed) lip tie was part of the reason she ended up dehydrated and in SCBU after she was born. 
