A New Tongue

Marshall was born tongue-tied. It never was a problem because he was a great eater. We've been eye-balling Marshall's tongue for a while, hoping his frenulum would stretch on it's own. We wanted to avoid any future problems with speech. After asking the doctor over the course of several months, he told us to visit a pediatric ENT to get a second opinion. She kind of hemmed and hawed over cutting his tongue, saying it's a bit controversial until he opened his mouth. She quickly changed her tune when she took one look and said "Oh yeah! We need to snip it!"
With no one to watch Remi at 5am, we agreed that Keith would stay home and I would cart Marsh to Texas Children's Hospital for outpatient surgery. It was much more traumatic for me than for Marshall. He didn't cry and hardly whined, even though he had to fast. The staff at Texas Children's is so friendly and professional, they really held my hand every step of the way. I was never left wondering where to go or what was happening. I even got valet parking for free! Because it was Halloween every staff member on the floor was dressed as a character from Toy Story. Too bad Remi missed it!
When the nurses(one dressed as a fairy) came to take baby away from me I was a nervous wreck. They let me carry him to the outer doors of surgery and I watched him be carried off by the glittery fairy. It totally broke my heart but the experience was strangely comical at the same time. Marshall's actual procedure only took about 5 minutes, the hard part was coming out of anesthesia. Walking into the recovery room , it was so sad to see my little baby with an oxygen mask, heart monitor and a tube down his throat. He ate when he woke up and then I took him home. Daddy and Rem were waiting anxiously to see little brother. He was so tired that he took two four hour naps and slept through the night. Today he is much more alert and only slightly cranky. What a champ!
This before picture shows his forked devil tongue. That's as far as he could stick it out.A teeny tiny hospital bed.
Waiting for surgery in his hospital jammies. 6:30AM.
I'll take some after pictures when his tongue heals!