Up close:
Up closer:
Arms up! (they're always up):
Quite content:
Freak hand:
Now, a word about his frenectomy--although he was nursing well (he has gained 1 lb 3 oz since discharge), advice from doctors and nurses was that it is best to do this minor surgery as soon as possible, mainly to mitigate any speech problems in the future. This procedure is much less invasive than the circumcision he received, so we opted in. The pediatrician basically did the following:
- Orally administered some Children's Tylenol.
- Used 2 long cotton swabs to apply local anesthesia on either side of the frenulum.
- Clamped the frenulum with forceps for 60 seconds, so as to displace any blood in the frenulum. This reduces bleeding.
- Snipped the frenulum with some scissors that looked like what I used in elementary school.
The image below is pretty awesome. For everything they did, Liam would fuss a little bit at first, but then he'd just chill out and let them do their thing. He didn't like getting clamped with the forceps, but I kept talking to him and holding his arms and he stayed pretty calm. So calm, in fact, that for the entire 60 seconds he just lay there in repose, and Chelsie snapped off this shot:
Frenectomy:
