Otis' Recovery

So, the Wednesday night before March break Jenny and I learned that Otis might have a lip and partial tongue tie.  These could be part of the reasoning behind some of his sleeping issues, as well as the reason he wasn't forming words as quickly as we expected.  He has had excellent receptive language for a long time, just like Arlo had from a young age, but we weren't sure about his word formation.  So...Thursday Jenny went for an appointment, and the woman who checked him out said that he had the most extreme lip tie that she had seen.  Friday we were able to get an appointment with the only dentist in the area who uses lasers to perform the procedure to remove the ties.  People come from Nunavut to have him do work on them.

So little Otis was lasered, and for ten days afterwards (luckily it was march break) we stretched out his lip and tongue to make sure that the scar tissue didn't re attach and close back up (one little boy who was lasered before us the same day had gone through the procedure, with scissors, in his first months, and it had reattached, so he was back again).  Now Otis is saying a ton more, forming sounds he never did before, and is letting us brush his teeth more easily (it must have been really sensitive with that extra flesh right at the gum line).  It seems to have made many differences for him.  He has healed quite well.  He was so tough through it all.  

Below are some photos trying to show where the skin tie came down to where the gum line meets the front teeth.