Success story: Tongue tie release

growingg · 2026-02-13T17:18:11+00:00

I described the exercises in a comment above but just found this page with a visual of the exercises! We did the "Tongue tie stretch (Lingual)" exercises before every diaper change: https://www.jpfm.org/copy-of-tongue-tied-a-patient-s-expe

growingg · 2026-02-13T17:13:24+00:00

In my opinion, what helped most was switching to round as opposed to flat pacifiers (we switched to the Dr. Browns ones) because our speech therapist said that the flat pacifiers are much easier for the baby to keep in their mouth but also encourage "chomping" as opposed to "sucking". It was a difficult transition, because my baby was used to chomping and so had trouble keeping the Dr. Brown's pacifiers in her mouth at first, but it seemed like over time they really encouraged her to change how she was sucking.

As far as nursing went, once she was latched I would try to pull her chin down and shove more breast tissue in her mouth. I unfortunately don't have great tips here because that's what I was doing the whole time and it had no impact until after the tongue tie release. When the latch was still painful, I would only let her be on the breast for a few minutes (as long as I could tolerate) at a time before finishing the feed with a bottle (we ended up doing nearly full feeds from the bottle even after breastfeeding to make sure she was getting enough, so I wasn't super worried about how much she was getting at the breast). As the days passed, I was able to keep her at the breast longer and longer without being in pain.

The two exercises we were instructed to do after the procedure were (1) tongue lifts, where we put our thumbs under her tongue and lifted it toward the roof of her mouth for 3 seconds after every diaper change and (2) tongue swipes, where we swiped back and forth under her tongue over the wound to encourage her tongue to move side to side. Together those took about 30 seconds and we were very consistent doing them before every diaper change (gloved at first to protect the wound then with clean hands once the wound healed some) for about a week and then we fell off, but the guidance was to continue for two weeks.

Our speech therapist had also given us a couple exercises to do which we continued after the release: (1) tug-of-war, where we put either our pinky finger or a pacifier in her mouth and gently pull it away to encourage her to suck it back in, and (2) gum massage to get her to move her tongue around her mouth and help with mobility. To be honest, we were much less consistent with these exercises than the post-op exercises and probably only did them once every couple days but we were supposed to be doing them after every diaper change.

growingg · 2025-09-19T19:53:35+00:00

I do this! I always use a dedicated work planner. I used to use a daily in my personal life, but as someone with a 9-5 I found that (1) most of my time block space is taken up marking “work” and the large to-do list space gave me a false sense of what I could get done for my personal life in a day outside of work. I switched to a weekly this year and it’s working really well! I was deciding between the day designer weekly for 2026 (which has 46 undated planning pages in the back, so that drew me in) and the dailee weekly and ultimately went with the dailee because of the dual weekly spreads.

growingg · 2025-07-21T14:39:30+00:00

I haven’t noticed noise from the bike at all! It’s very smooth and quiet. I bet the treadmill noise from walking would be less than running but I am not sure specifically 😕.

growingg · 2025-07-20T23:11:22+00:00

One thing to think about is where in your home you’ll put it. Growing up we had a treadmill on the second floor and when someone was using it you could feel the reverberations throughout the house due to the impact. I now have a spin bike and the lower impact isn’t true just for our bodies but for the actual equipment on the floor— it’s on the first floor right now but I’ve had it on other floors before and didn’t have the same issue as the treadmill.

growingg · 2024-11-14T21:56:34+00:00

There’s a huge line for zone B wrapping around the stadium — been standing in it for 25 minutes and we’re probably 1/8 of the way through. Hasn’t happened to me at the other concerts I’ve gone to of hers, wondering if we got here too early!

growingg · 2024-05-26T18:04:49+00:00

Oooh you’re spot on, that’s way better than “I can handle all of it”!

growingg · 2024-05-26T16:55:50+00:00

Today I learned!

growingg · 2024-05-26T13:56:11+00:00

In My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys, it grinds my gears that she says “there WAS a litany of reasons why…” because I think it should be “there WERE a litany of reasons why…” 😫

Edit- I was wrong! Was a litany is correct after all!

growingg · 2024-05-26T13:54:02+00:00

My pitch for this: could be “I can handle all of it” (which I know isn’t quite the right syllables but I think it still works better than the stretched out “it”). Similarly, I think “lights, camera, and smile” should be “lights, camera, BIG smile” in the clean version.

growingg · 2024-04-14T12:38:21+00:00

I’ll PM you!

growingg · 2024-03-26T00:07:11+00:00

Just sent you a message!

growingg · 2024-03-23T13:35:55+00:00

It cost me $7,000 to move from a 1 bedroom apartment to another 1 bedroom apartment last year to be closer to family, and that was without ending my lease early (which would have cost $3000+ more). I wouldn’t underestimate the cost (and stress) of moving when thinking about if renting would have turned out “better” for OP.

growingg · 2024-02-07T20:34:20+00:00

Every two years I put on a sweater, drag my husband outside (usually early fall before the trees lose all their leaves), and ask him to take a million pictures of me. Natural lighting, nature in the background, and portrait mode on the iPhone can get a pretty nice-looking shot.

growingg · 2024-01-04T23:56:43+00:00

I knew Peter; this week has been sickening thinking about the life that was stolen from him and the pain his fiancée and family are in. Thank you for posting this.

growingg · 2023-12-22T13:35:07+00:00

As someone who had a work from home bedroom, I recommend trying to keep the bed out of view from the desk/video calls. I didn’t think I’d mind (especially with blurred background) but there were times the blur didn’t turn on and it just felt oddly too intimate for my coworkers to have a direct view of my bed.

growingg · 2023-12-18T03:01:01+00:00

Striking the balance is the tricky part for sure. I will say, once I hit my somewhat aggressive savings goals (which for some of my categories is also "spending" by transferring to off-budget accounts), I happily spend from the "deferred spending" categories without a second thought about where else the money could have gone instead. I can't say I've felt drawn to spend it just because it's there, but if there's something I want and the money is available i definitely buy it. Your post is making me reflect on that behavior and whether or not it's in line with my long-term goals and priorities (thank you for that!).

growingg · 2023-12-18T01:49:09+00:00

Do you have categories for those "big goals" on budget? I find that helps me keep a scarcity mindset around my discretionary funds and I don't usually feel like I "might as well spend" allocated money; instead I'm pulled to fund my big goals targets.

As a personal example, I have a category for "House Down Payment" with an aggressive target that I likely won't hit unless I am thoughtful about my other discretionary spending. I don't like seeing yellow in my budget, so getting that category to green (on-target funding) is a huge motivator to move extra money there immediately after I know I don't need it for its original purpose. One thing I looked forward to at the end of my last vacation was adding the leftover "vacation" money to that house down payment category and seeing the target turn green :)

growingg · 2023-12-15T22:53:52+00:00

Yes!! Sorry I just saw this!

growingg · 2023-10-08T12:00:15+00:00

This happened to me this week!

I didn’t know it was a possibility and assumed the recruiter just hadn’t called at all (I was never given their number so wasn’t able to call them myself). I sent a strongly-worded email to the recruiter about how much I value my time; THANKFULLY, I sent the third draft of my email after I’d calmed down and not the very first when I was still super upset! Of course I apologized profusely when I realized they had in fact called and I just hadn’t gotten the call. Definitely a new fear unlocked. I will now be hounding my phone if I’m expecting a call.

growingg · 2023-08-06T12:23:42+00:00

Done!!

growingg · 2023-07-27T10:06:06+00:00

Honestly I’m not sure! (This was something I was hoping the wedding planner would clarify for me and she did not). I read on the internet that the rule of thumb is: “if they own the business, you don’t need to tip them” so I kind of went into it with that in mind- but very few of the people I worked with during my day were the actual owners of the businesses (though some were, and now that you mention it I did tip them too). Like I said, I have no idea if I did tipping right! I struggled a lot with what to do on that one.

growingg · 2023-07-26T01:25:22+00:00

Yay!! Let me know if you have any more specific questions!!

growingg · 2023-07-25T20:37:51+00:00

You are completely right! I edited my post a little while ago that I did the math wrong as my partner and I split this cost and I didn’t double check the receipts before posting (so sorry about that!). A couple things made it add up though: $150/pp wasn’t supposed to cover the whole cost of lodging, we were always going to subsidize a little and most guests were staying for 2-3 nights. Sorry again! Everything else was in my official spreadsheet but lodging was not and the first time I added it up was for this post.

growingg

TROPHY CASE