Monday, December 17, 2007

my turn

when nani and lala were babies, they were always so excellent at their doctors appointments. i remember numerous times waiting for the doctor to come to our room and i would hear the most horrendous screams coming from the next room over. i always felt so bad for the baby, but not only the baby, but the mother, as well.

i was so grateful for my perfect little angel baby that would smile at the doctor and cry minimally when given her shots.

i heard horror stories from my friends about how traumatic their trips to the doctors were and i again was so grateful and wondered why my girls were so good. why was it so horrible for everyone else??

well, our third daughter has changed all of that! when she was just a brand new baby the doctors was very uneventful for her. i think it was her 6 month appointment when things began to change. at first, she just hated that crinkly paper covering the patient table, which was easily fixed. we would just move the paper out of the way and she was fine. the appointments, however have gone from bad to worse!

today, kawena had her 14 month appointment. when we got into the room i laid her down on the crinkly paper and she freaked out, i mean major freak out!! so i moved it out of the way and it did nothing to calm her fit! so, i struggled to strip her down. i laid her on the baby scale and she almost flipped herself off of the thing she was flippin' out (literally) so bad! the nurse and i tried to keep her on there without putting our weight on the scale, not an easy thing to do!! i don't know how accurate her 20 pound measurement was, but we both were satisfied to just get her off of the scale and into my arms.

after letting her calm down for several moments we had to attempt to get her head circumference and height! to get her height we have to lay her down on the crinkly paper so they can mark it on the paper. kawena went into screaming fits when i laid her down again! let me tell you, that girl is STRONG!! we were both holding her down and she was still squirming under us! she was screaming so hard, you know the kind when you're staring at your child thinking, "okay breathe. breathe! BREATHE!!" and then they finally do and then you're able to breathe yourself!

while measuring her head, kawena ripped the tape measure off before the nurse could get the measurement. of course, then the nurse just had to do it again!!

at this point i was thinking, "and this is the easy part! the bad part hasn't even happened!" i think the poor girl just remembers the doctors office and what happened the last few times she was there! she knows!! my other girls never even batted an eye when it came to the doctors!! so weird how different each child is!

she did much better than i thought she would with her 3 shots, considering everything leading up to them! i am just glad that is over and i won't have to do it again for another 4 months!!

so, in the end, i turned into that poor mother in the next room with the screaming child! isn't it funny how that happens!?

5 comments:

Bridget said...

Oh, poor Kawena. Cole was also my first child to ever cry at the doctor. Although fortunately not to the level you are talking about. The non-breathing screams of terror. Must be something about that third baby...

Just think of all the moms there counting their blessings that they weren't you!

Sarah said...

So this is what I have to look forward to huh?! : )

Katie Smith said...

Poor Kawena! Thankfully things got better instead of worse.

Merilee said...

I don't remember doctor visits. But Sid was definitely the worst when it came to taking medicine. It's seriously amazing how strong they are when being held down. Especially their lip muscles. It's impossible to pry those things open.

Darilyn said...

This post brought back horrific memories of Doctor trips with Makenzie. She was like Kawena. It didn't get better until she was about 10 and even now she is the most difficult to treat for things. The most memorable appointment was her 5 year old kindergarten shots. It took 2 nurses, 2 parents and 1 doctor to hold her down for the shot. Traumatic. And now I've probably traumatized you Mahina. Sorry! : (