I was planning on being the clever mother and sparing Lilly any anxiety by simply not telling her that the appointment was coming up. That plan failed miserably.
About a week ago, Lilly noticed her name on the calendar next to the words Dr. Sandvig. She put two and two together and all I heard since that fateful day was "I am NOT going to the doctor's office! I hate needle shots!" Yeah, I guess next time I want to keep something from my kids, I shouldn't write it on the calendar that hangs in the kitchen for all to see. Lesson learned.
Nate was working during her appointment and I really didn't want to be wrangling all three kids if I didn't absolutely have to. I'm not sure if all kids do this or if mine are just extra empathetic, but whenever one of my children is crying or fussing about something, the other two quickly join in for no observable reason other than to show some solidarity as siblings and fry mom's sanity. I think they secretly get together and laugh about it later.
So I arranged to have Jonah and Jayne play at a friend's house while I took Lilly to her ill fated doom. When we arrived at the friend's house, Jonah changed his mind. He insisted on coming to the appointment with us. He said he wanted to help Lilly be brave and he'd even worn his knight armor for the occasion. So, we dropped off Jayne, who had somehow convinced herself that we were going to the dentist and wanted absolutely no part of it, and the three of us headed over to the doctor's office.
I really like our doctor's office. We've never had a long wait time, and the staff is always very patient with my kids. Lilly was fairly cooperative for most of the appointment. She informed the nurse that she was being silly when asked to cover one eye and tell her what shapes she saw on the chart. She had a hard time sitting still for the blood pressure arm cuff. She was giggling too much. Yes, everything went extremely well. That is, until the very end of the appointment when the doctor leaves the room and says "the nurse will be right in to do the immunizations." You can't trick Lilly with big words. She knows that immunizations mean shots which means needles which means pain which means she is not going to cooperate. I can't say that I blame her. I have vivid memories of kicking a nurse in the gut while being held by my mom for an injection when I was a kid. Those nurses should really get hazard pay when they give kids immunizations.
Lilly needed 4 shots. So we laid her on the table and I held her arms and tried to keep her calm (yeah, that wasn't happening)while the nurse pinned down her legs and gave her the injections. My sweet Lilly was screaming from start to finish. She just kept yelling "No needle shots!" over and over. Then the nurse said, "just one more" and Lilly screamed out with such a defiant air a single word....."NEVER!!!"
She calmed down fairly quickly but was sure to inform the nurse that she was not getting any more "needle shots" ever again. Her legs were a bit sore yesterday, but now she's right back to her old self. I'm just glad it's over. Taking my kids to the doctor is on my list of my least favorite things, right up there with root canals and outhouses.
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