James hit the six month mark over Thanksgiving weekend, and then Christmas came out of nowhere and blah blah blah, I only just took him to see Dr. Looove for his six month well baby visit. But, I procrastinated myself into a convenient spot because Annabel was due for her four year check this month, so I was able to schedule both kids’ appointments into one visit! I was high-fiving myself all over the place (I am thirty-four and apparently will never learn my lesson re: procrastination).
Annabel had All The Feelings about seeing Dr. Looove. On the one hand, costume opportunity!
On the other hand, shots. She was very adamant about not wanting any (shocker). I kept reminding her that I had to give myself shots every day, and that they only sting for a second. She was unmoved, so then I reminded her that James would also be getting shots and she had to be a brave example for him. She was…lukewarm about this. Luckily, her checkup started and that distracted her.
In addition to the regular checkup stuff, she had hearing and vision tests. My mom went down the hall with her for the tests (I stayed with James) and said Annie was really into it. The vision chart was animals instead of letters, and sometimes she yelled out the sound the animal made instead of the name of the actual animal. I totally wish I’d witnessed that. Also during her hearing test, sometimes she’d forget to raise her hand when she heard the tone and she’d start giggling instead.
While Annie was getting tested, James was getting examined. He was all about the exam table paper.
He treated Dr. Looove and her nurses to non-stop smiles and giggles, even while he was getting poked and prodded.
Dr. Looove endeared herself to Annabel by not only asking her lots of questions about the movie Frozen, but she also asked her to sing some of the songs. You don’t have to ask Annie twice, and she started belting out some songs…which made James start giggling again.
Both kids checked out great (both in the 90th percentiles for height and head), which is always a relief. I wasn’t expecting to hear any differently, but I hold my breath nonetheless. After the exams were over, it was time for the dreaded shots. Annabel started to protest but Dr. Looove’s nurse was great and let Annie pick out her Band-Aids. She let out a little yelp after the first shot, but only winced after the second shot. I was really proud of her.
James didn’t do quite as well for his shots. As soon as he started crying, Annie started saying, “It’s okay Jamesie! It only hurts for a second! Be brave, I know you can be brave!” Then she started making faces at him and James began laughing. That was all it took to make the tears stop. He loves her sooo much.
Annie is now officially done with all of her “baby” vaccines, and won’t need another (other than the flu) until she’s eleven. That seems impossibly far away. When we were back at home, Annie said to me, “Mommy, how many fingers is eleven?” When I showed her it was all her fingers plus one toe, she couldn’t believe how far away that is. “Mommy, I’ll be so old! I’ll have my own kids by then!”
Noooooooooooooooooo.
Becca Masters says:
Ha ha @ her having her own kids by 11. She’s so funny!
I think for kids they can have the flu vax via nasal spray now, so worth looking into that maybe?
And James is so adorable. My daughter screamed the room down when she had her first lot of vax jabs. She’s got a couple more when she’s a year (which I’m dreading) and then nothing else until she’s 3 1/2!
Think our vax schedules are different in the UK than in the US.
Hayley says:
Yes Becca, my son had his mmr at 14m and isn’t due any more until his preschool booster before reception usually around 4.
Jamesie’s little teeth are so cute!! Glad all was well!
Nicole says:
LOL!! I was NOT expecting that end to this post! Priceless. *giggle*
Stacey says:
I love the way you work Annie’s interests into the appointments to help ease her fears — dressing up, Frozen, being brave for James. I hope one day I can be as patient with my own (future) children! It sure speaks volumes about your personality and mothering.
P.S. Annie’s comments are priceless!
Jordan says:
“Mommy, I’ll be so old! I’ll have my own kids by then!”
I’m sitting at work chuckling… she just has the cutest personality.
Maris says:
Ditto
Mary Brock says:
I literally just laughed out loud at Annie’s comment about having kids at 11!!! She is so cute! My son also tore the exam table paper to tiny pieces EVERY SINGLE TIME we went for a check-up.
Valeri says:
Thank you for vaccinating your children and thank you for talking openly about it!
Lora says:
Too cute!!! I love seeing their sweet smiles, glad everyone is healthy and happy in your house!
Paula says:
My Adam told my husband that he was going to get married and then said “I can’t wait until I’m ten!” He was Annie’s age. Paul and I are both like “Wha…?” LOL!
I had my flu vax y’day and I might have been a bit squeamish and whiny. I hate shots.
Lindsey says:
Hi guys,
I have followed you all since Maddie. I have 3 kids of my own now, and one is severely vaccine injured. You have every right to do what you want on your blog, without question, but seeing as how the rates of vaccine injured children grow higher with each year, I am quite sure I am not alone in feeling PTSD seeing pictures of babies about to/having just had, multiple vaccines.
Not interested in a vax debate. Please just be aware t hat some of your audience, like me, our hearts hurt with posts like this
Lindsey says:
Wow. I’m sorry for what your child has gone through, but you’re really trying to shame Heather here? You have a lot of nerve.
Lauren says:
There were 362 compensable (aka, provable) vaccine injuries in the US in 2013. I’m not unsympathetic to what you have gone through, but the number of families who have dealt with actual vaccine injury is incredibly small (especially compared to the number of families who have lost a child to a vaccine-preventable disease).
Heather and Mike have every right to vaccinate their children and to discuss it on their blog- and to do so without someone implying that they are putting their children in danger by giving them vaccines.
Lindsey says:
Please don’t. Please read my post again. Heather has every right to vaccinate and to post about it. I am a grieving mother who feels ill seeing pictures like these, and I thought heather might want to know that. I love her family and this blog. I in no way insinuated she did anything wrong. I just asked for some mercy.
Jen says:
I think it’s pretty clear that you meant no harm by your comment but I would ask you this. Would it be fair of me to go to the blog of a mother who’s child survived cancer and told her that the pictures of her healthy child hurt me? I am still grieving the loss of a little boy very close to me but I would never ask a mother who’s child was healthy for mercy after seeming pictures of a cancer survivor.
I won’t tell you that I don’t read stories of children beating cancer and ask myself “why them?” I would just never ask someone to change the narrative of their story to spare my feelings.
Lindsey says:
Fair enough. I guess I thought if Heather knew someone in her audience has diagnosed PTSD from her child’s diagnosed vaccine injury, she might like to consider that in the future. That is all. Heather has every right, as I have said three times now, to post whatever she wants here. I truly just thought she would want to know. She can do with this information as she pleases!
Thank you for understanding that I meant no harm. Also as insinuated above, I am not here with an agenda. I did not ask heather to stop taking her children to her doctor or insinuate anything about how she should handle their health.
Only that vaccine injury is real, I am living it, and I love to be able to come to this blog. That’s all.
Courtney says:
I’ll be combining my older son’s 4-year visit with my younger’s 18-month visit – and I’m also bringing my mom along to help! And funnily enough, my younger one wore that very same stethoscope to his 15-month check-up yesterday! He wears it every lately.
Kari Weber says:
Just an FYI, both my boys had a mild skin reaction to the T in the T-DAP vaccine (Tetenus?) with a red angry upper arm, hot and swollen… they said it was a normal reaction to the vaccine (or a reaction still within the “normal” range) but it looked angry and made me think skin-infection when I first saw it! Both boys weren’t really all that bothered by it, except if a shirt sleeve felt too tight… but it surprised me BOTH times! Annie may be fine, but I wish I had known about that reaction BEFORE it happened.