Double Doctor’s Appointment

Both Rachel and Miriam were due for shots today; we’ve been prepping Rachel for it all week. She was so worked up about it last night that she couldn’t sleep and didn’t sleep. She fell asleep around midnight, only to wake up two times in the wee hours of the morning. She was beyond nervous when we were sitting in the waiting room so we started to remind her of everything the doctor would do, most of which is completely innocuous.

“He’s going to listen to your heart like this,” said Andrew, demonstrating with the toy stethoscope.

“I don’t want him do that!” she said.

But we reminded her of how she’d get a treat if she didn’t scream while he was doing the simple, non-painful stuff.

“Then he’ll weigh you and measure you.”

“I don’t want him do that, either!”

“And then he’ll probably want to look into your ears and throat and nose. Can he do that?”

“Nope, he can’t,” she said, jamming her index fingers into either nostril, “My fingers are just in there right now!”

When we were called into Dr. Omar’s office we had Rachel go first. She did alright with the easy stuff, crying quietly and clinging to me instead of outright screaming and kicking at the doctor, but when he stuck the needle into her arm she just about lost it. She was screaming hysterically until he said,

“Does that hurt, Rachel?”

The needle was still in her arm and she turned to watch him finish injecting her.

“No. It actually doesn’t!” she realized and stopped screaming.

Miriam did much better with her half of the appointment. She’s still as chubby as can be—she skipped another line on the growth curve and now weighs 6.2 kg (or 13.6 lbs)! That’s huge!

“My compliments to the chef,” quipped Dr. Omar.

He still isn’t concerned about her packing on weight like she is. We’ll see if it evens out in the end!

Rachel wanted to watch Miriam get her two shots and cringed with the rest of us while each needle was plunged into her thigh. Poor thing. She screamed, too, but she’s just sleeping it off now, as she does everything. That’s probably why she puts on weight so well!