Woertink Bebes: Doctor's appointment

We just got back from a rather stressful doctor's appointment. This was their 6 month checkup (a little more than a month overdue) and also the visit with the most vaccinations. But first, the fun stuff...the stats! The girls are still only average sized (even a bit smaller than average ~30% percentile) and are both around 16 1/2 pounds. Nina's larger than Claire now (by a few ounces) and their heights are right in step with their weights (~68 cm). I keep expecting the girls to hit some kind of growth spurt and top the charts like their Mama, but it seems like they're sticking with more normal growth. The doctor said they look great and seem healthy. As always, the girls charmed the doctor and the entire waiting room (Nana always dresses them in adorable outfits for their appointments, which helps!).

Then came the less fun parts. The girls started getting hungry while we were waiting for the immunization-providing nurse, and since this waiting period was almost at hour at the last visit, we figured we had plenty of time to feed them. Neither my mother nor I remembered that one of the vaccines is oral, so in retrospect, hungry babies might not have been so bad.

As soon as we finished feeding the girls, the nurse walked in and got started with Claire's oral vaccine. It might not have come through yet in the blog, but Claire's our little formula fountain. She's generally the one who will spit up (or throw up) and needs to be burped several times during a feeding. Nana and I grabbed several burp cloths and prepared for the worst. Several times during the dosing (it's dosed a drop at a time and seems to take an eternity) Claire gagged or coughed, leading me to lunge out with my burp cloth...all false alarms. No vomit, no spit up, just a happy little baby. After her injections (and a quick happy-to-furious transition), I passed Claire off to Nana for comforting and we got started on Nina.

Nina has always been the better eater and also is very good at keeping her food down. Once we got started with Nina, I figured we were home free, and made the mistake of letting down my guard. As soon as the first drop of vaccine hit her tongue, she let out a big gag and proceeded to throw up every last ounce of formula she had just eaten. This was serious business and even came out of her nose. I managed to catch most of it, but it took all 6 remaining burp cloths to wipe up the results. Then came the injections and much baby screaming. But no! It wasn't over yet for Nina!

After all the drama and more than two hours at the doctors office, we had to head to the lab to have Nina's blood drawn as a followup to her cyst. The nurse needed a vial of blood (a lot for such a little baby!) and we held Nina down as the nurse tried to find a vein in her arm. The needle was pretty large and after she poked into Nina, it was clear she had missed. The nurse spend the next few seconds wiggling the needle around, searching for a vein (which she eventually found), resulting in a furious little Nina. After all the blood was collected, Nina got a cute pink stretchy bandage (picture) and we were (finally) on our way home.