Pediatrician visit!

Elise is 6 months old! In between exlamations of "can you believe it?" and "quit growing, Baby!" we managed to squeeze in a visit to the pediatrician.

True to usual form (with newborns and infants, anyway), I'd scheduled Elise's 6-month appointment during her morning naptime. You'd think I'd learn by now: in the early months, schedule their next appointment for the most inconvenient time you can think of. After all the changes a baby's young life can bring, it'll be perfect 2 months down the road.

Plus, Elise has been having more sleep and nap issues lately, making the morning even more of an adventure. Long story short (because I can make any story that involve my kids' sleep long), I managed to get Elise down for an early-ish nap so that she had slept for at least 30 minute before I had to disturb her. I stuffed the baby into her carseat, rushed her out the door to the car (where Kalina and the diaper bag were already waiting), and made it to the pediatrician's office exactly on time. Which probably annoyed the receptionist, who likes us to be 10-15 minutes early for no apparent reason, but she hid it well.

The receptionist and I, by the way, are old friends now. We've chatted several times in the past week as I tried frantically to change the appointment time (no-go), and she at least pretended to earnestly want to help me. She checked me in today and we were almost immediately called to the back.

With her very normal amount of stranger and separation anxiety, Elise was not happy to be placed on the scale. The nurse is certain my kids dislike her (because she normally administers shots), but personally, I think they'd cry for anyone in that situation. The scale showed that Elise is up to 14 lbs., 13 1/2 ounces (can you get any more precise than that?), and is now in about the 30th percentile for weight.

Elise has reached 26 5/8 inches in height (75th percentile) and 41 cm for head circumference (15th percentile). She's growing just perfectly.

After we were done weighing Elise, we had a short wait for the doctor. I'd packed the diaper bag accordingly to keep both kids entertained, but, in fact, they entertained each other. Kalina barraged me with questions about what would be done to Elise, and Elise kept her eyes trained on Kalina because the toddler is always up to something unexpected and interesting and generally hilarious. We also all briefly discussed the bird picture on the wall and the baby in the mirror.

And then the doctor came in, and asked what Elise has been up to. A better question would be what isn't Elise up to? She smiles, giggles, babbles in vowels, rolls back to tummy, sits supported and thoroughly enjoys standing and bouncing. She still doesn't roll tummy to back, and hasn't ventured into consonents yet, but the doctor is worried about neither of these.

He politely inquired about Elise's sleep, something many people by now know not to ask me about because they're putting themselves at risk for a lengthy diatribe that no one can really follow. I'd been saving up some questions for him and was glad to get some answers. Yes, Elise may still need a middle-of-the-night feeding (or two), but yes, it's fine to do some sleep training. Babies this age are all over the map as far as naps and nighttimes, and we just need to figure out what works best for Elise and the family as a whole. It's stuff that I knew, it just sounds better out of a pediatrician's mouth than my own, and it put lots of my invented fears to rest.

I also got the go-ahead to boost Elise's solid food intake, since she seems to be enjoying what I've been giving her.

At about this point, Elise randomly cried in the general direction of the doctor, but calmed down quite quickly and didn't seem to mind him all that much afterward, as long as she was in my arms, at least.

The doctor then began his examination by looking in Elise's ears and eyes, and then listening to her heart. For the second time in a row, he did not hear the heart murmur! Yay!

And then I had to lay Elise down on the exam table, which brought more tears, but we were quickly done.

The whole time, by the way, Kalina intently asked questions about what the doctor was going to do to Elise. While at times this struck me as a bit sadistic, it at least kept her occupied and relatively happy.

Next, it was time for shots. Kalina was fascinated by the doctor's preparations. I hardly wanted to look, but was forced to describe every single detail. Fortunately, Elise only understands a few words--her own name, "blankey time" and possibly "cat," so she did not catch on to what was coming her way.

Naturally, I was dreading the shots, in addition to the rest of the day. Historically, Elise has not done well with needle sticks for a good 12 hours afterward. I was a bit relieved, then, to see that Elise calmed down within 5 minutes. I gently dressed her in her sleeper without laying her on the table again (how could I subject her to that horror again?) and we headed out.

Checking out at the receptionist's desk, Kalina received a train sticker and I got some free samples of Vitamin D drops for Elise.

The rest of the day was tricky, with one shining moment when Kalina volunteered to jump up and down to cheer Elise up. It worked. Elise was also known to smile when Daddy got home. We can't wait for our sunshine to come out again tomorrow!

Photo: Elise hanging out in Kalina's bean-bag chair. She's loved this cozy spot ever since she was a tiny newborn and I placed her there to keep her cuddled while I put Kalina down for naps. Elise used to almost fall asleep in it and I considered for a while transferring it to her crib. You almost never see Elise without something in her mouth nowadays, by the way. Kalina was surprisingly happy to share her old ring toy, which I forgot to transfer to Elise's room when it lay forgotten at the back of her cabinet.