Dr. Sissy
Noah had his 4-month-old well-baby checkup Monday, and Sam got to come along for the ride.
She loves our pediatrician -- his name's Dr. Mark Baker, and I can't recommend him highly enough -- and his nurse, Karla, so she was excited to go along.
We got into the room, and within 20 seconds, Sam had snagged a pair of green exam gloves and was wiggling her skinny fingers into them. She stepped up on a stool beside the table, then hopped up onto it.
Sam: "OK, I'm all ready for baby Noah's checkup!"
Nurse Karla thought this was cute. So Sam got to help measure him (yet another of her odd fascinations: tape measures), and she trotted down the hall with us to weigh him (13 pounds, 8 ounces, which is not bad for a baby who didn't eat for two and a half straight days since his last checkup).
I had to distract her for the few minutes it took between the time Karla left and Dr. Baker came in, so we read a Maizie open-the-flap book.
Once Dr. Baker was in, however, Sam was all about being little Dr. Gulli. The first thing she did: Grab Noah's forearm and squeeze hard.
Dr. Baker (in the calm, soothing voice he always uses): "Oop, let's be careful doing this checkup. We don't want to hurt him. What are you checking there?"
Sam: "His bones. I'm making sure his bones are nice and healthy."
Dr. Baker: "Oh, that's a good thing to check. OK, let's listen to his heart."
So Dr. Baker listened to his heart, and then Sam got to listen. Then Dr. Baker checked Noah's ears, and Sam got to look in Dr. Baker's ear (I wonder how many times this man has had an otoscope jammed into his ear canal ...).
Sam tried to help push on Noah's tummy, which met with some resistance from Dr. Baker. Then he checked Noah's "diaper area" and put the diaper back on. Not surprisingly, especially given the recent "squeak-squeak" incident, Sam wanted to check the diaper area, too, but we told her Dr. Baker did a good job checking that and it was OK if she didn't check, too.
Noah passed with flying colors. Dr. Baker left, and Nurse Karla came back in with one of the most dreaded sights in all of parenthood: a basket of needles.
Yep. Three shots, plus one oral vaccine.
I was expecting Sam, who still talks about the two shots she got at her 4-year-old checkup, to freak out or not want to watch. So when Nurse Karla said, "Hey, Sam, can you be my helper?" I was surprised by her answer.
Sam (eyes lighting up): "Yeah! Can I give him the shots in his legs?"
I'm pretty sure no big sister has ever asked that, because Nurse Karla looked at Sam like she was an alien.
Karla: "No, but you can help hold the Band-Aids."
This was not cool enough for Sam. She grumbled a bit, then argued briefly over where she could stand so she'd have the best view of the shots going in.
She definitely didn't like the part when he screamed in pain and tried hard to help soothe him.
And once we were back in the car, she told him she knows that the shots hurt and that they feel like a really hard pinch and that he didn't like them, but that Mommy said that there's medicine in them that will help you feel better and not get really, really sick.
At least it ended well.
