Stinker Bear Goes to the Doctor

We met our new family doctor today during Maya's 15 month well child check up. He's a family practice doctor, Dr. S. (also a D.O. like Will), and he'll be taking care of all of our non-emergent, non-OBGYN issues. Maya was a little nervous and scared when the medical assistant started taking her measurements (height, weight, temp, head circumference), so she fussed and shed a few tears. She was fine once the med assistant left the room, and I distracted her with some crayons to draw on the exam table paper. While we waited for the doctor to come in, we explored the mural paintings on the walls of the exam room. It was a jungle scene with lots of animals, bumble-bees, and butterflies. Maya kissed all of the bugs and animals she could reach. She's REALLY into kissing EVERYTHING these days. The other day, I thought we would never get out of the house, as Maya kissed everything from the laundry basket to her baby doll. I even have a shirt that says "Baby" in little rhinestones, and she always kisses the word several times when I wear it. When she kisses things, I say, "Oh, you LOVE that shirt (or whatever it is)!" It's so stinkin' cute.

Anyway, back the the appointment... Dr. S. came in and greeted us all very warmly. After chit-chatting and getting to know our family a little bit, he started Maya's exam with her sitting ON MY LAP! It was AWESOME! As soon as he sat down in front of us, Maya reached out, made pinching motions with her fingers, and said, "teechs, teechs, teechs!" I translated for Dr. S. and said, "She wants to squeeze your cheeks." Without missing a beat, he leaned forward and let her pinch away! It was pretty funny. They quickly bonded, and the exam went very well. Maya didn't fuss one bit! The med assistant even let me hold her while she gave her immunizations! She got two shots and had a toe-poke for a blood draw to check her hemoglobin. She watched her do the toe-poke first and didn't even flinch! She did cry during the shots, but that was expected. The older she gets, the more traumatic the shots seem to be. She understands now that someone is hurting her, but she's not old enough to understand why. Plus, she really doesn't understand why we allow someone to hurt her! It's kind of a helpless feeling for me to see the look in her eyes that seems to say, "Why did you let her do that to me?!" I hate it. That being said, you can imagine my relief when the doctor said that those were her last shots until she starts kindergarten! YAY! No shots for 4 more years... that's AWESOME!

Here's the low down on Maya's growth so far... height: 30.5 inches (50th percentile) and weight: 20 pounds 6 ounces (10th percentile). I think she's going to be petite!

Overall, my first impression of our new doctor is that he's going to be a great fit for our family. We have the same views of how babies and toddlers should be taken care of during doctor's exams (on mom's lap, not laying flat on their back alone on an exam table), and that's really important to me. This is the first doctor's appointment with Maya that I was able to be completely relaxed and at ease during the entire visit. I'm so happy to have been referred to Dr. S.!