Going to the Doctor with The Girls

Last week, I took Ashley to the doctor for her 12 year well check. Of course, with Ashley there are all sorts of things to discuss medically – still working on the vaginal infection, still having bladder spasms, still giving Excedrin daily, what to do about these allergies, maybe she has a sinus infection, etc. But this year, I also had so many good things to report – vaginal infection seems better, she potty trained herself at night, more vocalizations, she is requesting Excedrin (as opposed to me guessing), behaviors are better, happier in general. All in all a good report, but even better than that was her behavior at the doctor’s office. She handled almost all of it (the waiting room, the examining room, the examine itself) beautifully. She even opened her mouth for him to examine her throat without issue, for the first time ever in her life. She picked up the toys she got out, without being asked. When she asked to go to the bathroom, she let Hailey take her while, I continued with the doctor and she even really needed to go. She never ran off or had a meltdown. She did repeatedly ask for a sucker on her talker because she knows this is the one doctor’s office that gives out suckers. She was persistent with this, but she also was saying please. Afterwards, we went to get ice cream, and again she was perfectly well behaved and handled the whole experience without incident. It was her treat, but she chose cheese Instead. Hailey and I celebrated with ice cream. After all the years of dragging 3 young, hyper, and chaotic children to the doctor this was an amazing experience. I have memories of complete meltdowns, children running all over the building, lights being turned off; struggling to control them while discussing issues with the doctor, etc. We usually would have to try everything including holding Ashley upside down and tickling her to get her to open her mouth. Josh one time locked us all out of the examining room with all our stuff in it, and the staff struggled to find a key. So we CELEBRATED a successful trip to the doctor yesterday. I’m not foolish enough to believe every appointment in the future will go so smoothly, but 8 years ago every trip to the doctor (and there are many of them in our house) was a disaster. Now some are bad, some are okay, and some our great. I have hope that as years go by we will eventually get to the point where all, or most of the appointments will be great. It is always nice to see positive signs of growth and maturity in my children. Like us on Facebook Originally posted March 2012