Dr. Visits

OK, today was Brooklynn's 2-year Dr. visit and Gabriella's 1-month Dr. visit. I have been dreading this for a long time but it had to be done.
The thought dawned on me yesterday to make Josh come just for a little bit to help out...his office is less than a mile from the Dr.s office...now we have to stay with that practice. His help was very much needed and appreciated.
Let me paint the picture for you....
I was dreading it so much I decided to reward myself with Dunkin' Donuts. I should have waited until after....
We arrive to the office and we're the first patients there. They schedule the sibling appointments for first thing in the morning. Brooklynn was excited about the fish tank (reminded me a little bit of Darla on Finding Nemo...) and Gabby was asleep in her car seat. That alone was a major feat but don't get me started on the car seat.
We pulled up and I went to get the stroller out of the trunk...when I realized it wasn't in there. Great. Now I had to carry a car seat, diaper bag and keep track of a two-year-old in a parking lot. Can't wait.
Probably 45 seconds after we arrived Gabby woke up and started crying screaming at the top of her lungs. So I got her out of her car seat. So now I have Brooklynn, Gabby, her car seat, the diaper bag, my Dunkin' Donuts coffee and bagel along with Brooklynn's donut holes, her milk, a bottle for Gabby. All that stuff and of course they call my name right away. They took some pity on me and helped me carry my stuff in the room. Even with the help as soon as Brooklynn saw the exam room she started freaking out and ran back into the waiting room before I could even set any of my stuff down. Another nurse that didn't have the car seat grabbed a crying freaking out-temper tantrumed-convulsing-hot mess-of-a-Brooklynn and brought her back in to us. The nurse that did our check ups and carried the car seat told the other nurse to close the door to try and contain Brooklynn. Meanwhile, Gabby is still screaming and I'm trying to calm her down. She told me 2-3 times to get Gabby undressed so they could weigh her. I finally did and Brooklynn started to calm down a little bit when she realized that NOBODY knew where she was when she hid behind the chair in there. Then my knight in shining armor of a husband arrived and helped calm Brooklynn down as they measured and weighed Gabby. Gabby is 9 pounds, 15 ounces which is the 75th percentile. AND that means that she gained 2 pounds in less than a month which is great. I tried to tell them I wasn't worried about her weight gain at all after seeing what a good eater she is. (they were worried earlier on.) She is also 22 inches now which is the 80th percentile and ALMOST as tall as Brooklynn was when she was born. It is weird having a kid ON the charts for once. Brooklynn is just recently on the charts for height, she was so tall for so long. And her head circumference is 15 inches which is the 75th percentile.
Then we switched and Brooklynn got to go down the hall to be weighed on the big girl scale. She hated that...it was gearing up to be a long appointment. We finally got her to stay on there and she is 26 pounds, which is the 40th percentile. She is up from about the 25th (I think?) percentile...it might have even been less. So the good news is she gets to switch to 2% milk! Wahoo! Then they measured her which was also quite a feat...but she is 35 1/2 inches tall, which is the 80th percentile. We finally got her to calm down a little bit. (with a little help from our friends "M" and "M".) They attempted to tell us to lie her down to measure her head and I told them it was a bad idea and she would do better sitting up. She did great. In fact it was the easiest part of the whole appointment. She was shocked and said how most kids don't cooperate at all.
So part one was finally finished and we hung out until our doctor came in. He did Brooklynn first. Just listening to her chest was like torture....at least it's consistent, she hates it every single time. Then to top it off, she was freaking out so bad that she knocked over my coffee and then she was sitting in a puddle of medium-warm coffee...it wasn't hot enough to hurt her but it can't have been pleasant. (And she only had on a diaper at the time so it was on her bare skin--that along with just extra stuff is while I'll wait until the way home to get my coffee.) She cried and cried and cried the entire check up. Josh and I were both trying to clean up all the coffee-soaked clothes and exam table. Luckily I had extra clothes in the diaper bag. It was pretty stressful, I can't really remember what else they did. Finally it was over and she was done. (until her shot later...)
Then Gabby got to go. She also didn't like the stethoscope but not nearly as bad as Brooklynn. Gabby is just generally always fussy. He asked me how she was at home and I explained that she was mostly like that and he said that it sounds like she is colicky. GREAT....I thought she was just maybe fussy from her cold. The good news is that my chiropractor said that infant adjustments often help a lot and sometimes even cure colic so we'll have to take her in right away. He was very pleased with her weight gain, it was even higher than the 1 ounce a day. So I was very happy. It is especially satisfying when you're breastfeeding and you hear that your baby is gaining enough and your milk supply is fine. WE did that all by ourselves.
So then we waited and they brought the shots in...Brooklynn went first and screamed her little head off...but honestly it was not nearly as bad as most of the other times...so I think she's getting better. The recovery time was a lot better, too, when she saw some more M&Ms. Then Gabby went. She didn't really cry any harder than she already was when you lie her down so it wasn't too bad. I guess I'm just used to hearing her cry that hard all the time. I remember being completely traumatized with Brooklynn when she got her shots because of how hard she was crying, I'd never heard anything like it. With Gabby, nope, it was just another time that she was crying. They explained that she may be fussy later because of some soreness. I kind of laughed to myself and then again on the way out with Josh...were we even going to NOTICE that she's more fussy than usual? Since she's always pretty fussy when she's awake? Actually, right now she is actually asleep in her pack & play. I think she is completely worn out from all our adventures this morning, she didn't have the energy to cry as much when we got home.
So all in all...I'm just glad it's over. I will never do that by myself with both kids. I will have to hire a babysitter to come with me or something. Or just have Josh meet us. I MIGHT be able to do it if it's just one of them getting an appointment, but not both.
Thanks, Josh for coming for reenforcements! I could NOT have done it with out you.
Now if only Dunkin' Donuts delivered...I could use the rest of my coffee about now but it spilled all over Brooklynn.