We had our one year wellness checkup today.  It went pretty well… until the shots.. 😦

Maria measured in at 22# 14 oz.  (about 80th percentile) and was 31.5″ tall (off the charts).   The doctor said she was babbling and talking more than she would expect at Maria’s age and everything else was good.

And then came the shots.  They were worse than any other time. I’m thinking there were a number of factors:

1. It was a different medical technician. I could tell that Maria was not sure about him from the beginning. She waved at him right away, but wasn’t smiling.  So I believe she was waving bye bye… not hello!
2. He had to prick her finger and squeeze it for a hemoglobin check. She did NOT like that and kept trying to pull away.  And I was not prepared for how squirmy she would be or how long it would actually take, so I wasn’t comfortable the way I was holding her, and I’m sure she wasn’t comfortable either.
3. The medical tech was not as quick with the shots as the others had been in the past. At 9 months, she didn’t cry until they were just getting ready with the 3rd (final) shot. That’s how fast they were. This one she cried right away with the first.
4. She definitely has more personality and is stronger, so her reaction may have been in part due to that.

After the shots, we waited around for the results from the hemoglobin, because the medical tech asked if we wanted to wait the 5-10 minutes. OK, if that’s all it is.  20 minutes later, I had to flag down a nurse, who told us that they usually don’t bother with the results unless they’re abnormal, and she thought it was strange he told me to wait.  So I was a bit perturbed to have been trying to soothe and entertain a crabby baby really for nothing.

On the bottle front, we are trying to wean… a week ago I thought it was going to be impossible, but we are down to just a bottle at night pretty much. She is now accepting of the fact she is getting formula in her sippy cup.  Part of the trick is to not wait until we are in meltdown mode… but also I think she’s used to it now.  We are not ready to switch to milk 100% yet, because she doesn’t always have the biggest appetite at meal time. But hoping to keep the formula just to morning and before bed.  Hopefully in another month we’ll be completely converted.

That’s it . Just happy to have a healthy and happy baby!