The dreaded doctor visits

Jack had his 15 month well-baby check this morning and everything looked pretty good! I will say though that as he gets older and older, I find myself dreading each doctor's visit a little more. We've been blessed with a healthy child so the majority of his visits are just to make sure he's developing as scheduled, thus I write the following the post with truly very little to complain about because I know we could have things MUCH worse with a chronically sick child.

The reason I've come to dread these visits has less and less to do with shots (or anything like that) and more and more to do with my lack of ability to choral an increasingly mobile child. Jack has always done pretty well with shots. Sure, he cries like the next kid, but usually stops within a few minutes and is soon back to his chummy old self again. The real problem is that he's no longer safely confined to a carrier either sleeping or staring at the world around him, so I'm finding myself having to use an array of increasingly crafty techniques to keep him distracted now that he wants to be down pushing his stroller into random parent's legs in the waiting room.

Even the earliest appointments I can sign him up for often mean us waiting a good 30-45 minutes to actually see the doctor (and that gets longer by late morning). It doesn't seem like a lot of time to wait for an adult with magazines to pass the time, but with a toddler it often feels like an eternity, especially when what that child wants to do while waiting (like mowing people down with a stroller) is NOT a preferable activity. I can only imagine how this is compounded with multiple young children!

For the last couple of doctor's appointments I've brought his favorite book and some other relatively quiet toys to play with, but as I found out this morning, those items just aren't going to cut it anymore. I will say the one bona fide option I still have is his treasured goldfish and juice snack, but that only works for so long :) I finally put the brakes down on his stroller, but he managed to push on it hard enough to overcome the friction on the carpet and still make it move anyway. I pray this is not a glimpse of the stubbornness we'll see into his teenage years...

Again, I write this post realizing I have much to be thankful for in terms of good health and healthcare for my child, I just figured most of you moms could relate to this minor frustration we all have to deal with at times!