Lessons learned from the doctor's office

On Thursday afternoon I took off of work early so that I could take Sam to the doctor in Beaumont. He had been sick for a few days with a runny nose that turned into a bad cough which in turn led to a sad wheezing noise which broke my heart. We made his appointment for 3:00 hoping that we wouldn't have to wait long. Yeah right. We, along with many other sick children, filled the waiting room. We were in there trying to contain our little bundle of joy for an hour! Now before I go on, I need to make a confession. Sam is a super sweet kid, and most of the time a funny, curious one at that. BUT...when he is sick, he turns into the crazy kid. He's whiny, clingy, and, worst of all, a biter. Yes, I said it. I have a biter on my hands, people. I'm not sure where he picked up on this, and he doesn't do it to many people (except those that he loves dearly) but when he gets mad he bites things or people. Sometimes it's the couch, on that day it was his daddy's leg, and once we got into the exam room the doctor's spinning chair. We've gone past the swat on his hand, the firm "no", and now we are in the full fledged "pop your bottom hard" business. And can I just say, IT'S. THE. WORST. It takes all I can do not to cry too when he does. Anyway, for an hour we're trying to corral our son with books and trucks and looking around, but to no avail- he is awful! We finally had to pop him right there in front of everyone! It was so embarrassing that we were the ones with "that kid". I hate being that person. After we waited for an hour in the waiting room to see the doctor, we then go in through the doors where Sam immediately starts crying and wailing like he remembers the torture from last time! Step on the scale to find out our big boy now weighs 27 1/2 lbs! Wow! After that, we then wait another 30 minutes in the room. At this point we are all tired, Sam needs a nap, and let's be honest...those rooms are so small! So what do we do? Well....Jared starts blowing up the hospital gloves to make balloons, that's what! After two of those broke, we then taught Sam how to spin the doctor's chair. At this point, we'd do anything to keep him occupied. Finally the doctor comes in and more wailing and clinging begins. The prognosis was bronchitis for which he gave us many prescriptions, and now I think Sam is on his way to recovery. BUT...let me share with you some lessons I've learned from this experience:

1. I downloaded this app on my phone called Zoodle last night. It is age appropriate interactive videos and games for kids to use. All I did was type in Sam's birthdate and it found all these things for him to do. What's cool is that as he gets older the games will update with him. AND it locks him into that setting so he can't go on other parts of my phone or facebook or call China. We will definitely be using this next time. They also have this available to download for your computer in case your little one also enjoys "your" computer time. :)

2. Bring crayons. The covers of the examining table are basically paper and they throw them away wafter each use, so we can color all over them. A friend of mine gave me that tip AFTER I had mentioned how awful our experience was! We will also be packing those for next time!

3. The Sneaky Chef cookbook. This is one thing that our pedi recommended. When he said Sam was growing like a big boy, I smarted off that I didn't know how because he certainly wasn't eating like one. He told me about how they do things like sneak spinach into brownies! Certainly worth a try since our son literally lives off of breakfast bars and yogurt.

I hope these tips help you the next time you find yourself waiting for LONG periods of time with a restless toddler.

Feel free to share any other tips you may have! I'm sure this won't be our last waiting experience!