A visit to the doctor that I'd like to forget (and not forget).

Just had to document this outrageous experience today...

Ruby had her 1 year well visit today at the doctor's and oh man, it was a disaster! The whole thing!! Not because of Ruby... she was actually just fine. But Lyla. WOW!

We went straight to the doctor's from Lyla's dance class and Lyla was in a really great mood. She was super cute and talkative to all the doctor's and was just very sweet. Oh how quickly things turned! Our doctor was examining Ruby on the table and Ruby was reading an animal book and everything was fine. Lyla kept asking to get up and I told her she couldn't because there was no room. She started to throw a fit and so to avoid this, knowing there was still much to go over, I just let her sit up there and keep Ruby company while I talked to the doctor. So they read a book together.

THEN, Lyla started to rip up the paper on the table saying "Oh, no! I ripped it!" The doctor told her it was fine and so I didn't worry. But then, she started ripping it in little pieces and throwing them on the floor. So, I kindly asked her to stop and she got really mad at me and just spit. This, apparently, is her new thing when she is upset. Not cool.

Trying to avoid a scene, I just said "Lyla, we do not spit. If I see you do this again, you will have to get off the table, and go to time out". Long story short, she spit again about a minute later when I told her to stop doing something. So I said, "I'm sorry, we're going to have to get off the table now and sit in timeout". This. Set. Her. Off.

So, as I was trying to watch Ruby and make sure she was fine on the table, while also trying to pay attention to the doctor's counsel, Lyla was screaming and bawling hysterically. She was ripping paper from the table and then throwing it on the ground, picking up the pieces and throwing them all over again, throwing herself on the ground, ripping her jacket off and throwing it on the ground, and then again herself, all while in hysterics and huge tears coming down her face and saying things like "No mommy, NO!" and "I want my daaaaaddddyyyyy!!!!". The doctor and I did our best to ignore the tantrum.

Anyway, so when the doctor left and we were waiting for a nurse, I had a talk with Ly. We hugged, we talked, we took deep breaths, and she calmed down. She put her jacket back on, picked up all the pieces of paper on the floor and was ready to apologize to the doctor.

Then two nurses came in to draw some blood from Ruby. Ruby has been throwing up a little every time she eats something. Sometimes it's a lot, sometimes it's a little. But it always happens. After talking with the doctor, they decided to run some tests to be safe. Anyhoo... they put on a little tourniquet to find a vein and one nurse was holding that arm, while I held the other and the the other nurse was doing the poking. Curious Lyla went to take a look at what they were doing and she LOST IT. She was in complete hysterics flailing her body and burying her face into my body saying, "No, no, no, no, NOOOOOOO!!!!!! Please stop, please stop, STOP IT!!!! Mommy, daddy stoooopppppppp!! I don't want you to hurt heeeeeerrrrrrr!!! I want to go hoooomme!!" Over and over and over again. I kept trying to show her that Ruby was ok but she didn't seem to hear me :) Ruby cried when they initially poked her but she stopped crying after that and was fine. Lyla didn't care. SHE was not fine with it and then she started to make Ruby nervous and so Ruby kept looking back at Lyla freaking out and would cry nervously watching her but would stop pretty quickly.

When the nurses finished and left I was trying to get Lyla to calm down and was trying to show her that Ruby was fine and there was nothing to worry about. Then, another nurse came in with the vaccinations, or in Lyla's eyes, 4 needles. And that is when all hell broke lose. There is no other way to describe it. Lyla saw the needles and she lost it even more than the first time (if that was possible). We kept trying to tell her that they were to help her so she won't get sick later on, blahblahblah. She just kept bawling and bawling and finally said "I don't want you to poke her!! Please don't poke her!!! Don't poke heeeeerrrr!!!" It just crushed me because she was so sweet and protective over her baby sister. We kept trying to assure her that everything was fine and when she realized that she had zero control over what was going to happen, she had had it! She ran to the door, turned and gave us a look like (you guys are crazy, I'm outta here!), opened the door and booked it down the loooong hallway screaming and crying out "I WANT MY DADDY! I WANT MY DADDY! AHHHHH! I WANT TO GO HOOOOOOME!". I quickly passed Ruby off and chased after her and brought her back It was quite the scene. Her doctor then asked Lyla if she wanted to go read a book with her so I could be there with Ruby and Lyla decided that was ok.

After all the vaccinations, I went back out to get Lyla and she was calm but still really upset. As the doctor was summarizing all my to do's, I looked down at Lyla and she looked up at me with these big, wide, teary eyes and she quietly and sweetly said "Please, can we go home now, please?" Ah, it just broke my heart!! It was like the house of horror for her, that poor girl!

So we got Ruby dressed again, packed up our stuff and I had to finish filling out paperwork. During that time Lyla must have composed herself because before we left she said "I need to go apologize to the doctor!" I told her she didn't need to and that she had been through enough and I was sure they understood. But she insisted on apologizing.

It was so sweet and so sad to see how concerned Lyla was over Ruby. I, and all the nurses and doctors, were just shocked at how protective she was. It totally made me forget about being frustrated with her for misbehaving before. I just felt for the poor girl. I love my sweet Lyla and she sure does love her little sis.

Wish us luck when we go back for Lyla's 3 year well visit, haha!