A Day at the Pediatrician

They say that among a woman's great loves are her obstetrician and the pediatrician for her children. My obstetrician was Terri Edersheim MD at Cornell. I adore her. How could I not? - it is not every day that you find another person with your exact personality. She kept me and my babies safe. My other love is our pediatrician, Michael Rosenbaum MD We saw him yesterday for the babies' 15 month check up. Now for a parent of a singleton, this is put child in carseat - drive to doctor - park - put child in stroller and wait - see doctor for 15 - 20 minutes - get shot - pay leave. This can all take an hour or less. With triplets this is a carefully orchestrated excursion.
First, the night before, the diaper bag must be packed to include at least 6 diapers, wipes, burp clothes, a change of clothes or 3, toys, and binkies. The morning of the appointment food and drinks must be added to the diaper bag. Once that is done, all three have to be cleaned and dressed. Now this doesn't sound like a lot but usually by the time the third one is done, the first one has a dirty diaper and you have to start again.
Next the car has to be loaded. This means that the stroller has to be put in the back, the children in their car seats with toys and appropriate food or drink. People with single babies think, what is she talking about putting the stroller in the car? You just fold it and toss it in the trunk. This is what we are talking about http://www.bergdesign.net/runabout.htm To get it in the back of a Honda Oddessey or a Toyota Siena, you have a choice of pushing the handle all the way down and thus removing the hand brake or taking off one of the wheels. Either way, this is not trivial. It isn't difficult but it is yet another task that eats in to the day. So, off we go. Now I voluntarily go to Dr. Rosenbaum in Manhattan. My rationale is that I know him and trust him. The only difference in going to a local doctor is the extra time spent in the car which is only important in emergencies and for that I have a wonderful pediatrician in Mt. Kisco, Dr. Jill Ratner at MKMG. I am willing to spend the extra 30 minutes in the car to go see Dr. Rosenbaum for monitoring my girls.
Well, once we get there, the stroller and stuff gets unloaded. The stroller is then reassembled and readied for the girls and we put them in. Hopefully it wasn't raining because the rain shield is yet another step that has to be performed. My wonderful nanny, Jo goes in to the doctor's office with the girls. We arrive exactly at noon for our appointment. I then go to put the car in a garage. I parked it on the street last time but arrived 5 minutes and $65 late so I now always put the car in the garage. It is question of being pennywise and pound foolish to street park the car.
When I get back to the doctor's office, everyone is waiting for me to begin. So Jo and I carry the girls into the exam room and the visit begins. It starts with stripping everyone down to the diaper while we are waiting. Just as an explosion is about to occur, the nurse comes in and the assembly line begins. First we have Giselle on the scale, remove her diaper and get her weight and hat size. I hand Jo Giselle for Molly and she puts Gim's diaper back on. We weigh and measure Molly and then we switch for Syd. Once everyone is weighed, we now have to get lengths (heights). This involves laying them flat on the table which they absolutely hate. There is something about that crinkly paper that sets them off. We go in order again so the nurse doesn't get the babies confused (this HAS happened and I had to have them re-do the measurements) and then we wait for the doctor.

The girls are still just in their diapers and they suspect they aren't going to like what is about to happen. It is also lunchtime and everyone is crabby when they are hungry. So we crack open the diaper bag for the sippies and crackers and the mood gets better.
Dr. R comes in and says that everyone is in the 50% for weight, Syd is 90% for height, Molly is 85% for height and Gim is 50% for height. This is reason to rejoice because these statistics are based on their unadjusted age for the second checkup in a row. This means that the babies although they were born two months early have grown enough outside the womb to be the same size of a full term baby. They have caught up!!!! So how big are they?
Giselle weighs 22lbs 4.5 oz, is 30" tall and has a hat size of 47.5cm. Molly is 22lb 5.5oz, 31" and 47 cm and La Syd is a whopping 22lbs 11 oz, 31.5" and 48 cm. At birth Giselle was the biggest and Molly was the smallest in all categories. They have come into their own now. He carefully examines each girl asking if there are any issues I want to talk about and we do. He then gives us his what to expect in the coming months speech and also suggests that we save the word "NO" for only important, life threatening issues. We had been doing that already but it was good to hear that. He then says they are slated for their Hep B and MMR shots today. I then ask if it would be possible to split up the MMR shot. I am concerned about immune issues with all of them as their Dad has juvenile diabetes and Giselle has already had an immune reaction to bug bites. He agrees to cede to my wishes although he emphasizes that there have been no positive correlations to autism in the literature - I remind him about the auto-immune issues that they might have and he again says - Ah! I will cede to your wishes on this. We can make up the Mumps and Rubella later.
So now we get the girls dressed and WAIT. It takes at least another half hour for the nurse to calculate the doses, document and draw the 6 syringes for the girls. They are now really hungry so we are feeding them the remainder of the food that we have brought with us. They have already finished the milk and are now working on the water. The nurse finally comes in and we begin.
She asks me the name of the child - we start with Giselle again. Gimme is sitting in my lap and I am expecting to hold her leg as I have for the past year. The nurse says no - we are putting them in their arms now that they older because it is so much safer. I put my arms around Giselle holding her right arm inside my arms and holding her left hand out straight fingers entwined with mine. As the nurse gives her the shot, I start to cry. Not because she is hurting my child but because my child is so grown up. She isn't that tiny 3lb 11oz newborn anymore and it happened all too fast. I feel like I have gone through this year in a haze - like a dream sequence in a movie. I apologize and quickly stop crying because I do not want to scare the babies besides Giselle is crying from the pain. I hold her and comfort her. Once she stops crying, I switch for Molly. I tell her Molly is my "tough broad" and we begin the same procedure but she fights it and the nurse remarks at how strong she is. Molly cries too and I cuddle and console her and then last but not least it is Syd's turn. All my girls have been protected against Measles and Hepatitis B.

Jo and I pack everyone up. As Jo is loading the last child, I go to check out and make an appointment in November. We are now ready to leave. It is now almost 2pm. We have a few things to pick up. Most important of all we have to feed the girls and ourselves - we all are starving. I get cheese and bagels at the Bagel Basket http://www.thebagelbasketofny.com/ It feels so good to be in a place where everyone knows us and wishes us well. I am not saying that the people where we live aren't nice. I am saying it just feels more "homey" on the Upper West Side.
So it is now almost three and we now pile everyone back in the car and go home. The girls crash on the way home. When we arrive, it is almost 4:30 and it is dinner time. They are all feverish from their shots so they get some Motrin, dinner, bath and bed. They sleep until 7am this morning. Thus goes my day at the pediatrician.