Words of Encouragement

Nov. 1st was Elise's 12 month check up.  It was the usual weighing, measuring, blah blah blah, the doctor will be in a minute.  The pediatrician came in and asked how it was going.

I took a deep breath, sighed, and said "it's going..................ok." 

She looked at me with the raised eyebrow and said "oh that doesn't sound good." 

I told her how awful Elise had been acting the last several days and it had been wearing me down.  Dr. Walsh checked her over and found her to be healthy... meaning no other reason (besides teething) we could blame her psychotic behavior on.  I found this to be comforting, but annoying... like "are you sure she doesn't have an ear infection?"  I mean, really there's got to be something wrong for her to scream and carry on like she has been.  But, nothing.

I ran through my list of questions.  An important one I had been eager to ask was about what I should be feeding her.  She has 2 bottom teeth, 1 top one half way in, and the one next to it breaking ground.  She still wants to eat purees.  Well, as I had expected Dr. Walsh said she needs to be eating what we eat and she just has a case of "L-A-Z-Y" meaning, she doesn't want to have to chew anything up.  So, she is to eat 6 times a day.  Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, and snack.  She's given 6 opportunities a day to eat and get satisfied.  When she decides to throw her food on the floor or have a tantrum, that meal is over.  I am now down to nursing once a day... before bedtime.  I dropped her morning feeding last week and she hasn't had any problems. 

Another important topic I wanted to discuss with the doctor was her little "fits" that she throws.  Some kind of switch must have flipped on the moment she turned 1 because she throws a fit when it's time for bed, now.  Bedtime used to never be a problem.  I always laid her down, turned on the seahorse and she was out.  Now it's screaming, crying, throwing things out of the crib for like 20-30 minutes.  She immediately has a tantrum if I take something away from her or pick her up while she's playing or set her down when she wants me to hold her.  I told the pediatrician all of this.  She said that Elise is pretty "strong willed and expressing her independence."  Ummmm, excuse me?!  She's 12 months old.  If she's soooo independent, she can wipe her own butt!  I thought I was going to have another 12 months before I would be dealing with any of this!  I think I'm going to have my hands full.

After I was done asking all of my questions, Dr. Walsh was on her way to get the nurse to give Elise her shots and she said "You're doing a good job.  Keep it up.  I don't think she's your boss, yet."

Another deep breath.  Ahhh....Words of encouragement and a sigh of relief.  Sometimes it's nice to hear someone say you are doing a good job when there are days that you doubt yourself, your decisions, your abilities, and otherwise just want to bang your head against the wall.  After she said that to me, I felt a new sense of calm and reminded myself that I am doing the hardest job there is, and I can give her Tylenol every 4 hours until those rotten little teeth come in.

I think the worst is over for this round of teething.  We are now battling with getting her schedule back on track from the time change and transitioning to table foods.  There have been a lot of changes over the last couple of weeks and it's not just the weather and trees.  I'm trying to get through them one at a time and am looking forward to having a pleasant, happy, little girl again!