6 Tips For Surviving a Dr. Visit with a Toddler and a Baby

I know I'm not the first person to take both of their kids to the doctor at the same time, nor will I be the last, and it's not the first time I've done it alone, either. This morning however, was the first time that BOTH girls had an appointment. When I've had them both at the doctor before (seriously, I was JUST there on Monday for a wicked diaper rash on poor Miss Eloise), it's been for an appointment for or the other, but never both.

Until today. Dan gets back from a work trip tonight, so for the past few days it's been just me, and I think I actually lost a little bit of sleep last night wondering how it would go today. Annie had her 18-month Well Child appointment (yes, she's 19 months - we are just a month behind on appointments due to scheduling conflicts) and Ellie had her 4- month appointment this morning. I knew they would both be getting shots today, so it was likely going to be mass chaos. Leading up to this morning, my main concern was how I was going to get them and myself ready and out the door (and the dogs taken care of too!) in time to beat the morning traffic and get to the appointment on time. Our Dr.'s office schedules appointments pretty tightly, so if you're late for your appointment by more than 15 minutes, they might not let you keep it. I think we were safe, because I had both the 8.30a and 9a appointments for the girls, but I didn't want to take any chances. Luckily, I got all of our clothes and bags ready the night before, and both girls were pretty well behaved this morning. I made sure to get myself 100% ready (down to my shoes on, which I normally don't do until right before we leave), so that there was NO reason to have to go back into my room or the bathroom, as those are gold mines for Annie. As I've said before, she is a tornado in the mornings lately, so it's all about containment! We were on our way and made it to the office with 10 minutes to spare, so we overcame that first hurdle successfully and I was feeling good.

Getting out the door on time aside, there is a lot more that goes into surviving a dual doctor visit with two kids under two in tow. Here are my 6 tips for making it as smooth of a visit as you can, and hopefully this helps you retain some shred of sanity by the time you're on your way out of the appointment!

1. Schedule your appointments wisely.

I can't stress this enough! This could make or break you. Since I work and the girls go to daycare, I knew I needed to schedule my appointment either 1st thing in the morning or the last thing before dinner. It worked out this time that they had 2 appointments 1st thing in the morning. Why is the timing so crucial? I don't know know about you, but my kids are creatures of habit. So a morning appointment for us worked perfectly, because it meant that they were already in the routine of getting ready and out the door for today's appointment at around the same time that we normally leave for daycare. Whatever your routine is, just make sure to schedule your appointments in a way that causes the least amount of disturbance. Can you imagine having to wake your sleeping toddler or baby up from a nap to go to the doctor? Heck no. That's pretty much setting yourself up for a meltdown before you even get there. Ain't nobody got time for that.

2. Take a snack for your older child.

Any of you that know Annabelle, know she likes to eat. Girlfriend gets HANGRY if she's overly hungry. Our appointments were right around the time that she normally has breakfast, either at home or at daycare, so I knew she'd be raging if she didn't have something to eat. Thankfully she's old enough and has good enough fine motor control that I put some cereal in a Tupperware and water in a sippy cup and loaded her up with it in her car seat. This prevented any hunger rage before or during the appointment, and she was able to bring it in to the room with her as well. This kept her busy and happy and out of trouble for a decent amount of time, which helped me stay calm as well. Win-win!

3. Think about what questions you have. Know them ahead of time or write them down.

This might seem like a no-brainer, but whether you're a mom of 1 kid or 8 kids, you know that life gets busy, kids are unpredictable, and you might forget your list of 10 questions. Or 5 questions. I think the number of questions you remember is cut in half with every kid you have. Luckily I only had two questions, so didn't bother writing them down. But I thought about them a lot in the days leading up to their appointments so was sure not to forget them. Just make sure you either think about them or write them down ahead of time, because as soon as that circus starts, the likelihood of remembering them all goes out the door. And then you're kicking yourself as you're driving out of the parking lot because you forgot to ask something.

4. Have loveys and lots of hugs ready.

I hate seeing my kids get shots. I know they won't remember it when they are this little, so that is a tiny bit of solace, but it's so hard to watch. My girls are still young enough that they don't know what a shot is, or what that needle does. That doesn't mean they don't scream bloody murder when it happens. Annie used to cry briefly and then would just smile at everyone within 30 seconds, and we'd be on our way. Now that she's older, that's not so much the case. Eloise, well, she makes it known that she does NOT like getting shots. Her face turned SO red while she was just getting the oral vaccine. I'm pretty sure it actually turned crimson when she got the shots, and I'm certain I saw a few beads of sweat trickle down her forehead, she was that mad. Luckily, since I knew I would need to calm both of them in a short period of time, I made sure I had a little bit of bottle left for her and her paci ready to go. Once I got Eloise to a point where she was ok, I got her all set in her car seat, because I knew Annie would be a bear after getting her flu vaccine and would likely not let me put her down until we got to the car. Indeed, I was spot on. Tears on tears on tears. She even had that dramatic pseudo-hyperventilating double-breath thing that you do when you ugly cry. And believe me, she's an ugly crier. If she were a cartoon, she would have looked very much like (the amount of tears are not an exaggeration, I promise):

Annie was more inconsolable than Ellie, and since I knew this would be the case, we did her shot 2nd so we could get dressed and leave. For her, I made sure to have our little car stash of toys, books and small stuffed animals ready to go. I brought it in to the appointment in the event she wanted to play with them, but it was most important to have it in the car so that when I got her all strapped in, she had some things to love on.

For both girls, I made sure to have lots and lots of hugs at the ready, because I personally don't think you can ever give your hurting child too many hugs. And as much as I knew we needed to get going after the shots (I had to get to work), I made sure not to rush too much and gave both girls the however many hugs that were necessary to help them calm down, because I know that they needed that loving from their mama more than anything at the moment.

5. Mentally prepare for the worst.

I try to look on the bright side of things a lot (although there are days, and Dan can attest to this, that I'm a total catastrophizer and everything seems awful), but I think in cases like this, you are doing yourself a favor by preparing for the worst. In the grand scheme of kids, I have 2 really calm and well-behaved ones. But I was totally ready for both of them to be screaming the entire time, for Annabelle to be basically tearing the exam room apart, and even for the doc to say there was something really wrong with her (she's got a really weird ugly rash on her leg - it appears, however, to just be a little bit of a virus, nothing awful). Heck, I even had mentally readied myself for a scenario of needing to take her to the hospital if it was something more serious, all with Eloise along for the ride. I think because I had envisioned a few different worst-case-scenarios, I was mentally more prepared for how it went. Since I was ready for it to be an absolute nightmare, I was more calm and able to handle the moments when both girls were crying. Was it still stressful? Heck yes. Did I feel like I was going to have a breakdown because of it? Nope. When we got on the road to daycare, with Annie's sobbing rapidly dying down and Ellie already asleep, I even thought to myself, "That actually went pretty well!"

6. Give yourself a treat.

Parents of the world who decide to take on the challenge of taking two kids under two to any of their appointment together (especially if it involves both of them getting shots), by yourself no less, you deserve something for all of that! Maybe it's stopping and grabbing your favorite coffee as you go into work with a guilty conscience and breaking heart after dropping your no-longer-crying-but-still-teary-eyed kids off at daycare. Maybe it's a glass of wine after they go down for the night, knowing you all survived the appointment. Whatever it is, be kind to yourself - you did it! You got them there, no one was hurt other than a few shots, they got a lot of loving, and they hopefully are worn out from the day and sleep all night like the little angels they are.

So put your feet up, breathe for a moment, and remind yourself that you're an awesome parent. You might just need that breather for yourself to prepare for the next day when they are a little out of sorts from their shots and all they want to do is cuddle. But really, who doesn't love baby cuddles? I know what we'll be doing tomorrow...

#TwounderTwo #Toddler #Baby #Doctor