12 month appointments are pure torture

Adia's 1 year appointment was yesterday. She's now a whopping 18lbs 1.8oz and 28.1 inches long. She's still in the 7th percentile for weight and the 25th percentile for length. I guess she came close to tripling her birth weight by a year, but no quite. We told her doctor about the problem with wheat, how she hasn't been on gluten in 2 weeks and that her rash (diaper and eczema) mostly disappeared without wheat or gluten in her diet. She's also been sleeping through the night and her diapers aren't disgusting anymore. She thought we should definitely do a blood test for Celiac disease and I suggested a food allergy test too. She was happy to know Adia's now walking and other than the gluten/wheat thing, Adia's great. She also said it was ok to keep Adia on formula until we can get her to accept whole milk. That was a huge relief. The nurse came in a gave Adia 4 shots. Adia only cried for a minute or two and was then fine. She actually takes shots pretty well. Scott couldn't watch, but I held her.

We then headed down to the lab. Adia was hungry and tired and there was a line for the lab. Scott and I took turns walking her around the lobby until they called her name. That's when the torture began. I held Adia in my lap again, hoping it would be a quick blood draw. They needed A LOT of blood for the two tests so they had to use a needle this time. I knew this wasn't going to go over well with Adia. She saw the tech take out a needle and her eyes got big. She started trying to wiggle away. The tech felt Adia's arms for good veins and found a small one in each arm. Adia was looking very worried, Scott was staring at the wall. It took two techs to try each arm. I've never, in my entire life, heard a baby scream as loud or as painfully as Adia was screaming. She screamed when the needle went in and screamed even louder when they moved it around. The tech was trying to "chase" the vein. I so wanted to smack her and run out of the office, but I knew it had to be done. I thought for sure Adia was going to vomit or hyperventilate.

After they finished their attempts on her arms, I took a few minutes to try to calm Adia down. It wasn't happening. She was hungry, tired and now extremely traumatized. Once the screaming finally stopped, another tech came in and they checked out Adia's little hands. They went for her right hand and it's massively large vein. I helped hold her along with another tech on her arm. This time it took 3 techs, but only 1 successful attempt. Adia's screaming started the second I turned her facing outwards. She knew what was going to happen. It was the longest 5 minutes of my life and they did take a ton of blood. When they were done, I nearly ran out of the room. Adia stopped crying, but she was still breathing hard when we got to the car. She cried off and on once she was in the carseat. It was absolutely horrible.

When we got back in the house, Adia wouldn't let me set her down, even for a second. I managed to change into pjs, take off her pants and make her a bottle, all without setting her down. She guzzled the bottle in between whimpers and fell asleep on my chest for 2 hours. When she woke up, she was much happier.

She played for a bit, chowed down at dinner and took a bath. We had a horrible time getting her to bed though. She didn't want to sleep. She didn't sleep well last night either.

Babies Gone Wild!
Adia and I took a bath together this morning and she went down for almost a 2 hour nap. We took a walk around the complex with Scott. She's in a much better mood today, but she had bruises on the back of her hand and both arms. I just hope she doesn't remember any of it, otherwise her 18 month appointment, or any other appointments between then and now, will be awful. Her injection sights look fine and she doesn't seem to have a fever. We have been giving her Tylenol though as a precaution.