My four month old (guinea) pig

I think I have created a pediatrician that does not exist (although I am not quite willing to fully admit that as of yet). The pediatrician that Oliver goes to is very nice and has lots of wonderful reviews from parents in our community, but I am just not sure the fit is right for our family. So when Henni was born I decided to test drive a new pediatrician - one that got rave reviews from the midwives. Dr. X, as we'll call him, was incredible. When he left our room at the hospital (after agreeing to sign us out a day early - yea!), I was smitten - he seemed perfect. Because infants have to see the doctor a bazillion times over their first few months I had many opportunities to test Dr. X out. Although I continued to be smitten with him, the 40 minute drive to and from his office and the 30-45 minute waits I usually had before our appointments made me decide that things had to change. I briefly entertained the idea of asking him to leave his thriving practice and open a new one closer to our house, but soon recognized that was a crazy thought. So, on to Dr. Y.

Since Henni is little and has to see the doctor so much, I decided to use her (again) to try a new doctor on for size. We saw Dr. Y on Thursday for Henni's four month appointment. While it is difficult to learn everything I'd like to on a healthy, no questions visit, I do think I like Dr. Y - a key feature is that it took me less than 2 minutes to drive there. Since it will be a few months before either Oliver or Henni has to go back to the doctor I think I'm switching Oliver to Henni's (#2) test doctor. I am otherwise envisioning trying to schedule two different sick visits with two different doctors, two different after hours calls, two different who knows what - if they get sick. Sounds not so fun. Hopefully Dr. Y proves good in the long run and can live up to my Mary Poppins-like vision of a pediatrician - I really hate the idea of doing more testing of doctors on my children.

Dr. Y declared my little (guinea) pig very healthy. She's now 15 pounds 4 ounces and 25 inches long. Again, I am astounded by how fast kids grow. He was also pleased with her tricks and smiles, and with how mad she was when she got her shots - she literally stared them in the eye and yelled - not a yell of pain, but a yell of - "You bastard, we were just smiling together and then you stick me with two needles - that is not, at all, acceptable to me." She yelled for a moment, just to get her point across, and then smiled again (saving all of her post-shot anguish for me that evening (poor thing really gets affected by shots)).

One of Henni's new favorite things is the swing - I think she'd happily stay in the swing all day (the playground one - at home she has no use for something that keeps her contained).