Ouch!

Poor Baby! We took Meron to the doctor for her 1 year check up and they had to give her 5 shots! 5!!! One in each arm and one leg and two in the other leg. That is way too many shots for one baby to take. Then, after all of that trauma (although I am much more traumatized than Meron seems to be) we had to hold her down in a few different positions so that she could get x-rays of her lower back. For privacy's sake, we'll not discuss why she needed x-rays.... just that she has an unusual divot in an unusual place and they wanted to make sure everything looked okay with her spine. Obviously, her legs work quite well. We aren't worried. But Merrie was very worried about getting held down. It was pretty rough for all three of us.

Poor girl spent most of the day laying on me and giving me hugs and kisses. I think that our co-sleeping experiment has helped at least that much (although she still wakes up at 3 and won't go back to sleep until 5 or 6). She has been seeming a lot more affectionate to both of us. She would hug and kiss her doll and toys, and once even a can of formula with no prompting; when I asked for hugs and kisses she would giggle and look coy. All day today she's been crawling up to give me hugs and kisses and pat my face... it is awfully sweet.

The good news from the doctor... Merrie is now absolutely on track developmentally. She is actually ahead in some areas and WAY ahead of where the doctor expected her to be after a month. She gained 2.5 lbs and they are very pleased with her rate of weight gain. She has gone from <5th percentile in height and weight and 9th percentile to 3rd percentile in height and weight and 25 percentile in head circumference... so she is now officially on the US growth charts. That was pretty exciting!

Here are some pictures and video of our sickie today... she's feeling better already, as you can tell. She and daddy were kicking back and watching a little Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock.