So proud of Anna.

I haven't had the chance to blog about Anna's urology appointment from last week. I am so proud of her. She was like a little rock star. It was unbelievable. Before I continue, here are some adorable pictures of her hugging her sisters before we left for the appointment.

Anna hugging Allie (and Elmo)

Anna hugging Em

After Anna's urology appointment last month (where she screamed and cried throughout the entire procedure), I decided that something, anything, needed to be done to prevent that from happening again. And like magic, Sesame Street saved the day. We frequently allow the girls to watch Sesame Street episodes from On Demand. There is one out there now that has a three minute segment of this little girl going to the doctor. The girls are obsessed with it. They keep repeating, "Girl. Doctor," while pointing to the television, which means that they want to watch it. I must have told them a million times this weekend that we would watch it later.

The first thing that we did differently for this appointment was warn Anna days before her appointment that she would, in fact, be going to the doctor. I did not want it to be a surprise. I reminded her one night as we were changing the girls into their jammies and Allie had a mental breakdown. "NO, Anna doctor." We had to convince Allie that, no, Anna was not going to the doctor that night.

The second thing that I did differently was mention the girl going to the doctor on Sesame Street as much as possible. "So Anna, do you remember how that little girl went to the doctor on Sesame Street? She didn't cry, did she? She was a big girl. Are you going to cry?" I was very optimistic the night before her appointment when I asked Anna what she was going to do at the doctor. She replied, "No crying."

Rich and I brought her to the appointment alone while Grammy watched Em and Allie. As I was taking her out of her car seat in the parking garage, she started to cry but you could tell that she was trying so hard not to. It just about broke my heart. She calmed down after I convinced her that it was okay and I would be there with her the whole time.

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The good thing about this procedure was that we only had two nurses in the room instead of ten people. They needed to fill her bladder with fluid to see how much it holds and what muscle function she has. Anna walked into the room holding a Winnie the Pooh movie she picked out and was doing great until we started to undress her to put the hospital gown on. (I need to bring my camera the next time because she looks so adorable in those little gowns.) Her little lower lip started to pout and quiver and again, she was trying so hard to not cry. Rich and I felt really bad but she calmed down fairly quickly.

She did pitch a little fit when we had her lie down on the examining table. That, too, ended fairly quickly. She proceeded to watch two Winnie the Pooh movies while the procedure was taking place. I was a little nervous near the end because we could tell that she had reached the point of being done. She started making statements such as, "Get down. Jammies off." We had to really distract her then.

I'm all about bribery as well. We brought her to the hospital gift shop afterwards and let her pick out a new book. They seem to be into Curious George lately. So Curious George it was. She definitely deserved a new book after her rock star performance!