Vaccinations
March 14th, 2008 by: cheyenne
[In the throes of a nap.]
YESTERDAY
We just got back from the doctor’s office for Ronin’s two-month well baby checkup and first round of vaccinations. Oh my god did that suck. One thing: we had a different doctor this time than our usual doctor and both of us like her much better than the original; we’re hoping we’ll be able to switch for future visits without it being awkward.
First the good: Ronin is 12.5 pounds, healthy as a baby can be, and all growth is right on schedule. Then the bad: JABS! Ack. A snoopy print scrub-clad nurse came in and began apologizing before she had the door closed behind her. She had three shots and one oral (rotavirus) lined up; DTaP, IPV, and Hep-B are combined into one injection, then PCV and Hib as individuals. Ronin was almost asleep when we laid her out on the table and I held her thigh. The nurse took out the first jab, which was easily as long as my finger and she just plunged it right in to the hilt into Ronin’s leg! It was pretty horrifying and Ronin began screaming right away. Two more, one in the other thigh and the third shot again in the first leg; it was over very fast but Ronin was hysterical. I thought she had gotten tears before but those were just damp eyes. This time she had her eyes squeezed tightly closed and there was a perfect pearl of a tear clinging to the eyelashes in the center of each eye. Oh man it sucked. I cried; I felt like such an accessory. Afterward, Joshua held her whimpering on his shoulder and she just kept her eyes clamped tightly shut, a heartbreakingly pathetic expression on her face.
By the time we got her into the car seat for the drive home, she was smiling and had apparently forgotten the traumatic episode. I’m bracing myself for an evening of fussing and fever and generally Sad Baby. She’s probably going to have a lifelong fear of Snoopy.
TODAY
Well, yesterday was interesting. Joshua came home from work with infant acetaminophen for Ronin and a tub of ice cream for us. He said he had the choice of grape or cherry flavored (the hell?!) and corn syrup or sucralose sweetened; he decided the lesser of the evils = grape and corn syrup. (For us, he selected mint chip.) Joshua squirted a bit into one of Ronin’s cavernous cheeks and the look on her face was … thoughtful. And confused. She stopped fussing long enough to mush it around and ooze it out her mouth but I think she managed to swallow enough to feel better because a few hours later she stopped her weak cries and whimpering and actually was happy and content for at least 20 minutes.
So she had a fairly typical response it seems: two hours after the shots, she fell asleep and started to cook. She only woke up to cry feebly or eat, except for the brief tylenol reprise. We held her the entire time until she finally went down in her cradle at around 10pm; she would not let us put her down otherwise. Poor thing. It is hard to hold a baby whose legs hurt from knee to hip on both sides.
This morning, she’s much better. Fever is gone and although she’s still sore, she’s more or less back to normal. She’s right now more or less content in her bouncy-seat, blowing spit bubbles and grousing at her toys.
March 14th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
One of the changes that parenthood brings (probably mommyhood more than daddyhood) is that you will probably never be able to hear a crying child again without getting a physiological ‘stress’ reaction.
(you’ll grok what I’m saying after a bit, if not already)
March 16th, 2008 at 4:16 am
Yup, both of us pretty much get brain damage when she cries–we get frantic, can’t think straight, dizzy, you name it. I also notice I have begun to take it all kinds of personal when I read about or heard some story on the radio about an abandoned or abused baby… Ayy.