Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Last week wrap-up: SHOTS!!!

We got way behind on posting last week so prepare yourself for some machine gun posts!!

First up, Lyla finally had her 2 month immunizations last Wednesday. Last Wednesday she was 11 weeks old, so why did they wait that long to give her the shots? Well, the state of Michigan uses months instead of weeks as its unit of measure for spacing out the immunization schedule. Originally, Lyla was scheduled to have on Jan. 29th (or so), well into her 8th week of life. We found out when we got to the doctor that Michigan would not recognize the immunizations if they were given before the 2 month mark (Feb. 4th). Craziness!!! So we had to reschedule and they pushed it way out just to be safe.

So we went in and they gave her six vaccinations (1 oral and 5 injections). Baby drank the oral quite well, then we pinned her down for the shots. Neither Katherine nor I really enjoyed this process but understand the necessity of limiting her movement in order to gain access to the legs (where the injections are given) and to minimize her thrashing (once the injections are given). The two nurses lined up, one with three shots for the left leg and the other with two shot for the right leg (shots are given simultaneously in each leg to minimize the duration of discomfort).

We get ready for the first shot, the nurse counts down: 3... 2... 1... INJECTION. Baby starts, yells, pulls a leg free and starts to cry. In the process of pulling the leg free, the right leg needle came out before the nurse finished injecting, so now it's three shots in the right leg as well as the left. The great (or one of the great) things about Lyla is she's pretty mellow. After the shot, she cried for about 10 seconds, then calmed right down, even smiling at mommy and daddy (high tolerance for pain!!! yes!!! woo-hoo!!! every parents' dream!!!)

Daddy repositions so he's now in charge of holding the legs down, mommy is holding both hands. The count down: 3... 2... 1... INJECTION. Baby starts, yells, cries, shots are given no problem, baby calms down after about 10 seconds. Smiles again.

Injection sequence number 3 - The count down: 3... 2... 1... INJECTION. Baby starts, yells, cries, shots are given no problem, baby calms down, but it takes a little bit longer, about 20 seconds. this time. Smiles again. All done. Good baby.

As you can see, they gave her nifty Snoopy band-aids. After the injects, daddy, er I mean, I got my blood drawn (one of the benefits of going to a family practice is being able to coordinate medical visits). I neither cried not wrenched my arm free, I also have a lot of practice getting blood work (one of the benefits of having chronic illnesses). I got a Looney Tunes band-aid (sorry, no picture).