Shots

Regan got her first shots this week. Poor little baby. That was awful. It didn't help that mommy and daddy were really unprepared for how she'd react. I feel like her doctor should have warned us a little better about that. I thought the injections would be the worst part, and then it would be pretty much over. I thought she might have a little soreness and not feel great, but nothing like at was.

She had her appointment on Monday, and the doc said she was going great. She's exactly average for weight, length and head size - 50% percentile for all of them. She weighs 11 lbs. 6 oz now. He asked several questions - is she starting to make "talking" noises, is she smiling, etc. Most of the answers were yes,  but he asked if she was reaching for and grabbing things yet, and she hasn't done that. She'll swipe at her toys, but she hasn't grasped them yet. She's also not really holding her head up to 45 degrees when she's on her stomach. That's probably because she hates being on her stomach, so I don't force tummy time too much. I guess we need to do more of that. She can hold her head up when she's sitting up though.

After she saw the doc, the nurse came in to do her shots. She did an oral one first and then three shots. The shots were done in less than 10 seconds. The nurse was super fast. But man, Regan screamed. Her face turned red and she couldn't even get a breath. It broke my heart. She recovered from that fairly quickly though. We brought her home and she fell asleep right away. Not knowing how she'd feel, I'd made an appointment for a haircut right after her appointment. She was sleeping, so I went to that. When I got home about 45 minutes later, Paul said she had just started fussing. So I nursed her and hoped she'd fall back asleep for the night. No such luck. I nursed her for about the next four hours. I got up to stretch once or twice, but every time I moved, Regan would wake up hurting and feeling bad. I had picked up some infant Tylenol on my way home because the doc said we could give her that. So we did, and she seemed to feel a little better. She actually slept pretty well once she got to sleep. Four or five hours, anyway. She was much better after that. Just fussy and grumpy for the next couple of days, but nothing like that first evening.

While the whole experience was not pleasant for anyone, it did make my love for my daughter even stronger. I don't know how that's possible, but it did. I'd never seen her hurt and sick like that, and I wished more than anything that I could take that away. For the millionth time, I feel so blessed to have a healthy baby.