Monday, October 20, 2008

Shots, shots and more shots, updated

**New pics up at our photo blog. Also, Daddy figured out how to post video and he put one up at his, um, blog. In this video, she's doing what she does EVERY SINGLE TIME she hears the Gilmore Girls theme song. It is the ONLY thing on TV that draws her attention immediately.**

Today we all got our flu shots together. Daddy's work has an on-site health center, so we went there and he went with us. It was his very first experience of watching Olivia get shots, and I think he was a little surprised at her reaction.

Olivia is a pretty happy baby. Even when she's really tired, she does not often get overly grumpy or inconsolable. But she does cry on occasion. She has many cries, but the cry over shots is different from any other. She has the tired whiny cry, the "I smacked my head into a wall" scream that is followed by many seconds of breathless silence and more screaming, and the "you took my toy away" indignant cry. But the cry over shots is the only one that leaves her shaking with sobs of betrayal.

I get it. I do. I mean, here you are, laying in Mommy's lap with a bottle, all comfortable and all. And then this nurse pokes you with a stingy thing and your mind cannot fathom what would possess her to do something so mean. And you REALLY can't wrap your mind around why your Mommy would LET her do such a thing to you. It makes sense that she would sob.

But the sobs are really almost unbearable. And she used to get over it really quickly (short memory and all). But now, she remembers for quite a good long while and it is just hard.

So today was Daddy's first experience witnessing Olivia get a shot. I don't think he liked it. I think he's glad he isn't able to come to all her well baby appointments for that very reason.

Also, we found out today that Olivia has to repeat this shot in a month for it to be fully effective. No one ever mentioned this before. So this is going to be a rough month for Olivia. First, a flu shot. Then, in three weeks she'll have her one-year immunization shots, and then a week after that she has to have ANOTHER flu shot. I'm thinking that she may develop a real fear of medical offices as a result of all this torture.

2 comments:

Lizzie said...

Poor baby! You AND Olivia! A poor little helpless person in pain that she can't understand... Wah!

HereWeGoAJen said...

Poor baby. I've heard that you can get some topical painkiller stuff ahead of time to make the shots hurt less. I don't know what it is, but I've heard you put it on like an hour ahead of time.