Now I know this is a hot topic, but I chose to vaccinate my daughter.  I want her protected, and I want to know she is safe from diseases/illnesses that could easily kill her just ’cause I refused to get her vaccinated.

I knew these were going to hurt my little Lady Bug (as I shall call her in internet land) and I was prepared to cry a little bit myself.  Heck when they did the heel prick at 2 days old I sobbed, and I mean sobbed.  She was done crying at that time way before I was, sitting there nursing away as my crocodile tears kept falling on her face.  One thing I learned was that nursing was a great way to soothe your baby when something crappy is going to happen, ie. vaccines, the only issue here is that Lady Bug is a power nurser.  She goes from starving to totally full in 5 minutes, she always has.  Its funny because as she’s getting bigger she’s not taking longer to feed, just sucking harder.  Anyway I was truly hoping that the doctor would be able to give her all 3 (yes 3!) shots before she finished.  NOPE.  The rotavirus vaccine contains sugar water which is supposed to act as a pain reliever and the baby needs to suck away for 2 minutes for it to start kicking in, AHHHH she’s already been on for 1 minute.  “Doc you’ve got about 30 seconds before she is finished eating, then we are in trouble.”  Sure enough the doctor gives her her first shot.  Her perfect little face goes bright red and she lets out a blood curdling, heart stopping scream like I have never heard her scream before.  I was so upset immediately I nearly threw up.  Im crying, I have my boob hanging out trying to get her to latch back on soothe can soothe herself, she’s screaming and the poor pediatrician doesn’t know which one of us to try to console first (he chose the baby, and told me to do whatever I needed to calm her down.)  Oh yeah!  Crazy Momma Bear Mode kicked in, I stood up and started bouncing, stopped crying and sang “Hush Little Baby” to my poor inconsolable girl  not even caring if I looked stupid with my top half off, breast squirting milk everywhere and baby screaming.  ( I guess we’ll clean that up later)

That stupid sugar water id nothing for my girl – or Delicate Flower – as the doctor called her.  I guess she’s just a little extra emotionally sensitive compared to other babies.  I finally got her to calm down , but I guess I was still white as a sheet since the doc kept asking if I was going to be ok.  I said I was, took my girl to the truck and made sure to take a few breaths before I started driving.

The needles themselves were just the beginning.

Two hours later Lady Bug started screaming, the same screams I heard at the office.  I ran to her and took her out of her swing and immediately checked her legs for swelling and checked to make sure there was no fever. Thank God there was neither.  The poor thing was again inconsolable.  Her appointment was at 11:00 am and she hadn’t slept since 10:30, it was now 2:30 she needs to sleep! So I gave her a single dose of baby Tylenol to try to comfort her, calm her and get rid of any pain she was feeling.  Forty minutes later she falls asleep.  I thought I had finally achieved victory.  She woke up after 30 minutes.  Now I don’t know what you know about 8 week old babies but the definitely need more than 1 hours sleep in a day.  I spend the rest of the day trying to console her, co-sleep, bounce, rock, babywear and feed; anything to help her out.   At 6:30 I say screw you to her 730 bedtime routine and give her a bath.  The sound of the tub is one of her favorite things so I hold her while it fills, light a couple lavender oil candles and the give her a lavender and vanilla bubble bath.  Next I swaddle her in her Woombi then continue with the 5 S’s that I’ve been trying all day.  Still nothing is working.  Since her 2 favorite things are the tub running and bouncing on the exercise ball I bring the ball into the bathroom, turn off the lights and leave the candles going.  after 10 minutes she falls asleep so I try to move her.  She immediately woke up so I sat right back down and bounced her some more.  Now with legs that feel like noodles after bouncing for 90% of the day I move to sit on the toilet. I manage half an hour before my tail bone feels like its going to fall off but Lady Bug is still sleeping so I’m not leaving the bathroom.  We ended up staying in there- water running and switching from ball to toilet to save my spine- for an hour and a half till my fiancé came home at 8pm.  I pass her to him so I can get the feeling back in my arms.  She immediately starts screaming again – from a dead sleep- so we give her one more dose of baby Tylenol and Momma Bear holds her ’till she falls asleep again.  Finally she seems like she is down for the count.  I get her into her bassinet and wolf down dinner with the man like its my first and last meal ever.  She is pretty good, and sleeping like an angel for 2 more hours, then wakes up screaming for a feed, so I feed her and she passes right out again.  This was the whole night last night.  Every two yours woken by a screaming baby.

I am not looking forward to her 4 month shots, though this time I booked them for a Sunday so B can come too.