Raise your hand if you have dreaded shots! As a child and even as an adult needles and shots do not bother me one bit, Mr however is a different story. Monday was Baby's first official doctor appointment and it included the dreaded 2 month shots! EEEP! We looked like your stereotypical first time frazzled parents. I hadn't finished the paperwork when they called us back. We had to strip Baby for her weight and height and after the diaper came off the scale broke so we had to switch to the other scale and in the process my sweater, jeans and shoes became SOAKED in pee! hahahaha gotta love it! Baby is officially 2.5 inches longer and 5 pounds heavier than she was at birth! She is in the 90th percentile for weight but only the 30th for height which is surprising to me because I am not petite! Perhaps she will take after the short females on Mr's side of the family. So we get into the exam room and the dr comes in and is checking out Baby (who was SO happy and chatty and adorable!) They checked her temp (rectally) and suddenly my happy silly baby was not so happy or silly. As the dr finished her exam (which Baby is perfect from head to toe... she has a hemangioma on her back but it should go away with time) Baby decided it was payback time for the thermometer and let out the biggest poop ever! SO funny! I got the normal confused/intrigued questions on cloth diapering logistics from the dr while I changed her. The typical, "don't they leak?" and "do you use a service". Nope, don't use a service and do you see this poop contained in here! NO leaks! So we finish up and at the military facility we go to shots are given at immunizations, not by your actual dr. So we go over to immunizations and sign in. We are greeted with heartless drones who take our paperwork and tell us to wait. As the clock tics by I am starting to dread my decision to wait until after the shots to feed the baby. On one hand it will comfort her afterwards but on the other hand she is hungry now... and just then we are called back. The drone says nothing and then in a robotic voice (or maybe I was imagining that part) she reads from a sheet of paper, "the 2 month shot are important for all babies 2 months of age to receive. The include 2 shots, one in each leg and one dropper full of liquid-taken orally. Here is a sheet with all the information, do you understand why your baby needs these vaccinations?" Suddenly I am LOST! I have just been handed a package of 40 pages and I cant read everything to know how to make a good choice. OH MY GOD how can I make such huge decisions in my child's life! And of course Mr is just standing there not offering ANY help at all. I chose to for-go the orally taken rotovirus (because in my fast reading the side effects seemed to basically be what the vaccine was for!) I place my innocent baby on the table and she is then injected with 2 shots, one in each leg. Seconds after it is over and my baby is covered in blue tweety bird band-aids Mr starts reading aloud the side effects that I obviously missed during my scanning through the multitude of papers. Things like; coma, death, seizures, excessive crying, fevers of 105.0, pain, diarrhea, vomiting and long term neurological damage. The vaccine drone had long since left the room so there was no time for more questions and what did it matter? She had already gotten her vaccines! Long story short, its been 4 days and baby is just fine! She was fussy and tired the day of the shots but other than that she is fine. So other parents out there, What are your thoughts on vaccines? During Baby's inconsolable crying that day I mumbled to myself, never again! No more shots! If Baby is going to go to public school some day (we are still undecided on the home schooling idea) then she will need these vaccines but do the benefits really outweigh the possible side effects? I just don't know!
So that's the "bad" but for the good/mommy... I just love co-sleeping. It has only gotten even better with time. My sweet little angel is so much more cuddly and sweet and happy and silly. Each morning she and I wake belly to belly and we stretch and groan and moan and then I look down and she looks up and when we see each other for the first time with the warm sun shining through the window we just smile. And then the giggling and super big smiles! It melts my heart! It is the best way to wake up in the morning! How can anyone have a bad day when you wake up like that? So after our sweet morning time I get up take care of business and then I hopped on the scale and (drum-roll please!) I am officially 10 pounds UNDER my prepregnancy weight! I was a little overweight when we conceived Baby and I gained 20 pounds during my whole pregnancy... actually the day I gave birth was the day I hit 20 pounds. So since giving birth a little over 2 months ago (with the magical help of breastfeeding and NOPE I have not worked out at all!) I have lost 30 pounds! I am still about 5-10 pounds from my ideal weight but I will celebrate this small victory!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE co-sleeping. Its been a lifesaver for me with my first child and is working well with my second so far. I'd encourage you to continue. Attachment parenting is great for the stability of the family unit and its to bad more people don't see the benefits of it. As for shots my nieces don't have any at all and are fine. Some I think are unnecessary like the ones for chickenpox and the common cold. They're given fancy names like varicella and rotavirus that scare parents into agreeing to unnecessary shots. If you do decide you want to do more you can get the official vaccinations schedule offline and research them before hand. I vaccinate, but I do an adjusted schedule to spread them out and I pick the ones I think my kids need. I'll just deal with loss of time from them getting colds and the chickenpox instead of injecting more chemicals into them.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lois, I really do love attachment parenting and I just couldnt see it any other way! I honestly believe this is how people were meant to raise families. Afterall I doubt the cavemen put their children in separate rooms! And as for the shots... I had done some research and thought I had made the right choices until Brian read more side effects! I agree with you on the rotovirus and chicken pox and also flu shots. Brian is required to get the flu shot (and really a lot more that he doesnt even know or pay attention too) and each time he gets one he gets the flu!
ReplyDeleteMy dad was in the army and he always got the flu from the shot every year. I've never had one and I've only had the flu twice in almost 29 years. My kids aren't getting them ever. Aubrey did get swine flu, but besides a fever and being more cuddly you wouldn't even know she had it.
ReplyDeleteLucky you, I wish I were pre-baby weight. I was after my living child was born (in fact, the day after he was born!). But with the last 6 angels, it just won't go away. Siiiiiiigh. And since I can't breastfeed, what am I to do? (rhetorical question... I know the answers...) lol.
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