Shot Day...

This week we got to experience what all of you Mom's already have gone through and might empathize with (hopefully) and you Mom's to be will realize soon enough.  First off I have to say I have one of the most amazing children.  She is always smiling, talking and just living her little life as enjoyable as she can.  We really have not had to ward off bad moods or the 'what is wrong with my child, she will not stop crying' scenario.  

Let me give you a play by play of how our day went.  We head to the immunization clinic both happy, smiley and ready to get her shots.  One piece of advice though, do not plan to go get your child's shots the week before school starts as EVERY child on base in waiting in line to get there's as well.  Anywhoo, we get in the room and the very nice nurse starts to talk to Addison about how she is the bad guy, not Mom, it will be over really quick, what a nice day it is outside, etc.... BUT who is the child looking at while the nice nurse lady is pricking her....MOM, so who do you think she is thinking is the bad guy!  Anyway, this is a quick preview of how you can go from happy to sad in the matter of two seconds. Addison is in mid smile looking at me, to a open mouth, closed eyed, red faced SCREAM! Although it took about five seconds for the scream to get out of her mouth, it still made it out. All I can think is to grab my child off the table and comfort her, but the nice nurse lady is still pricking my child as she is screaming like someone is twisting her arm off. So it is finally over (in reality it only took about 30 seconds for the shots) and I get to pick up Addison while she is still red faced and mad.  I start to soothe her and walk around the room we are in when I get the look from the nurse like...'did you not see ALL of the children I need to prick today, you are done, now please leave'.   So, I grab all of our things while Addison is crying at this point, no longer screaming thankfully.  As soon as I get in the hallway I see about 10 sad pale faces of the school aged children, and then I look at the parents faces and they are fuming as I am sure they just got done telling their children 'it won't hurt, you will not feel a thing!'  

After about five minutes Addison is calmed down and hanging out in her car seat like the sweet happy girl I know she is.  On the drive home, I thought, o.k. we got past that hurdle, now onto the rest of the day...ohh boy how naive I am right!  We get home, Addison gets fed and falls asleep.   While she is sleeping I am getting things done around the house and then from the crib I hear the WORST high pitched scream I think any parent should hear and then it gets higher and faster.  I run over scoop her up thinking....bad dream? Wet diaper?  NO the SHOTS!  I try shushing her, bouncing her, walking with her, feeding her, changing her diaper, ALL while she is continuing to scream.  Finally I remember I bought tylenol just for this occasion, let me tell you, I do not think I cursed at a bottle of medicine more than I did at this bottle.  I am all for child proofing medicine, but COME ON!  Do they not realize some parents might be in a state of stress while trying to open the package.  In the middle of this scenario, if you already have a mental picture, the phone rings.  For some crazy reason I answer it just knowing it was going to be Dad, sure enough it was Dad (thankfully, because I can not image what someone else would think with a child screaming in the background and a stressed sounding Mom on the other line).  I have to tell you too, Brad was gone on a TDY this week, so no quick run home to help with Addison, I asked him to call back in a few minutes. I finally get the package open and the instructions say under 2 years of age, consult doctor , so I look on the many papers the nurse gave me and they have a picture of a dropper and all is says is half dropper full.  O.k, for a NEW Mom, FIRST time shots AND use of medicine for the first time, ALL they are going to give me is a picture and say 'half a dropper'.  All of these questions start shooting through my mind, while my child is still screaming mind you, what if this dropper is bigger than what the dropper in the picture is, what if I give her too much, I need amounts people, AMOUNTS, ml, tblsp, tsp, ya know....something other than 'Half a dropper full'!!  After realizing I was thinking WAY too hard on this, I finally gave her some tylenol and after about ten minutes she started to calm down and was asleep in my arms.  WOW is all I can say for that.  

Brad called back, I can not image what was going through his mind.  All I can say is he is amazing even from Korea. He talked me through all what had happened and helped me realize, no I did not overdose our child, no she is not going to remember what had just happened, etc.  Thanks Brad, even from far away you know what to do!

So, if any of you have fun first shot stories, or even just 'crazy freak out Mom stories',  I would love to hear about them! Mostly so I can realize I am not the only one this happens to and I am very normal in my reactions to my child screaming her cute little head off!  

Enjoy a picture of the happy, smiley girl we know and love!  Addison, we are glad you are feeling better!