Carson’s First Shots

Christmas this year was an extra special one with Carson.  Here is our little family.

It was also extra special to see my new nephew Lane, his brother Beckett and my favorite niece, Maren.  Another new baby addition was my cousin’s daughter Lydia.

My grandfather got three new great-grand babies in less than a month this year!  More on our vacation later when I have the time to get that post together.  Blogging is harder when you have a new baby!

Carson and I went in yesterday for his first shots.  Our pediatrician splits his first set into 2 groups.  He will get the rest of them at 8 weeks.  It was not a fun day, and so I am not looking forward to the rest of his shots next week.

Before the shots we got an updated weight for Carson…a whopping 10.5 pounds!  Then we prepared for the dreaded vaccinations.  He seemed all happy on the table.  Just wiggling away, happy as a clam.  Then, without warning, two horrible stabs on his chubby thighs.  He started the silent scream with an increasingly reddened face and then let out one of the most terrible noises I have ever heard from his little lungs.  It was horrible.  I picked him up and tried to comfort my little man.  He’d cry, then stop and just have a quivering lower lip and sad little frown, then scream some more.  When he finally chilled out we got back in the car seat and headed home.  He seemed OK.

I knew some of the things we could face after these shots; possible fever, possible fussy baby, possible sleepy baby.  So, we took a trip to the grocery store to get some infant Tylenol just in case and to restock the necessities of our kitchen.  He did such a great job at the store.  He was just looking around at the lights, enjoying his ride in the cart.  Then we got home.  This is where it gets ugly.

He started to get fussy, so we got a clean diaper and ate…but that didn’t quite do it for him.  He got increasingly unhappy, so I decided to take his temperature.  Carson had a 100° temperature.  At this point he was screaming like I have never heard the child scream before.  I called the doctor and the nurse took about an hour and a half to call me back.  This was not a fun waiting period.  I was in tears since I could do absolutely nothing to comfort him.  Even with his inability to speak, I could tell he was not having a great time either.

Finally I was given the OK to give him Tylenol and the proper dosage.  The nurse also suggested a warm bath to comfort his sore little (well, let’s face it, big) legs.  After that Carson and I spent some quality comforting time on the couch and after about 45 minutes of sweet love from his mommy, Carson fell asleep.  And he slept, and slept for the next 3 hours.  Then he woke up and ate, then fell back to sleep for 2 more hours.

Today the little guy feels a lot better.