Vaccination Day

Yesterday was not Emilia's favorite day. She got her first round of vaccination shots for Rotavirus, DPT (Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis), HIB (Haemophilus Influenza B), Pneumococcal (Prevnar), and Polio. She had her Hepatitis B shot about a week ago.

Before heading to the doctor's office, we prepped her by giving her some infant Tylenol as recommended by our pediatrician. That was an ordeal in itself as there was a recent recall of infant Tylenol due to QC problems. All of the store shelves were empty. Finally found CVS brand at, uh, CVS. Infant Tylenol is in liquid form, and you adminster it using an eyedropper. I squirted the recommended dose in her mouth, and she reluctantly swished it around in her mouth for a while before finally swallowing it.

The shots are all administered to the thighs. Since there were four shots, two went into each thigh. The needles are big and long :^( When they did the first one, Baby Em did not react. So I thought, Oh, she doesn't even feel it. But then a few seconds later, there was a loud scream. Yeah, she definitely felt it. The nurse acted very quickly, and got the remaining three shots finished literally in seconds. Emilia cried for a few more seconds, and it was over. She slept all the way home, and hasn't had any apparent complications from the shots.

Other notes from the pediatrician visit:

• Baby Em is at ~50 percentile for both weight and length. So she's neither a runt nor ginormous.
• Her skin is dry and sensitive (especially the face) so we need to treat it more. They recommended some stuff called Cetaphil.
• We asked about some popping in her joints that we feel. The doc felt that it was just normal infant joint looseness.
• Emilia's been sleeping up to 10 hrs at night. The doc sees no problem in this as she does not have any weight or growth issues. In fact, she called her "chubby".
  
• We discussed her daytime sleep issues, and the doc said that some babies just don't need long daytime naps. So maybe her 30 minute sessions are all she wants (and needs).
• We were told that we need to give her a lot more tummy time. Not only does the tummy time help her head shape, but it also works a lot more of the baby's muscles. Only problem is that Baby Em hates her tummy time, but looks like she'll have to get used to it.