Twern't no big thang

Zane sporting two of his post-shot bandages. There’s another bandage on his other leg. After his normal check-up the doctor left the room and two nurses came in with a tray of needles. I got to hold his hands and coo into his face, while they each poised a needle over a thigh, counted down to zero, and jabbed him in sync.

Watching Zane’s face through all of this I could see that it took a few seconds to register anything and then he not only registered the affront, but decided he didn’t like it at all! He barely got out a cry before one of the nurses stuck yet another needle into his leg and then he was in full communications mode: WAAAAA!

They slapped bandages on him, I picked him up and jiggled him a bit, and that was it. A few lingering sniffs and the crying was over … for then.

Three shots and I think it was four things being injected: Faith can chime in with the stats and names. They suggested having infant tylenol on hand so we stopped at the store on the way home. Zane was in good spirits.

That afternoon when I got home from work Faith said he’d been kind of fussy, not wanting to do anything but sleep on her shoulder, but otherwise ok and not needing the tylenol or running a fever. She headed off to take a nap before opera rehearsal and I took over shoulder duties.

Normally when he insists on a shoulder it’s only until he falls asleep and then you can put him down. Not this time. One wrong move and he was letting you know about it. Also he was starting to run a fever, but without being able to move him it was kind of hard to tell how much. Finally I took my chances and laid him on his back to put the thermometer under his arm. It is SO SLOW to take a temperature that way, especially when the baby is crying bloody murder right in your face.

Finally got the temp (100+) and tried to calm him back down. He wasn’t having any of that and I was worried he was keeping Faith awake, so down to my dungeon lair we went, where it is cooler and somewhat acoustically isolated.

LBZ was not happy. In fact he was beyond not happy and into some realm and level of crying I hadn’t experienced yet. No manner of comfort or position would calm him. I got a little food into him, but it was only a brief respite before the storm resumed. Finally I gave him a little squirt of tylenol and within minutes he was calming down and before a half hour was up he was sound asleep and his temperature seemed better.

And that was it, that was Zane’s first shot. He woke up later and ate a bunch of food, we goofed around a bit and got some baby smiles, and then by 9:30 he was off to sleep for the night (well, until 1am, a feeding, and then back to sleep unitl 5:30am … not bad at all).

This morning he’s happy and smiling with only a few flesh colored plastic patches to remind us of the shots.