Thursday, January 26, 2012

Jack's First Shots

Jack's 2 month PED visit went well. He is in the 55th percentile for length at 23.5in, 60th percentile for weight at 12lbs14oz and 90th percentile for size of head at 16.75in! Our PED says that just means he has a big brain. We think this explains why he still sometimes has the bobble head effect – the poor little guy's body is half the size of his head – in terms of percentiles anyways!
This visit also encompassed the dreaded first round of immunization shots. Now I don't want to get into the debate of should you or shouldn't you {obviously we chose to proceed} but I did want to write about our post-shot experience.
Jack was a little trooper during the shot process. He held tightly to my finger while he screamed, but within a couple of minutes he was back to being completely calm {before our nurse even left the room}. We gave him a few minutes to cuddle before dressing him again.
After the series of shots he seemed a bit subdued. I felt bad that we couldn't treat him to something like an ice cream cone...
The rest of the day Jack didn't quite seem like himself... a little withdrawn, kind of like his feelings were hurt. I held him for most of the afternoon and when Daniel came home from work, he cuddled with Jack while I made dinner.
It is amazing that at 2+months old Jack is already coming out of the cuddling stage. He still enjoys it but is more interested in observing the world than snuggling on our chests. It makes me sad that this stage is already passing. At least when he doesn't feel good he still likes to snuggle.
After dinner we realized that he was starting to feel warm. We took his temperature and discovered that he had a low-grade fever – which we knew was a possibility. We gave him some baby Tylenol {per our doctor's orders} and continued to hold and cuddle with him the rest of the evening.
Thankfully he was able to sleep most of the night, though quite fitfully at times, and I continued to monitor his fever.
Jack and I spent yesterday on the couch together. Me holding him while he slept or cuddled with me. He was still not himself. I hate when he doesn't feel well. I think I would be a basketcase if he was actually sick {it kills me when Sophie doesn't feel well and she is just our dog!}.
Today Jack appears to be back to his usual self though we are going to stay inside again just to make sure he doesn't pick up anything. Plus there is no point in getting out in the rain.
Next time we are considering breaking the shots up over a week or two just so it isn't such a jolt to his system. 

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