Shot Success

Addie had her four month round of vaccines yesterday. She was such a trooper, just smiling and shrieking for our pediatrician. When it came time for the two shots in her thigh, her face turned bright red and she started screaming. Fortunately, it only lasted a minute this time. By the time I sat her down to nurse her, she had already stopped crying! I fed her for maybe five minutes and she was all smiles. All afternoon and into the night I kept waiting for her to go ballistic but she was so happy! Then... 8:20 at night came. Her Tylenol had just about worn off, but it wasn't time for an additional dose and she went crazy. She was screaming so hard; I had never heard screams like this. I have no idea how mamas are able to watch and listen to their baby scream like Addie did, but every day. My heart goes out to all of you. It's heartbreaking seeing your child in pain and knowing you can't make it go away.

On the topic of vaccines... of all of the research I did before Addie was born, vaccines were just something I felt were right and so I did zero, zip, zilch research on them. Looking back, I feel like that was so ignorant, and I wished I would have read up on at least SOMETHING regarding them. If you chose to not vaccinate your children, or chose to do a delayed schedule, may I ask why?

I am definitely an attachment parent type, and this has been bugging me for the past few days. I am feeling so much guilt about Addie's shots because I feel like I'm the one that caused her to go through that pain. I knew it was going to happen, I'm the one who took her to the doctor and held her down as the shot pierced her thigh. If normally, I'm so protective and try so hard to make sure she's safe and pain-free, why would I allow myself to let her experience pain? OR... am I just WAY over thinking it?