Baby’s first vaccinations

A friend told me he found his baby’s vaccinations traumatic. A neighbour said she cried the first time her baby had a vaccination. Kaylin had received vaccinations the day she was born and the day after but I wasn’t witness to either of them, so when it came time for more injections (yes, plural), I wasn’t sure how I would respond.

Can I first say how amazed I am at the number of vaccinations that are recommended for babies nowadays? The paediatrician gave me a list charting Kaylin’s injections right up to about two years or something and it is long. Also, they’re really expensive, but that’s my fault because we went to a paed as opposed to a GP.

I guess moments like this are when I’m extra glad for Kaylin’s thunder thighs (said with all my love) because I’m guessing jabs would hurt a lot more if she were skinny. The doctor stuck the needle into one thigh, there was a split-second pause, and then Kaylin opened her mouth and screamed. He did the same to the other thigh and Kaylin screamed so hard her face turned dark purple. I’d never seen someone do that before.

When it was over, I buttoned up Kaylin’s onesie, picked her up and held her, and within seconds, she stopped screaming. Just like that. There wasn’t a tear in her eye – my daughter hardly cries tears, which makes me wonder if most of the time she’s scolding/screaming at me instead of actually crying – and to my relief, there wasn’t a tear in mine either.

I guess I went in pretty matter-of-fact about it because vaccinations are good for Kaylin. At least, they’re supposed to be. And while being a new mother has seen me get emotional and/or panicky from time to time, usually when I imagine something happening to my baby, it seems vaccinations aren’t one of those things. Which is great because we’ve got another doctor’s visit coming up next month.