Unprepared (Kayley's 2 month appt.)

(I'll just warn you before you start reading that this is a really long post. I really won't be offended if you choose not to read it. It's more for journaling purposes than anything else.)

When thinking about Kayley's appointment today, for some strange reason, the thought never crossed my mind that she would be getting her shots. Not that you can really prepare for things like that, but I was extremely unprepared in every way and it was not a fun experience. Her appointment was at 10:30 and we got out of there by 11:00. I think that was a record for being in Dr. Savage's office. It's usually more like we wait for half an hour before we even get taken back to a room and then sometimes another half an hour before we see the doctor. So 30 minutes in and out was a nice change. That was the positive note of the morning!
Kayley fell asleep on the way to the appointment, which was a good thing because it was her nap time, but she wasn't very happy when I had to wake her up and strip her down to her diaper to be weighed and measured. I don't know how good of a prediction a 2 month old baby's measurements are for how they will be when they are older, but at least for the time being, we have a pretty long baby on our hands. She weighs 10 lbs. 3 oz. (30%). Her length is 23 1/2 in. (90%) and her head circumference is 38 cm. (30%). After the nurse was done with her measurements, I wrapped her up in her blanket and cuddled with her and she fell right asleep. She was really good for Dr. Savage but she did not like those mean nurses who gave her 3 shots!! :) They pulled her down to the end of the bed with her legs, from the knee down, hanging over the bed, and held her tight so she wouldn't move. She was not happy about that and started screaming. Then they both grabbed the needles, counted to three, and stuck them into her thigh. She let out the saddest cry I ever heard and I said something like, "Oh sweetheart, please don't cry like that. I don't know if mommy can handle that." The nurse looked at me and said in an annoyed tone, "She will be just fine." I knew that she would be just fine but I just hated seeing her in so much pain and so unhappy. My sweet little girl! To make matters worse, she is sick with a cold so I'm sure that didn't help things. The doctor told me that I could give her some tylenol every 4-6 hours for the next day or so if I wanted, but I figured that she would be just fine. Boy was I wrong! When she woke up at about 3:30 to eat, I tried to get her to eat, but she wouldn't stop crying long enough to even try to latch on. Being the rookie that I am, it took me a while before I realized that she was crying because of pain from her shots and that it hurt so badly that she wasn't interested in eating. She finally ate for like 5 minutes altogether. I just sat there in the glider holding her for like 3 hours. It was so sad because as I was holding her, she would be asleep and then move her legs a little bit, which would make her cry because it hurt and then what made matters even worse was that when she started crying she would bring her legs in towards her chest and then she would wail like she was going to die. Then I would calm her down and within 30 seconds she would do the same thing all over again. It was so awful to watch and I felt so helpless. I tried to hold her legs down so that she couldn't move them, but that didn't seem to work too well. So finally after an hour of this, I called my mom and Shannon to ask what to do and then called my sweet brother Robb and asked him if he could go and pick up some Tylenol for me. Within about 30 minutes of taking the Tylenol, she started to do a lot better. I wish that I wouldn't have been so stupid and would have just given her the tylenol right after we left the doctors office. Well, I guess some of us have to learn things the hard way! To end this on a positive note, she slept for a 7 hour stretch last night! She has done that a few other times but I hope that it starts becoming the norm!