First for the good part--We went for Hadley's two-month check-up today, and she weighed in at 8lbs. 10 oz. and 21 inches long. She finally weighs enough to use the Baby Bjorn! Formula feeding is going well. In fact, Hadley seems like a totally different baby. She is much more satisfied, and is not having as many problems with reflux. The doctor, of course, swears it has nothing to do with the fact that I switched to formula, but I am convinced that she just did not like my breast milk for some reason. She is actually awake and happy for several hours a day now. She loves to dance to the mobile in her crib. She is also smiling and cooing up a storm, and has started to reach for her toys. We hang them on her car seat and bouncy chair. She especially likes the ones that chime when she successfully reaches them.
The not-so-good part of the two-month check-up was that we had to get her first immunizations. It just broke my heart that she had to get shots! I think I was more upset than she was. She recovered pretty quickly after the shots and she was fine for several hours afterward, smiling and playing as usual. Then, a few hours after the shots she started to get tired. While I was holding her and while I was changing her diaper I noticed that she was startling a lot. We found out the startling was probably her having chills because when we checked her temperature it was 103. The on-call nurse that evening at the Doctor's office said that was too high for her age, so we had to take her to the ER so that they could make sure it was not some other kind of infection that was causing the fever. Luckily, everything was okay, and it was just the shots causing the high fever. But it was a little traumatic for all of us. I'm so glad Atlanta has such a wonderful children's hospital that we were able to take her to. They got us in and out relatively quickly for an ER, and they have specially trained staff and specially sized instruments so that the trauma of the tests was minimized. Hopefully nobody else will have this experience with immunizations! I guess she takes after her mommy on that one. They said we will have to pre-medicate her next time and give her Tylenol before the shots. They don't usually recommend giving it until the child starts running a fever, but in her case they said it might keep the fever from getting so high.
Oh my goodness I'm so sorry to hear about your adventures!!! Sounds like y'all were on top of things though. It makes me nervous about taking Molly to get her shots. (actually Todd has to take her by himself cause it's my first day back at work!) How many shots did she get at her first visit, or are you doing a schedule?
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad Hadley is doing well on formula. It makes a big difference when you have a content baby! I can't wait for our next play date!!!
-Emily
She got three shots at her first visit. They gave her one in one leg and two in the other leg. They wrote down which leg they gave which in so that they could tell which one caused a reaction if she had an allergic reaction. She also got a vaccine by mouth--I think it was for Rotovirus. We are just following the schedule recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, which is what our pediatrician's office does. They get more shots the first time than any other time because it is when they are so small that they are at much higher risk of complications if they get something. So they want them to build those immunities as soon as possible. The fever was not an allergic reaction, so it won't prevent her from getting any other shots. We only had to take her to the ER this time because they wanted to make sure it was actually just the shots causing the fever, since most kids only run a mild fever after shots. Now that we know it is the shots that cause her to have such a high fever, next time as long as the fever is going down with Tylenol we won't have to take her to the ER. But we will pre-medicate her next time. See you Wed.!
ReplyDelete--Amanda
I am also glad that formula is working out so well for you guys. Isn't it amazing how much happier they are when they are full and not uncomfortable?!!
ReplyDeleteShots are definitely no fun. Andrew got a fever, but not high enough to go to the ER. We actually have his 4 month old check up in a few weeks, and I am not looking forward to more shots. Sadly to report, it might get easier on mommy, but the crys never get easy to endure.
mel