Last Friday I took Ethan for his first-ever immunisations. I knew it wouldn't be pleasant and I tried to prepare us as best I could. On the advice of others I took a long a small bottle of milk for Ethan to have as soon as his needles had finished and I looked away so that my fear and worry didn't pass on to him whilst I held him. But it really didn't matter what I did. It was extremely traumatic for us both.
To start with the nurse we had the unfortunate luck of getting was just awful. She had no people-skills whatsoever and she sounded like she literally could have just been reading from a rather unfriendly script. I tried to crack a joke and got nothing, not even a smile. So that didn't help. When the needles came, Ethan screamed. It wasn't the loudness of his scream that upset me, it was the fact that I'd never heard him scream the way he did then ever before. I've heard that babies can't produce tears for a while when they're first born {I'm not sure up until what age} but he had tears, and they broke my heart.
After what felt like a lifetime I finally managed to calm him down {that was after the nurse told me 'We are done.', as if to say 'Leave now.' during mid scream from a very upset Ethan}. It was then that I noticed the blood. Ethan's blood on my top, lots more on his leg and the bottom half of his clothing. The nurse assured me it was normal, though I believe it probably could have been prevented as only one of his legs bled. So I wasn't impressed.
Honestly, I could go on about how awful the nurse was, she refused to answer any of my questions that didn't relate to his immunisations stating 'I can't confirm that, however I can confirm that it wont be effecting his immunisations today.' {Errr ok then!}. I later found out that she forgot to put my date of birth on bloods she took from me {to check my iron levels} and so the lab refused to test one set of my bloods. Which means I will now need to have another blood test.. It's safe to say that I will be requesting a different Nurse for our next set of immunisations.
After his immunisations Ethan was very drowsy for the rest of the day and slept longer than a newborn baby. I felt bad for him, because I wasn't sure if he felt unwell. He would wake for his bottles but instead of crying for them like he usually does he'd just whimper and only have around 3/4's of what he usually drinks. But I'm happy to report that this only lasted for that day/night and the very next day Ethan was back to his normal cheeky self! :)
It sounds dramatic but actually at the time I think I would have rather given birth again then make him have those needles, and.. we have more to come... :| LOL. I can't imagine what I'm going to be like when he's older and falls over etc. But hey - I can't help it, he's my little baby!
I'd love to know what your immunisation experiences have been like?
Alex xoFacebook | Twitter | Instagram
