Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Two Months Old: The Stats and The Aftermath

Amalia had her two month well-baby check up yesterday and here are her stats:

Weight: 12 lbs. 6 oz. (85th percentile)
Height: 24 1/4" ("high" - off the charts)
Head Circumference: 15 1/2" (65th percentile)

She did well at her appointment, charming everyone with her cuteness and good-natured spirit. They gave her three shots and an oral vaccine and she even did well with those, only crying for a minute or two and then falling asleep.

Little did I know that was the calm before the storm.

We got home and she seemed to be doing okay. She fed a couple times and played on her playmat, though she was a bit fussy toward the end of the evening. I popped a binkie in her mouth and she calmed right down so I figured she was just hungry yet again.

After going upstairs and getting both kids a bath, she and I settled in for our usual bedtime routine. Nursing was going well when I suddenly felt a sneeze coming on. Not wanting to have a sneeze stuck in my nose all night or rear its ugly head while I was trying to get her in her crib, I decided to let it out but stifle it as much as I could. Unfortunately, I am not very good at stifling sneezes and it came out pretty forcefully and scared my little girl half to death.

And that's when it started.

The crying. The I-am-SO-unhappy/I-may-be-dying cry that every mother dreads. Her mouth wide open with fitful screams emanating from her little body, I scooped her up to my shoulder and tried to bounce her back to calm. Usually this works, but last night she wasn't having any of it.

Not wanting to wake up Baylor, I scurried downstairs with her, popped a binkie in her mouth, and started scanning the information they'd given us about the vaccines she'd been given. Bryson grabbed the pediatrician's handbook and started looking in that for anything we could do to help her feel better. We finally decided to give her some acetaminophen when she awoke next, since the binkie had helped lull her to sleep.

Of course, we keep the meds in Baylor's room (since, for the longest time, he was the only child needing them), so I had to go all stealth and sneak into his room to get them without waking him up. And yes, I had the Mission: Impossible theme song playing in my head while I carried out my dangerous mission.

An hour later the binkie fell out and she started screaming again, so I rushed in there to console her. Of course, at this point - it being half past midnight and all - I forgot to give her the medicine and spent a little while fumbling for answers. When I finally did give her the medicine, she had no idea what to do with the sticky pink goo, so she cried even harder for a bit. I tried to nurse her, but she was having nothing of it and I ended up with a sticky boob and a crying child. Eventually she had cried hard enough to basically pass out from the exertion and fell asleep as I rocked her.

After placing her in her crib and holding her arms down so the startle reflex wouldn't wake her, she slept for about five or five-and-a-half hours and woke up in a pretty good mood. I've already had a few smiles from her today, so hopefully she's feeling much, much better. (Knock on wood!)

Just an FYI ... if your child gets a DTaP vaccine, it might not be a bad idea to give them some acetaminophen as a preemptive strike against the pain and fussiness that may lie ahead of you. We think that one was the culprit from all the information we were given.

Have a wonderful day!

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