Immunizations

Yesterday, four of my kids were shot. Or in Erika's words, "parents taking their kids to get stabbed".

I was only taking Nathan and Hyrum for their DTap but I had Levi and Erika with me so that we could get all the final stuff for their Handcart Trek while we were in town.

Nathan did great, cried out a little but was fine when offered a cool bandaid and sticker.

Hyrum didn't even flinch. No pucker, no tears . . . just grins when the nurses made a fuss over him.

Levi and Erika were laughing at Hyrum because he didn't even cry and the nurse said, "We have shots for teenagers, have you guys had them, let's see if you can do that well?". She started joking around with them, they tried to (teasingly) run away and I had their records looked up. They were both do for a TDap (same as DTap but for adults), and the HepA. This nurse was so funny with them and the kids were hillarious in their comments back. The one nurse even saying how tricky of me it was to get the kids in without any argument as if it was all premediated and the kids thought that I really had.

The nurse whispered to me, "the one who is scared the most gets to go first". I replied that it was Levi, he pretended to whimper and sat up on the table. When they pulled his shirt sleeves up he flexed and they informed him that he couldn't flex while they gave the shots. He quickly replied that he wasn't - with laughs from the nurses. Right as they were putting the needles in his arm 2 boys from our area came to the door for their shots. Levi pretended to tear up just to be funny and the nurse quickly whispered in his ear "you can't do that, their watching you". So he suddenly acted all brave, and almost flexed again. When they put the bandaids on they told him that his "guns" make those bandaids look really small. He told them he was going to cry if he didn't get a sticker too so they gave him a monster truck sticker.

Then it was Erika's turn. The boys in the hallway observed the whole thing and she just said, after they were already done, "Ok, I'm ready you can do them now." They told her they were already done and she said "No way, I thought you just pinched my arm to get it ready, you're done? You guys are the best". The nurses laughed, gave her a flower power sticker and as we walked out the door Levi and Erika told the 2 boys that it was nothing, barely hurts at all and that the bandaids and stickers are cool.

Nathan showed us over and over again that he had a bandaid on his leg and this morning is still re-enacting the whole thing. When he describes the shot he holds his leg up and stabs it with his finger saying "Poke, reawee, reawee hard. I cried." I had to take the bandaid and sticker off to give him a bath last night and afterward he insisted that I put them back on. When I asked him this morning if he wanted to go get more shots he said, "Yeah, sticker?".

On a positive note about the clinic: I am doing an alternative schedule for Nathan and Hyrum. Not all of the shots at once like the pediatric chart shows and for Nathan I have waited until he is 2 to start them. It has been a little uncomfortable for me to try to explain why I felt so strongly to wait for Nathan and now I feel fine about having his done and why I haven't felt that way with Hyrum. I don't like trying to explain my reasons for the alternate schedule so I just don't talk about it much. Taking them in I am now forced to discuss it and I was unsure the response or support I would get. The nurses were so nice and supportive about the whole thing and asked me what shots we were doing, what my alternate schedule would be and yesterday I noticed that the chart is called the "Recommended Petiatric Schedule". They basically said that a mom knows best if she is consciously making the decision, studying and doing what she feels is best for that child, not just being paranoid or lax about the whole thing.

For me it was a good experience, after all, I didn't have shots or screaming kids.