22 January 2011:
One of the things most babies have to go through is vaccinations.
I dread whenever Blake has to go for one. I always fear the fever that might come after, and the losing of sleep that night. But, I know if my son don’t develop the fever (and if the fever don’t go away overnight), then he is not building immunity against that particular whatever they injected him with. Not all vaccinations means fever will develop though, only some.
The first time Blake developed fever after one of his vaccinations, he had two injections to his thighs. It was rather funny actually, seeing how it all unfolded.
Dr. Yip, injected one thigh, and naturally, Blake cried out loud but only for a split second, and then he was ok. Or so he thought… Dr. Yip then injects the other thigh (yes, we sometimes inject 2 different vaccinations at a go), and he screams even louder than the earlier injection.
I’m terrified of needles, and I didn’t watch the doctor inject Blake (thank goodness for Sean!), I just concentrated on Blake’s face the whole time. After the first injection, his face really did look like it was saying, “Phew! It’s over!” And when the second injection went in, his face went, “What!? Again!? I feel cheated!” It took a lot longer to calm him down after the second injection.
Blake starting developing his fever when we were heading home, after we walked around town for most of the day. We already had those cooling gel patches on standby to put it onto his forehead to keep the temperature down. Problem was, it wouldn’t stay on. Either Blake peels it off, or it drops off on its own when Blake’s sleeping on his side. So we came up with our own solution – using plaster to hold it down.
It lasted the whole night, but it was rather painful to remove it cos some of Blake’s hair got caught in it. Not very pleasant. We have since changed to using those white surgical tape (not sure if that’s what it’s called), which are easier to remove when in contact with water.
My brave little boy! I don’t think I’ll even be ready to play the very next day after a vaccination!
