9 miles very easy. Just enjoying the peaceful morning.
My kids got immunization shots yesterday afternoon. Wow, that was not a fun visit. It took over an hour to wait for the nurse, listen to her tell me about all the shots, and decide which ones we would do in that visit. Then it took another hour for her to prepare the shots (each kid got 5-6), administer the shots, and check out. The problem was that all my kids are way behind schedule for recieving their shots because I'm not a huge fan of injecting dead viruses into small babies so I purposefully delay it until they are a little older and bigger in the hope that their body can handle it better and not have side effects. Since I delay, when I finally do decide to take them in for shots they need a lot. The reason I decided to take them in this time is because Abe's school said he needed a few more to be attending school and I decided its time to start Ali on her first wave since she's a lot bigger and stronger than she was 16 months ago. I made the mistake of allowing Breanne to be in the room as Abe recieved his shots and he was really tough but he did cry a little and I think just the sight of the needle and seeing her big tough brother wince in pain caused her to FLIP OUT. She was crying and wincing for him and when it came time for her to get her shots she was hiding behind everything in the room like a little scared rabbit. I tried reasoning with her and explaining the benefits but I was not getting through to her and she was becoming more and more upset so I finaly just had to take her arm sleeves off and pull her pants down to her knees and hold her tight. Not my favorite thing to hold my child as she screams bloody murder and tenses up in fear and pain. The nurse was as quick as she could be for all 5 injections but Breanne was not making it any easier. Luckily Ali had been out in the hall walking with another nurse so she didn't witness the drama, but as I held her for her shots she did not like them at all and Breanne continued flipping out drastically while watching her baby sister get the evil pokes. Breanne was in the most strung out and emotionally disasterous state I have ever seen her in. I think next time I'll take back-up support (Aaron) to aid in the drama control.
Last night and today we are dealing with the fun side-effects. Abe complains of feeling tired and has cried multiple times about his arm aching. Breanne puked and has been pale and sick all day. Ali tossed, turned, coughed, and moaned all night with discomfort and I had to take her in the basement so that everyone upstairs could sleep (needless to say, I didn't sleep great lying next to a tossing, turning, coughing, moaning baby all night). But at least we wont get whooping cough! (In theory).
So as you may realize, I'm not a huge fan of immunizations. My biggest reason to get them for my kids is because I think it is socially responsible. I can understand people who choose not to get them though. Some kids may be more suseptible to severe side-effects from the shots and I think parents have the right to make that personal desision for their kids and not be punished for the fact that they would rather take the risk of their child getting the whopping cough or chicken-pox or whatever other illness they choose not to immunize for rather than risking the potential side-effects. Most of the diseases themselves are not generally life-threatening anyway. But on the flip side of the coin, the incidence of immunized diseases is probably lower because of the immunizations, so thank goodness for that. Anyone else have an opinion about this issue? | 