Poor baby (poor mommy & daddy)

Nobody likes shots. Now vaccines are likely harder on mom and dad than on baby and as such, Chad and I were dreading today's appointment.

First things first, Alaina is doing great. The pediatrician said Alaina appeared to be thriving. She weighed in at a healthy 11 pounds, 11.9 ounces and was 22.5 inches. She said her skin, weight!!, color, and temperament all looked great. We discussed the fact that she still had some blood in her diapers and our plan to continue on the soy formula until the end of June to give the dairy a chance to get completely out of her system. The doctor was okay with this plan and said we could switch to Nutramigen or Alimentum if it hadn't cleared up by then. She also agreed to put a note in the baby's chart that they would write a letter saying it was medically necessary so that we could see if insurance would cover all or part of the expense (our doctor is expecting a baby at the end of the month so she will be gone the rest of the summer).
I also asked the doctor to take a look to see if there were anatomical reasons (tongue tie, palate problems) contributing to Alaina's poor milk transfer. As I suspected, there was no anatomical reason. Oh well.

We again met with the developmental program to hear how baby girl is doing nonmedically. It was validating to hear the specialist say that Alaina looked and acted like a four month old! She was very happy to see her eye contact, alertness, social skills, vocalizations, etc. She said she has pretty good head control and loved how she was so attentive to faces. She seemed impressed when I showed her how Alaina will try to mimic my mouth movements (sticking out my tongue, opening wide, making clicking noises). It all could have been an act but it felt good. :)

The nurse came back in and Alaina got 4 vaccines--2 injections and 1 oral. Chad and I were both nervous how *we* would handle it. I'm happy to report all three of us handled it like champions! I had done quite a bit of research (shocking) on soothing and analgesic techniques that would not reduce the effectiveness of the vaccines (apparently preadministering Tylenol can reduce their effectiveness as well as mask important symptoms of reactions). So, we put a little milk on a pacifier and right after the oral medication was administered, I gave her the pacifier. I held her hands, touched her belly, and tried to keep eye contact and talked to her as the nurse gave her the two injections. She cried and after the nurse left, we calmed her down by feeding her. She was immediately calm. We will try this strategy for all shots and procedures!

Alaina and I are having a laid back afternoon where I am keeping my eye out for any negative reactions (high fever, excessive irritability, etc.). So far she has just eaten and slept. Tomorrow is her first day with the sitter (which was horrible planning on my part!) so I am hopeful that she is one of the many kids that feels okay by tonight. I'll leave you with pictures of her passed out. She has two hot pink bandaids, in case you wondered.