I Suck At Immunizations

Today, Karen and I brought our baby daughter (Briana) to the pediatrician's office which is located in Cohasset. Briana was having her two-month checkup. In addition to the much anticipated weigh-in was the administration of immunization shots for Briana. (For anyone curious, Briana is an ounce short of ten pounds... at 9 pounds 15 ounces.)

Now, I suck at immunizations. Luckily for me, I wasn't getting poked or prodded today. Needless to say, Briana did not like being injected with needles... and not just any needles. These needles looked long... at least they did to me. The needles almost reminded me of the ones that I had to inject Karen with during her pregnancy.

Interestingly enough, the nurse was pretty quick with the injections. In a span of a couple of minutes, the nurse had made three injections all into Briana's thigh. Briana actually had a delayed reaction after the first shot and thus started to cry for the other two shots.

Truth be told, I think Karen cried more than Briana did over the shots. (Briana simply went to sleep as though nothing happened.) In Karen's defense, it was a little disheartening to watch your child feel pain.

I remember when our son (Braden) was in the neonatal intensive care unit, he made this one face of anguish that was just so gut-wrenching. At the time, Braden could not cry because he was born extremely premature and his crying had not developed yet. But the face Braden made that one night... I will always remember it. It was the one and only time that I remember Braden looking so sad. Unfortunately, he passed away shortly thereafter.

But yeah, it can be disheartening to watch your child cry. When Briana sat there crying over the injections, I just remembered thinking about Braden.