Welp, I am a true mom. I have finally admitted it. Owen had to have his first shot the other day. The shot was a "thing" in the first place meaning I struggled with what I really wanted to do for vaccinations. It's a touchy subject for a lot of people and I don't really want to get into it here but I will say that we decided to vaccinate Owen but on an extended plan. Meaning, one shot at a time over MONTHS, not five shots all at once. I think that there is some merit to vaccines, especially vaccines for diseases that he may be exposed to that would be very harmful to him (and why NOT protect him if we have that option) but I think that doctors tend to over vaccinate infants in their first months of life and that we can string out the vaccines to make it easier on their little immune systems. That being said, we only got the dtap vaccine at his 8 week well check visit, which is the combination of tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (whooping cough). As everyone seems to know, whooping cough is the big deal right now so at the recommendation of our naturopath, this was the shot to get right away.
BUT.
Going back to why I'm a true mom: it KILLED ME. We put Owen on my boob to nurse and she injected him and the poor little guy just SCREAMED. Granted it was only 5 seconds and then he just went back to a bit of whimpering and sucking and then 5 minutes later he was fine but OH MY GOSH. My heart totally broke. So, yeah, I'm a mom. I don't want my kid to hurt and just wish I could protect him from pain forever.
A picture of the little guy before the shot (in related news he now weighs 12.9 pounds and is 24.5 inches long- 75th percentile for each).
And after shot... he took a STELLAR nap. Like 3 hours. Awesome.