Babycakes

Emma had her 15 month ped visit today, during which we were suprised with 2 vaccines. Let me tell you, we are a couple who LOVE surprises! Birthdays gifts, parties, spontaneous trips to the grocery store; all of these are welcome things. But surprise us with shots when we were told at the last visit that there were no more shots until 18 months? And you get two very grumpy, resistant parents. Let me explain.

I am a complete pain-o-phobe when it comes to children I love. Watching Emma endure shots, finger pricks, etc. is literal torture for me. I don't give a kick in hell what the benefits of vaccinations are, people; all I can focus on is my daughter's bloodcurdling screams that go on for 20 minutes. She is not a good shot-taker, in fact she just plain sucks at pain - I blame it on myself, as that's just how I was a child. I would kick and scream and yell at the nurses and my parents every time SHOT was mentioned. I feared the doctor for years.

Which is one reason why we told the nurse and nurse practitioner NO to shots today. Every single visit for the past three visits have ended with shots or finger pricks and we don't want Emma to start associating every doctor visit with pain. Plus, the damn nurse practitioner promised us last time that this visit would include NO shots. We're freaks, my husband and I. We need time to prepare for these things! You would too if your kid screamed the way Emma does. We like to know in advance whether we need to be brave Mommy and Daddy, optimistic parents who are ready to smile and sing and cuddle our daughter through the stabbing of needles into her perfect sweet little arms. We can't perform these duties unless priorly warned, darnit!

And so we refused the shots today knowing that she'll get them next time at 18 months. That's just one month before Savannah is due to arrive! Jared will take Emma to that visit alone because I am just too pregnant and emotional and hormonal to be able to smile and sing and cuddle Emma through the stabbing of needles into her chubby, perfectly sweet and lovely little arms.

Before I was pregnant I don't think I would have stared down a medical professional and just said no to vaccinations. Well, then again, I did tell our last pediatrician that we were anti-vaccine and that it was only due to her pressuring us that we even let Emma be vaccinated in the first place. Yeah, she took that well.

Anyway, through all of this rambling I guess I'm saying that:
1. Surprise vaccinations are never a good thing.
2. I'm insanely hormonal.
3. I'm not apologizing for this, simply stating a fact.
4. Emma has really sweet, perfect, chubby little arms that should be 100% needle free for the rest of her life. This includes tattoos! (Don't ever tell her that Mommy has one though).

Oh...in my anti-needle ranting I forgot to mention how Amazon Emma is! She is up to 25 lbs, 31 and 7/8 inches. That's a weight gain of 5 lbs since November, and a length gain (huh?) of almost 2 inches. Apparently she takes after Daddy. Also, her head is big like his. And according to the n.p. she's way ahead of the game in terms of talking! I keep telling myself I'll make a list of her words and there's no better time like the present so here goes:

Mama
Dada
Papa
Dog
Bird
Big Bird
Up
Down
Uh-oh
Star
Apple
All gone
All done
Ball
In
Out
Spoon
More
More (usually sign language, but also spoken)
Cheese (her favorite food)
...and I know there's more but I'm too tired to think of them...

Plus the animal sounds for: elephant, monkey, dog, cow, sheep, snake, turkey, & sometimes cat. She's brillant and funny and beautiful and...well, mine. And that makes her the most amazing creature on the planet.