Baby diary: 2 months

[petronia]

Well-baby visit at the family clinic, and 2-month vaccination at the CLSC. For reasons best known to the Quebec government, these were two separate appointments at two separate locations that could not be combined. I was lucky enough to get them morning/afternoon on the same day, and luckier that the snowstorm started no earlier than 5pm. A solid foot of heavy snow overnight.

Upstairs neighbours re-gifted Alan a gorgeous (and expensive) snowsuit that's largely useless, to them because their son was born in July, to me because in this weather you have to go by car and snowsuits don't fit in the car seat. We put him in a pink-and-white boucle flannel hoodie, vintage '88, wherein he charmed several older ladies in waiting rooms. I suspect there's a fairly narrow window during which strangers coo at babies, just as there's a narrow window in which people comment on your pregnancy -- too early, and no one says anything for fear of getting it wrong, but then in the last 2 months everyone has something to say.

Both Alan and the little one upstairs are in the 98th percentile for length. Lanky half-Asian babies o_o Alan is just under 14 lbs.

The 2-month vaccines are currently 6-in-1 (shark band-aid), pneumococcus conjugate (dolphin band-aid), and rotavirus (drops, which didn't seem to taste good). He spiked a low-grade fever overnight, which went down after a dose of baby Tylenol but has crept back (it's now 3pm). Being put down seems to give him bad dreams so he's been sleeping on my mom or me alternately. I brought him in bed with me; where we sleep side by side on our backs with legs straight and arms touching, which seems to be enough to reassure him.

Comments

[karalee]

Vaccinations are rough :( Good job to you both!

IIRC Bean got coos and comments until, I would say, she was verbal in public. YMMV. XD

[ukefied]

Not sure where you are currently, but if you're on the West Island, Brunswick Medical can do the vaccines and the check-ups. It's $10 (for the nurse to administer the vaccine). My insurance pays it back, but even if they didn't, it's worth saving the aggravation of the CLSC.

[petronia]

I'm in Verdun without a car, so probably not XD, but good to know! I think ELNA Decarie (near where my parents live) do it too.

[marej]

*groan* I hated vaccinations with the burning passion of ten thousand suns. Was sooo happy to be done with the kiddy ones at 6 or so. Not because we didn't want to have Jake vaccinated, because of course we did, but it was never easy for him. Jake had a reaction to the second round that NOBODY (with the exception of my mom, who said right off the bat that it was a reaction) was willing to acknowledge was an actual reaction to the shots, which sent us (utterly freaked out new parents whose child had insane diarrhea and for the first time ever didn't want to eat. and he ALWAYS wanted to eat. a lot.) to Sick Kids where we were told over and over again it's a virus and has nothing to do with vaccination. I still remember that night in vivid colours. Of course, when it proceeded happening with every round of shots, I learned that sometimes you just have to say, yeah okay, docs, i generally trust you but I do know my kid, so. What gave *me* a piece of mind was the Vaccine Book by Dr Sears (the son). He caught a lot of slack for supposedly it being anti-vaccination, which it is anything but, in my opinion. It just has more information about weird reactions, timing of them and such, than any other resources I found. But then again vaccination is one of those things where everybody has A Very Strong Opinion, so.

Oh oh! You may want to consider trying Advil vs Tylenol, to see which one works best for Alan. Tylenol didn't work for Jake at all, it would lower the fever for an hour or two at best. Advil worked (and works, still) much better.

Oh and also! this site still provides tons of measuring fun for yours truly.

[petronia]

Oh, man! Was it the rotavirus one do you think? As that is apparently new from 6-7 years ago, and not only was I told by the nurse that diarrhea could happen, I was told to wash hands carefully after changing the baby (normal poo or otherwise) as it could be contagious to adults for up to 10 days. D: Alan didn't have any major gastrointestinal reaction, thank goodness, and he was right as rain after 36 hours.

My sister also reacted badly to the shots, every time, until our pediatrician just outright cancelled her last round. I get that no one will stick their neck out and confirm the existence of weird reactions unless they've been sufficiently studied and there are guidelines. But it makes parents feel gaslit and that could only lead to more anti-vaxx attitudes.

And yay for charts! There's even an option for Chinese babies. XD

[marej]

nooe, wasn't rotavirus for sure. it wasn't around 8 years ago, at least not in Ontario. I would probably try to weasel out of that one, if it was, because exclusively b-fed babies are not really likely to get rotavirus at all. Which actually had been proven by Jake. At least twice. Once when Jake didn't get it at all at around 6 months, despite all of us being horrendously sick. And the second time when he was just about done with breast feeding at around 14 months (yes, I know. But it was a function of pure laziness. The longer he was happy with breastfeeding the longer I didn't have to bother with cooking and stuff) but still coercing me into random night meals, he still didn't get the FIERCELY AWFUL bug I brought from a business trip to Dallas (haven't been eating at airports since, despite it obviously being a bug and not food poisoning, as originally assumed). But then again, if he weren't reacting the way he did, I probably wouldn't have been stressing as much, either.

Jake's first round was pretty harmless. I don't even remember him being feverish though maybe he was a bit. It's the second one that started the fun. So the 5-in-1 (DTPPHib) and Pneumococcal conjugate. Vaccinations were the only things that made Jake sick until he was off the boob.

Hopefully Alan does what most kids do has no reactions to speak of and all you'll have to worry about next is teething :)