Shots are no fun for anyone!!

But they are a necessary evil!!  I already posted this picture on Facebook, but thought I should probably get it up on the blog too so that one day our kiddos would see it. Here's what our house looked like the day after this last round of shots. (Synagis & HIB). 

It's just plain awful

So sad

Shots are no fun! They are heartbreaking in the moment and, at least so far, have left us with crankier than normal babies for a couple days afterwards. The first 24 hours after shots hasn't been too bad for us because they're on Tylenol, which tends to make them sleepier, but once they're off the Tylenol they tend to be pretty fragile. They'll be fine one minute and so sad or mad the next.

 Our friend Carrie joined me for the doctor visit on Thursday so that Michelle could get some school work done. I warned her on the drive there that their cries would be heartbreaking and they were.  I was going to try nursing them while they have the shots this time to help with pain relief, but they said that instead we could have two nurses come in and deliver the two shots simultaneously & that seemed like a good plan so we did that instead.  Immediately after their shots I nursed them to help them calm them down.  Avery was screaming so much that she couldn't even latch right away, poor thing. Carrie was surprised at how quickly they calmed with just a minute or so of nursing.  

My doctor visit helper

While we were at the office for shots I asked the doctor to take a peek at Avery's back to confirm my suspicion that the red area on her low back was indeed a hemangioma as I suspected.  It is and is no big deal. Here's a picture of it. 

Avery's hemangioma

We first noticed it when she was about three weeks old. Then it was just a small red spot and it lined up so well with the diaper covers that I thought maybe it was a blood blister from the skin getting pinched during changing. But it never went away and instead got a little bigger. It is now raised and when I checked in with "Dr. Google," it seemed to fit the description of a hemangioma. Here's a wiki link if you want to read more about it http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemangioma.  It will likely continue to grow over the next few months and then start to shrink on it's own, likely disappearing over the course of the first couple of years. 

I also asked the doctor about the dosage for Zantac for Isaiah because he's been fussier over the past week or two and often seems uncomfortable after eating (though not every time).  She did say we could up his dose to .6ml from .4 now that he weighs more to see if that helps.  

We can't wait til he (& the girls) outgrow this reflux business!  Sometimes spitting up doesn't seem to bother them (see this video of Ellie for example: http://youtu.be/NEztIrEsZRk), but other times they seem to be on pain or just be so sad about it. The worst though, is when it happens when they're sleeping or just falling asleep and it wakes then up!  Grrrr....  I'm actually nursing Isaiah right now because he spit up and woke himself up!  Like I said, we're ready for them to outgrow this!