3 Months Old!

Immunizations round two. Definitely more stressful than the first set.

The waiting room seemed packed with babies and strollers today but it also had a nice sprinkling of the disease ridden just to make things fun. Surely a doctor's office of all places should see the value in "sick" and "healthy" waiting rooms. I've been to that same practice more than a dozen times in the past year and not once have I actually been sick, however I have found myself hovering as far to the edges as possible and visibly wincing every time someone hacks in my direction. Additionally, it was hot. Not Florida hot but definitely Scotland hot. Jessie made her displeasure know almost immediately. Normally she's very content to sit in her car seat and make happy faces at us until it's time to go in and see the doctor, but today she started crying. Actual tears crying! Picking her up and walking around made her much happier but I can't imagine it made her any cooler.

Eventually we're called in. (I say eventually like it took forever. It didn't. I readily admit that it could have been a much longer wait. But in a hot waiting room with an unhappy baby even 15 minutes can seem like a lifetime.) Ethel, Iris [the Health Visitors] and a young blonde woman I don't know are waiting and getting things ready. I look over at the baby scales and Iris asks if I'd like to weigh her before we get started. I do. Jessica now weighs... (hold on yeah like you're going to notice the lapse in time here I need to go weigh the clothes she had on today and see what she actually weighs)12lbs 15oz. [5.88kg]. Iris briefly runs through the same spiel as last time "I know it's unpleasant but there's no reason for her not to get the vaccinations" however, this time it sounded a lot more like a question so I fill in the silence with "She's getting over a stuffy nose." They look at me kinda funny and say, "yeah that's not a problem." Mark is hovering by the door with the stroller I can tell he's not looking forward to this any more than I am. They'd asked who was going to hold her and I could tell he would have stepped up if I needed him to but I decided it would be quicker to nurse her afterwards if I was holding her. Jags simultaneously in both thighs, howling baby, tears. I feed her. It takes a minute or so to calm her down and get her to nurse, at which point Iris says something along the lines of "you can go and get a good feed with Mummy now" obviously trying to get us out the door. I don't move. (My baby is still crying and I know in a minute she'll be calm again.) Then I get a polite nudge of "we'd love to let you stay and feed her but.." I'm going I'm going. Shessh. She thinks she's won because I get up to go - but she hasn't. Not really. Jessica has stopped bawling so I'm happy to move her. Yes I'm being a bit cantankerous, but my baby is upset and there's nothing else I could do, so I'm going to do what I can. I hand her to Daddy while I ask some questions and via the power of Daddy-magic manages to calm her completely.

We leave and Jessie seems happy enough. She falls asleep in her car seat while we stop by the post office to mail off her American citizenship documentation, grab some baby essentials from Boots and pick up a quick lunch at Subway. One of the staff in Subway tells us how tiny she is. We kind of look at each other confused since the medical staff just gushed at how big and long she is. Mark concluded that people who don't see babies all day everyday must forget how small they really are, so must think they're super tiny when they see them. I tend to agree.

Home again and Mark heads off to work to earn the bacon. Jessica is not impressed. She goes from grumpy to angry to inconsolable. I try to give her some Calpol but she refuses and most of it winds up down the bib. (Yes. I was smart enough to realize that this endeavour would probably require a bib.) I finally get her to fall asleep for about 40 minutes.

This is her sleeping it off:


The rest of the day has continued pretty much the same. Content - grumpy - angry - WAHHHHHH! We got a brief play in the garden during one of the short content periods. Leeloo wanted to come out with us but the neighbour's cat wouldn't leave and she was too scared to force the issue. Jessica is taking another nap at the moment, hopefully she'll feel better when she wakes up. Although I hear the day after is sometimes just as bad if not worse than the first....