Thursday, March 8, 2012

DPT Vaccinations

     Two days ago Ryker got the DPT vaccine. I've never been one to worry about vaccines, really. Even though I am aware of their correlation with autism and some adverse side effects, I truly do believe that they do more good than harm. For every 1 child affected negatively by vaccinations, there would potentially be over 100 cases of polio and diphtheria, and many more with whooping cough if vaccines didn't exist. So I can weigh out my child's risks, and assume it is safer to go with the vaccines.
    However, as the day progressed I became more and more concerned about Ryker's behavior following these shots. Ever since he hit his 3rd month he has been a very happy baby, sleeping full nights and crying only when hungry or poopy. These past two days he has spent the majority of it screaming on the top of his lungs. I've never heard this before. It's not a cry, it's literally a scream. I first attributed it to "normal reaction" and gave him a little bit of infant Tylenol and expected it to ease his apparent discomfort. However, he progressively got worse. His body is so rigid and he arches his back and stretches all the while he's screaming. When I talk to him and try to console him he looks like he wants to smile and tries to but can't. He will only sleep for (very) short periods at a time- we're talking under 10 min. Then another unnerving thing, he was crying so hard and I was just rocking him trying to console him and his cry faded off. When I looked at him, he was sleeping but his eyes were open. It made me so uneasy, I actually closed his eye lids and then he jolted right up and started screaming all over again.l Although I am not a worrier per say, I have been just sick over my fear that he might be having some strange reaction to the shots. I must add though, physically he has no symptoms. No rashes, fever, or site inflammation. I don't want to bring him in, have them look at him and say "oh he's fine" and without any physical symptoms that's what will happen.
         I'm sure my motherly fears are getting in the way of logic and he's perfectly fine. But none the less, I can't help but worry. I don't want to even research the side effects of vaccines, because honestly I don't want to be scared out of getting these very important vaccinations. Plus, I don't want to drive myself into a tizzy, and convince myself that something is seriously wrong when I have nothing but a healthy growing baby on my hands. After all the absurdity of my pregnancy, I know all too well how you can get too immersed into the what if's when everything ends up fine.
      Anyway, Ryker is sleeping now finally (hasn't had a nap all day) so I'll just be checking him to make sure he's okay every 15 min like a crazy person.

Spring(ing) around with my son's

     So, Ryker had his 4 month check-up the other day. He weighs a whopping 18lbs5oz and stands a tall 27". (almost put the "feet" symbol there. whew! If he stood a tall twenty-seven feet, that'd be a bit unusual)  He is in the 90% for both weight and height, and his "little" feet are bigger than most year old babies. I can safely say the word "petite" will never be used to describe him.
 
   He is an excessively happy baby, very observant. My doctor was shocked at how advanced he is, but considering he looks like a 10 month old, it doesn't seem so strange. He is already so strong, I cringe at the thought of trying to change his diapers when he's around 2. It'll be like struggling with a 5 year old kicking and screaming. But. . .lets not cross that bridge just yet.
  
  At the moment he is babbling away with words that sound like "yayayaya" and "dadadada".  Every time  I look at him he gives me the biggest smiles. He has started sucking on his 3 fingers (pointer, middle, ring) and that's his "thing" He has never taken to a pacifier- actually he can't stand them. When I attempt to force on him, he looks at me like "Eww. Are you crazy?"



Here he is just sucking away on those fingers




Now he rolled over onto his belly so he can get his moves on. It never ceases to delight him. Shortly after this pic was taken, he ended up in the corner by my purse halfway under the couch. He scoots himself and can go about 2 feet in any direction, but most of the time he just spins himself around in circles and doesn't get much distance.



Just finished eating  strawberry, apple, banana baby food medley. The proof is on his snuggie.  He started solids about a month ago, and now he just can't get enough. Prior to solids, I was up every two hours ALL night long feeding him. I was actually in danger of losing my mind due to his insatiable appetite. Since we introduced solids,  he sleeps a full 10 hours nightly and is happy as a clam.                  (As am I!)


Tucker and Ryker had a fun bath together the other day. Tucker is such a loving and helpful big brother, I feel so lucky to have him around. Too bad this picture has such poor quality- darn cell phone. I have two camera's here, however I snap most shots with my phone. I need to snap out of doing that because of this very reason.



It seems like most shots of Ryker and myself are this exact pose. But considering I have to snap them all myself, it's about the best I can do. Sometimes I'll coax Tucker to take some pics, but he has very little patience for that nonsense.  Not the most flattering, but his cuteness more than makes up for that;) As you can see his huge noggin is almost as big as Mamma's.  

This picture is about 2 1/2 months old, so Ryker was just a wee little lad in those days. I had to add it, though, because I really do love it. Philip is a great uncle, and it was so nice to have him stay with us for a few weeks back in Dec/Jan. To boot, Phil and I actually survived for a total of 10 hours in the car together without any bloodshed or arguments! Well, for the most part. . .There was the part where he was driving without hands on the interstate going 80mph, and I asked (begged!) that he please use his hands because my whole life was in the backseat. He then insisted on doing it, ofcourse ( to defy me) and claimed that he had driven with his knees for "over 600 miles" once and "didn't even notice" I'm sure that all is true, but once you're a parent and you have your kids in the backseat, driving with your hands doesn't seem like a bad idea.
Oh, kids these day.