Immunization Clinic... dun dun duuuh..

As I have been dreading for the past two weeks, today was finally the day we got a chance to take Cecelia to the Immunization Clinic for her 2 month shots. To say I was nervous is an understatement.

I hate needles. When the anesthesiologist asked me if my epidural was as painful as I thought it would be I responded, "No, it was worse." It was pretty rude but I was about 10 hours into labor so who could blame me for losing any sense of tact. Well, that and I am a Jersey girl; we tend not to censure our true feelings.

The only thing that comforted me was the thought that maybe Cece is like her Dad. Kyle has no aversion to getting shots and never has. In fact he loves giving blood and shared with me on the way to the hospital that he likes to watch the vile fill up. I told him that he is sadistic and insane but he countered me with a statistic. "You know every time you give blood you save at least 3 lives?" That shut me up.

Admittedly though, even Kyle was a little nervous about his baby girl's first shots. His Senior Chief told him today that his 4 year old knows what the immunization clinic looks like and runs in the opposite direction when she realizes where she is. The big concern for us both was that Cecelia is loud. I have honestly never heard a baby scream the way she can. I hear other babies cry and I wait for them to get louder, hit that pitch that skips over blood curdling and goes straight to ears ringing, but it never happens.

Well anyway, we take her in to the room and Kyle holds her hands as the nurse gives her the first medicine, which is liquid. She cries. I tell her this is not even the bad part and ask her politely to please calm done. She continues to cry. The medicine is swallowed and she calms down. Then the nurse starts the shots. I am standing 3 feet away, with one foot out on the outside of the partition as if poised to run. She says "First one" and I start looking for the nearest garbage can because I am so nauseous with nerves (my child is in PAIN!). Cecelia starts to cry. In a matter of seconds the nurse says "Second one, Third one. All done you can pick her up Dad." Kyle picks her up "Shh, your okay" he tells her. And then it happened.... she was okay. She stopped crying. End of anticlimactic story. She got her father's tolerance of pain for needles. Crisis averted.

Did someone say McDonald's? Drive thru, lunch time, Dad leaves to go back to work, Cece is still sleeping in her car seat 20 minutes later annnnnnd Scene.