The Family That Cries Together...

So we took Jackson to his 6 week checkup this morning at 8:30 in Mt. Juliet. We were dreading it, because he was due to get 5 vaccinations and the doctor had already warned us he would be really grumpy about it.

So we get there and Jackson is having a great morning. He's happy and smiling and making lots of cooing noises. He measured 23 1/4 inches and 11lbs 12oz, so he's still growing like a monster. Marissa hates needles and shots, so she went up front to go ahead and pay the bill when the nurse came in with the tray of needles.

Now I don't have a problem with shots or needles. I always watch when someone is giving me a shot or drawing blood, mainly to make sure they aren't screwing it up.

The nurse asked me to hold his arms while she was getting ready. I was holding his hands with one of mine and rubbing his belly with my other hand. He was looking right at me and had this big beautiful smile on his face. That's when the nurse stuck the first needle in his leg.

At first he had this really shocked look on his face, then he gave a really big frown and started wailing. He gave me such a sad look that I started getting choked up myself and I was having to fight back tears. The nurse finished up very quickly and Marissa came back in the room pretty quickly afterwards since she had heard him screaming out at the front desk through several doors. Then she started crying too, so for a few minutes we were all three in bad shape.

We brought him back home and I left for work. Marissa called about 2:30 though and Jackson had been awake and screaming for about 2 1/2 hours. I left work early to give her a break so she could go pick up Victoria from school. I held him for about 30 minutes on the couch and he wouldn't stop screaming. I finally decided he could scream just as easy in the baby swing for a few minutes while I got something to drink, so I put him in it and turned it on. He stopped crying and stayed quiet in it for almost an hour.

He's been much better since late this afternoon and he's sleeping right now. Hopefully he'll be back to our healthy, happy baby by tomorrow or so.