Most of Alexis' early months are a blur buried deep in the back corner of my mind, but her 9th week of life stands out.
It's not for good reasons.
Over eight years ago, a tiny Alexis and I ventured to her doctor's office for her two-month checkup. That's the first of the fun appointments, for those of you who have lost track. It's the first one where multiple shots are a thing. It's multiple shots and a few of the vaccinations have side effects. I think discomfort, irritability, and fever are on the official list, but the unofficial list says it better.
Caution: These vaccines may cause your baby to HATE EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING AND RAWWWWR.
Alexis took the unofficial list very seriously. She was Cranky McCrankerpants instantly. Worse, though, within a few hours of getting the shots, she had a fever. It was just a little one, but still. Baby's first fever is not something you have embroidered on a pillow.
A few hours after the few hours, the fever was a tiny bit worse, despite the fact that Tiny Alexis had been given Baby's First Drugs. The fever was cutting through the Tylenol and gaining momentum.
That led to Mommy's First Call to the Doctor. It was a Friday and I remember it clearly. Her temperature was hovering right around 100 degrees, and I was told to suck it up. Tylenol! Calm! It's not a big deal!
I went with it.
But then Saturday rolled around and things weren't better. As the day went on, things progressively got just a tiny bit worse. Right around the time the pediatrician's office closed, the poor kid looked absolutely miserable. Once we had officially entered that magical time of day when your pediatrician will take your call, but from the golf course, things had escalated out of control.
Alexis' temperature was over 102, so off to the emergency room we went.
I don't have words for how that night played out. The poor kid was dehydrated, feverish, and pissed. PISSED. She became even more pissed when she had to get an IV. She was right around 13 pounds at the time, but it took four adults to pin her down so they could get that IV into her tiny little arm.
If I stop and think about it, I can still hear her screams.
Four days later, Alexis was released from the hospital. She never had an official diagnosis, but it was pretty obvious that the vaccinations were the start of the something bad.
So you can imagine how very excited I was to take Mila for her two-month vaccinations. I wanted a cookie and a Certificate of Excellence for even showing up. I feel like I earned the right to Jenny McCarthy this round of vaccinations, crazy irrational ranting and all.
But then it was done.
And HOOBOY was Mila pissed. She spent the entire day giving me a piece of her mind.
But she didn't get a fever.
At all.
The next day, it was like nothing had ever happened.
Exhale.
