Adventures in Shots

For our dossier, our doctor has to fill out papers on each of our children saying that they are fully vaccinated and healthy.  Vaccinations have always made me nervous.  We vaccinate our kids, but I do it really slowly, like one or two at a time.  They just make me nervous.  Because of this, and the fact that I'm busy with five kids, these two little squirts are 5 or 6 shots behind schedule.

So, I had to take them to the County Health Department to get caught up.

Problem #1: Bad time to go get shots at the Health Department!  School starts in 2 weeks. The waiting room was full when we walked in.  There were no toys and it was past Eli's nap time!  The wait itself was torturous.  He cried and fussed the whole time. 

Problem #2: We got *that* nurse. The one who is going through menopause, permanently ticked off at everyone, has no patience and scares the kids half to death.  When she saw how "behind" we were on our vaccinations, she asked me why and gave me a lecture. 

Problem #3:  I said the WRONG WORDS to Bennett.  He had asked me several times on the way, what "type" of shots he was going to get.  I told him they were the type he had last time, that didn't hurt.  He was great with that.  Little did I know that for some reason in his 4 year old head, "kindergarten shots" were terrible and painful.  When the nurse wrote down all the shots he needed, I told Bennett that this was good because we were getting his kindergarten shots right now and he wouldn't have to have them in a year, when he would normally have them.  Suddenly panic entered his little mind and he was NOT about to allow anyone to give him any shots!  He started crying and repeating over and over "No shots, no shots!  I'm not getting any shots.  Come on, Mom, let's go now."  I tried bribes, explanations, anything I could think of, and he was NOT going to allow this. 

Problem #4:  Did I mention that it was past Eli's nap time?  He was upset before Bennett freaked out.  Now he was really upset. 

By this time, the mean nurse had already prepared all the syringes.  There was no backing out.  They would have to charge us for all these shots and our insurance would not pay for them again.

So after a good 15 minutes of me trying to say some magic words that would make Bennett go for this, the nurse finally commanded me to sit there and hold Eli.  Poor baby.  Poke after poke happened (five to be exact) as his brother freaked out.  I felt like I was killing my kids.  Luckily, I held it together emotionally because that's all those ladies needed was the mom crying, too! 

As I comforted Eli, I thought about all the people in the waiting room who were already ticked at how behind schedule they were.  No doubt they were hearing our episode happen on the other side of the door.  Sorry people.

We ended up forcing Bennett to sit on the other nurses lap (the nice one) while I held the crying baby.  Here's the funny part: As soon as the mean nurse stuck the first shot in his arm, he calmed right down. 

Oh.  That didn't hurt.  I guess Mom was right.  O.K.  I'll just sit here.

As easy as that.  We're done.

During the time I was trying to talk him into the shots, I had bribed him about going to Target afterword and letting him chose a toy.  Didn't do a thing to get him on board.  But you'd better believe he remembered that when we were done.  We were on our way to Target as soon as we got home and put Eli down for his nap.  Luckily Sadie was there to babysit.

I guess the good thing is that we are now caught up with vaccinations, thanks to Anna!

Next adventure:  Bennett gets to have his tonsils out next week.  Heaven help me.