We went and got the H1N1 flu shots today. I would have taken a picture of my kids....but I was having to use all my energy and force to hold them down as the shot was administered. Megan promised me that she would go first and that she would remember what it was like last year....a lot of crying and then when she actually got the shot...she said..."oh, that didn't even hurt". Go figure!I went first...I was preparing myself...taking a big breath in....but by the time I did that and was trying to keep an eye on the kids...it was over with...I didn't even notice that the nurse had jabbed me. Awesome!
Megan was next...but Evan was fussing so much about wanting to sit on my lap, that I grabbed him and had to do the immunization hold on him then another nurse who wasn't busy came over to try to help...he was screaming bloody murder, but the nurse went as quick as she could and then he cried a few more tears, but turned his attention to his new Bumble Bee transformer that I had purchased just for the occasion. Wink, Wink, nudge, nudge....a parents best defense....the BRIBE!
His Bumble Bee isn't even this cool....it is a level one transformer, very simple.Well listening to Evan didn't help Megan in the bravery department....tears were there and the begging of no....she even said to the nurse, "can this be the shot that doesn't hurt"?...I might have been able to run with that line of thinking...but the nurse answered too quickly, so Megan knew that it was going to hurt...forget everything that she had learned last year...I held her too, and she ended up doing just fine....less tears and persuading this time round. She was bribed with a new...Rainbow Magic book. In the end she said that this time it hurt worse than last time...she described what it felt like...like you using the alcohol hand cleaner, on your hand that has a cut...she was going for the stinging effect, it think.
We sat and waited our 15 minutes with no problems. Megan was happy to read, the baby had finally fallen asleep in his stroller and Evan was frustrated and still crying...but not because of the shot....rather the challenge of transforming his new transformer toy, he just couldn't get it figured out quite right! Sigh!
Oh, there were no line-ups where we went we just walked right in...fill in our forms and continued on....total time 35 minutes! Nice.
We will be monitoring ourselves for the next few days...and getting over our sore arms....but we are going to be enjoying the rest of the flu season, as long as we don't get hit by another type of illness or flu...
