Month 1 Day 11 – VD

It was Hannah’s Vaccination Day today, but I was able to apply leave from work several weeks ago so that the both of us could bring Hannah to see her Pediatrician for the inoculations.

I’m not sure what Hannah was in for, but the both of us are pretty kiasu when it comes to anything that has direct impact on her health. So, a month ago when we were advised on the types of inoculations suitable for babies, we went with just about everything LOL. There’s a 6-in-1 package, vaccination against Rotavirus, and a whole bunch of other things I can’t even begin to understand.

Pediatrics sure is a thriving medical discipline in Singapore, because every time we’re at the clinic, there’s a whole bunch of parents waiting – and waiting times can be as long as 3-4 hours. We’d already been scheduled for a late morning appointment though, so the wait was (just) 45 minutes.

There were a lot more mummies than there were daddies. But here’s the interesting observation: in every instance, it was the mummy carrying the baby and the daddy carrying the luggage. I’m not sure if it was some subconscious desire to buck the trend, or just that Hannah was starting to bawl a little. Either way, I asked Ling to pass me the baby and I started to do my lullaby singing to her again LOL.

The singing worked like a charm, and Hannah went back into comatose mode again. Though not for long because our turn came soon enough. Our PD got Ling to bottle feed Hannah i.e. distract her while she administered the jabs. Hannah did grumble a little, but thankfully not for long.

—

Unfortunately, the morning vaccinations were just Part 1. The PD warned us that that 20% of babies would develop temporary fever as a result of the vaccinations but it shouldn’t be cause for concern. But we were the parents of one such unlucky instance LOL. The rest of the day was eventful with Hannah grumbling / whining / bawling before, during and between feeds.

And then from the late evening onwards, fever was in full-blown with temperatures of 38 degrees. Ling was getting pretty worried as she’d read somewhere that babies younger than 2 months could get brain damage if that temperature held for long.

Me, I was more willing to wait it out a little longer to see if Hannah stabilizes, but I underestimated Mother Paranoia. So, we went into early reaction mode with late evening calls back to the PD for advice, damp towels on Hannah’s forehead etc.

In any case, it’s 10:30 pm now, and we’re keeping a close eye on her. Hannah’s body does feel rather warm, but her temperature seems to fluctuate between 37.2 to 38.0.

Whichever the case is, I said to Ling wryly that we’d better prepare for a sleepless night tonight. Could had been worse though: this could had been a weekday night LOL.

Oh yeah – photo evidence of daddy singing to Hannah at the clinic.:)