Vaccines

E had four vaccines yesterday at her 1-year doctor's appointment, and she's been pretty much down for the count since then.  My normally precocious, getting-into-everything child just clings to me, has a fever, and is completely out of it.  I feel so bad for her.  She cries when I put her down, and she had a really poor night sleeping.

This actually brings up a subject that I never put much thought into, but now that I've experienced it twice, I want to know:  why are vaccines bunched up like they are?  I realize that doctors' offices usually have schedules of when children need certain shots in order to keep them as healthy as possible at all times.  HOWEVER, why does my child need four shots at once when I know she'll only get one next time?  Why not spread it out?  With L, she was out of it for about a day as well after these shots.  Is it really worth having a child feeling pitiful because they had too many shots?  The nurse even said that E's arms were too skinny for shots so she was going to do the thighs, and that she "might not feel like walking around afterwards."  Well, to avoid putting a needle into her arm bone, I said do her legs (bone + needle = can't be pleasant).  I just didn't expect E to not want to move at all!  I suppose if I had one more child, I'd probably ask for a more spread-out vaccine schedule so that this wouldn't happen again.  Still, it's so hard to watch your own child suffering because you did what you thought best for them.  Argh.

"MAAAAAMAAAA!  HOOOOOOLD MEEEEEEEE!"

L is actually trying to imitate E so that she can get some of the attention that I'm giving E.  It's frustrating, as I'm not getting anything done for L's party this weekend, and I wish she'd stop.

In other news, I'm done with my swim lessons!  I started out thinking they would be just another thing to do, but they ended up being quite fun and something I looked forward to.  It's also convinced me to sign up for the swimming course the community college offers (I get a free class every semester since I teach there) just to get me in the pool more often.  My inner thighs are killing me right now from learning the proper kicking for breaststroke.  I wonder if frogs have this same pain whenever they hop/swim?  It's the same motion, lol.  I've also learned that I tend to belly flop whenever I try to dive.  Guess I'll have to work on that one.

Time to attempt some cleaning again...