Immunisation - The First Rite of Passage

Just put my daughter to bed after a long day. She is now the not so proud owner of two immunisation jabs, apparently proof against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), polio and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), and the worst thing she has ever been through.

My wife decided to breastfeed while she got the jabs, it worked for the first one, she took it with just a whimper, but nothing was going to distract her from the second one, so Mum was in the bad books all day.

When I got home from work I've never had a daughter as glad to see me. She hadn't slept since the immunisation jabs, but about 5 minutes after I held her she was fast asleep, opening an eye occasionally to make sure Mum wasn't getting too close.

Of course, hunger won out in the end and the ban on Mum came to a finish. She's still getting suspicious looks though, and it's going to take a while to rebuild that trust.

It's a shame these things hurt so much, we thought alot about it before booking her in as there's so much in the media about links with autism and other problems. She certainly came down with a fever and spent an unhappy afternoon, but it's nothing compared to what could happen if she wasn't protected. We keep telling our daughter, "Welcome to the real world" (we didn't have the nerve to try, "This hurts us more than it hurts me", though to be honest, I think it did).

Here's hoping she'll be right again in the morning. I've got a game of paper, rock, sicissors to win against my wife to see who will take her in for the next round, a second rite of passage - it could be the most important game of my life!