Naughty MMR Injection

It has been absolutely ages since I have had a chance to write and even now I am trying to write this quickly before my little one wakes up but there is something I have been wanting to get off my chest for a while and cannot rest until I have done so.

You see, I took my one year old boy for his MMR injection a month ago.  I wasn't expecting him to have any particular bad reaction to it.  My daughter had had her injections and had got through them with maybe a slight temperature but not much more.  However, a week after the injection my son had a sleepless night where his temperature was over 100.  The following morning we did the usual school run and on returning home and placing my little one on the floor I realised that he couldn't stand up properly, I must point out here that he had been walking for about a month and was quite steady on his feet already.  He kept falling over and was crying uncontrollably as if he was in discomfort and very frustrated that every time he got back up he fell over again.  As you can imagine, I went completely OTT and in a panic rang NHS direct.  By the time  I got to speak to a nurse he had calmed down and seemed to be able to walk again. 

Anyhow, this continued for about three days.  Whenever my son had been resting and then got up to walk he seemed to struggle and fall over and cry uncontrollably for at least ten minutes and then whatever it was that was bothering him seemed to pass.  I was very concerned.   It then occurred to me that my son had had his MMR injection in his leg and wondered if this could be connected.  I looked up "MMR and baby unable to walk" on the internet.  To my surprise I came across a blog where their child had suffered a high temperature and then been unable to walk after having the MMR jab and underneath that blog about fifty responses from parents whose children had suffered the same thing, some of whom were older children who could tell their parents that their leg was hurting.  Needless to say, I was disgusted.  If cramps in the leg were a side effect of the MMR injection then why wasn't this side effect detailed on the paperwork that comes with the injection?

I wanted to raise this in a blog myself to see if any other babies/childen have suffered this reaction after their MMR injection.  I also wanted to put other parents minds at rest if it happens to their child as the blog I came across certainly helped me.  You will be pleased to know that the reaction lasted about a week and my little boy seems to be fine now but if I had known this could be a side effect of the jab at the time then I could have been saved the stress and worry I went through with my son.

How many nicknames can one baby have!!!!

I apologise in advance but you might find this post a little gushy!  You see, my little boy turns one in just four weeks' time and has taken nine steps on his own in the last couple of days.  I cannot believe that a year has gone by already and I can officially say that I am in mourning for the loss of my gorgeous, smiley, chunky baby boy who is on the verge of becoming a toddler.  Believe you me I have prior experience of toddlers, my daughter was a very good example of one, and boy was I glad when she started school!

So, in recognition of my little Finlay Firework (nickname number one.  His very first nickname bestowed upon him when he literally shot out like a rocket (sorry for that image you now have in your heads!) on, you guessed it, guy fawks night 2010), I am going to use this post to share the plethora of nicknames that FF has already been given in his short time on this planet but also the reasons behind those nicknames and how they have made me the proud mummy that I am today.

Smiley Miley (nickname number two.  Awarded to him because of the permanent smile he has had plastered across his face since six weeks old).  Honestly, the boy likes to smile - when you walk in his bedroom first thing in the morning you are greeted with a huge grin from ear to ear, when you tell him off he gives you such a cheeky grin that he makes you feel bad for telling him off (he is so going to use that one on me as he gets older!) and strangers pay him the slightest bit of attention and he rewards them with the biggest grin that even stretches past his dummy.  His smile is infectious and all that are lucky enough to receive one (and that is pretty much everyone) will  be touched for the rest of the day.

Fatboy Finn (nickname number three because, well, lets face it, he is chunkier than a yorkie bar).  He has rolls of chub on top of rolls of chub.  You can't see where his knees begin and his ankles end.  His hands are like star fish and his feet are so big that I have only just been able to find shoes that I can get his feet into.   What makes his chubbiness even cuter, though, is that he is a growler.  On a recent settle in session at the nursery, I witnessed him fee fi fo thumbing his way around the nursery on his rather large feet, when one of the other baby boys started up a little conversation with him, as babies do, with cute little goos and gaas and FF took one look at him, opened his mouth, and let out an almighty  "growwwwl".  The poor little boy handed FF the toy he had in his hand and scuttled off quick as you like, the funny thing is that when I glanced over at FF he had the biggest smile on his face!

Fatboy Finn isn't the only famous musician in our family though, his cousin, George, who is the complete opposite to FF, being very tiny, has been given the nickname G-Diddy!

So here's hoping that my Finlay Firework, Smiley Miley, Fatboy Finn, Finlayboo (nickname number four - not really any reason for this one, just sounded cute) continues to make me smile and doesn't go on to get the nickname "terrible toddler"! 

Oh, and just because I don't want to leave my beautiful daughter out, of whom I am also hugely proud, here's to her one and only nickname in six years - Freya Jayne (which technically isn't really a nickname as it is just her first and second names!).  Freya Jayne she has only ever been, Freya Jane she is now and Freya Jayne she will always be.