Confessions of a (Homeopathic) Drug Pusher

I've discovered this "stuff".  I'm hooked.  It's fantastic for the boy while he's teething.  It's like a drug and I don't ever want him to be off of it.  I must have a problem.  

We now have a baby that cries, very loudly, very angrily, and I'm not sure if he's the same child I started out with.  We started out with this sweet cherub baby that spent his days giggling and smiling 24/7.  When he was first born, he also slept straight through the night.   This was my son.  Now, as night falls each night, I'm really not sure where that baby went.  The child I now have is feverish, cranky, inconsolable, moody, and misunderstood.  And all my EC attempts are laughed at- by him.  I have gotten peed and pooped on more times during his teething days than I have in his whole six months of life.  

I've learned that growth spurts and illnesses are very trying times if you are a practicing EC (Elimination Communication) parent.  In fact, the lesson for today should just be: why bother trying?

This diaper free business is GREAT for my floors.  I have had so many missed pees that I spend a lot of time cleaning the floors, which really needed it anyway.  My dear friend who is also an EC (Elimination Communication) parent emailed me and told me that during a particularly "off" day, they are practicing EM: Elimination Miscommunication.  I laughed so hard, I almost peed my own pants.  I'm not really sure if you have to know what EC is all about to get the joke, but trust me, it's hysterical.  Get peed on a few too many times because you've missed his "signals" and hopefully you'll start laughing too.  There's a wonderful online store called "The EC Store" where you can buy great products for this practice.  I told my friend that we should start our own business and call it "The EM Store".  We would sell Brillo pads and cleaning products in bulk.  I type this now in my underwear because my pants just got peed on.  

In case you don't know me well, I'm kind of a super-natural, organic loving, anti-meds, save stray dogs, home-birthing, veggie eating hippie.  (Okay, so I probably lost half my readers right there.)  I don't really like using a lot of medicines, so when the boy started teething I began to wonder if he or I will make it through this phase alive.  Yes, I know, every single baby who made it to the age of two had to suffer through getting teeth.  But when my son is screaming at me with tears rolling down his face, I all of a sudden don't really care about anybody else's baby.  In fact, I'm sure that my son is feeling more pain than anyone else in the history of teething babies since the Dark Ages.

And I've tried it all.  The teething rings that you put in the freezer, cold washcloths, ice cubes, etc.  But unless I somehow jerry-rig a freezer to his gumline, those damn things just can't stay cold long enough.  And I've participated in more mind-numbing distracting games than I'd like to admit.  Last night, he woke up in an angry sweat and was determined to not go back to sleep without a fight so we took him outside.  He became fascinated by a wind chime.  So, in order to keep him satisfied I had to move the chimes so that they made noise.  Over and over and over and over...  I came in half deaf, but I had a quiet child.  

Oh yeah, I should write a Part Two to my "The (Un)Graceful Art of Breastfeeding" entry.  Teething while breastfeeding is a whole new arena.  That will have to come when I've developed a sense of humor about it.  Give me a year or two.  

Anyhow, when he wakes up every hour on the hour crying in pain there had to be a solution and I had to find it immediately.  I didn't want Tylenol or some yucky grape flavored sleep aid.  So, I researched.  I found.  I bought.  

I've been giving the boy this homeopathic stuff that works GREAT!!!!!  It calms him so that he can sleep, brings down the fever, reduces the pain, there's no side effects AND it doesn't taste bad so it's super easy to give it to him.  It is the miracle drug.  Really.  At first, I was really conservative in giving it to him.  Just the minimal amounts for safe measure.  You know, pure and natural.  That's me.

A few days later?  We've reached maximum dosage.  I have no shame.  I am a pusher of drugs.  My son may grow up an addict of Chamomilla, but I am getting uninterrupted sleep for four hours now.  Hell, I'm going to start taking this stuff too.  Maybe freebasing it.