Placebo Effect

As you may know by now, Lori's been having some congestion. It had gotten bad enough that when we told the doctor about it, she prescribed a decongestant medication to be given no more than .4ml every four hours as needed. Since last Saturday, we've had to give it to her on average of about once a day. Usually after bedtime, when she wakes up in the middle of the night cause I hear her starting to strangle. When, tonight, after getting home from derby, she's awake and fussing. Josh mentioned on the phone that she was asleep, so when I asked why she was awake and fussy, he said the TV might have been too loud. It happens. Loud noises and all. She's normally very good about sleeping through the TV, but oh well. She's a baby. No one can predict when she's going to say that tonight is the night that a pin dropping is going to wake her up and piss her off.

So, I'm getting her down, a bit of water, a dry diaper, fresh blankets, Binky, Bunny, Singing Turtle (Thanks Doris! She loves it!), you know: The Nightly Ritual. Night Papa. Night Momma. Night Light. Night Lori. Well, she's having trouble breathing, again, and she's kicking her feet in that "I'm not comfy, please console me now" motion I've come to know all too well. Hearing her struggling to breath through her nose (cuz she's sucking on Binky), I figure a dose of decongestant will help, as usual, to clear her nose so she can breath. It's hard to sleep when you can't breath. So, I get the dropper, measure out her meds, and move to her. I uncover Singing Turtle's light enough to see her mouth and the moment she spots the dropper she stops fussing and opens her mouth like a little birdie. Ooooookay. That's new. I put it in her mouth. Normally, she grabs at it like a bottle. Tonight, she very patiently drank it. The moment I gave her Binky back, she closed her eyes, rolled over onto Bunny and promptly fell asleep.

The paranoid voice that constantly tells me what a terrible Mother I am immediately started screaming. "OMG," it said, "Congratulations! You've just made your child a drug addict! Now she's going to start shooting up on heroine." And then the logical side of me went, "Chill out! She's 3months old. But this could be a problem. Is she fakig it to get the sweet yummy meds, or is it that she really is having trouble breathing?" So, I've made myself a mental note (after clearing it with Papa, of course!).

Tomorrow night, if she seems to be doing the Console Me NightTime Dance of Fussiness, I'll get the .4ml in her dropper... of plain ol' water, and then just dip the dropper into her meds so it TASTES like the meds. If she curls up with that and goes to sleep, she's just faking it. If she doesn't, then she really does need the meds and I'll try it again another night.

Josh commented that it sounded like something I might have done as I child cause I've told him that I love the taste of Grape Dimatapp and the pink Penicillin Bubblegum stuff. I'm weird. Lori will not be a drugg addict. OMG, shut up Psycho-Crazy Mom Voice! You just keep trying to tel lme I'm a Bad Mother! Go for it! I'm tough! I can take it! ANd I'll prove you wrong in the end.

Jackass Voice...