Teething Tales

I clearly remember sitting at my computer in our house in Louisiana when I first researched "belladonna." My sweet friend, Joy-whom you all know I love and adore-shared with me that she was giving her daughter, Addie, some homeopathic teething tablets that some other mothers recommended to her. She had a little concern about one of the ingredients, belladonna, but she was very happy that whatever was in the medicine kept Addie from screaming in pain and allowed the whole family to sleep.

When I shared this information with Danny, he was immediately concerned and had me look up the ingredient on the internet. Sure enough, the same belladonna Joy was giving Addie was also known as "Devil's Weed." No sooner than we read those words, we were back on the phone with Joy telling her that she was drugging her daughter and that we were about to come rescue the sweet child from her drug-dealing mother. Thus began an ongoing joke about Joy, Addie, and the belladonna.

Please note that when this joke began, Danny and I were not parents.

Fast forward to Saturday night. Danny and I took Tyler to the Barnes & Noble for a little book browsing. At some point, I somehow made Tyler laugh and he continued to cackle every time I looked at him for the remainder of our shopping trip. So much for quiet in the bookstore. I was laughing, too, and I even had to wipe tears from my eyes a couple of times. He was just hysterical over me looking at him and tickling his belly. He was as happy as a clam.

We came home and proceeded with our normal bedtime routine. All was well.

Until 1:30 a.m.

It was then that we awoke to a hell-freezing scream from Tyler's room. I was certain that he'd gotten himself pinned in a corner and was bumping his head on the rails of the crib. If not that, then he was upset because his pacifier had gone MIA, although he has never screamed like that over a lost paci. Regardless, it was alarming enough that Danny and I both ran to his room.

Sweet Tyler was sitting up in his crib and was crying uncontrollably. I changed his diaper, let him crawl around a little bit (well, the pre-crawl kind of crawling), and rocked him as much as he would allow. Finally, I got him back down and returned to slumber myself.

5:30 a.m. brought another cry; one that was easily dealt with by reinserting the paci and rubbing the belly.

At 6:45 a.m., 15 minutes before my alarm was set to go off, Tyler was at it again. By this time I knew there was something wrong with my child. He has slept a solid 12 hours a night for months now with very few interruptions. He's just not a fitful sleeper unless he's sick, which wasn't the case this time.

Mommy diagnosis: teething.

I determined that there was no fever and no apparent reason for any of his restlessness, so I decided that it just had to be teething pain. While I couldn't see any white spots beneath his gums, I knew that most of the pain kids feel is from the teeth shifting and coming up from the bone rather than the actual erupting through the gums. In an effort to relieve his discomfort, I gave him some Tylenol and hoped for the best.

Lest you think this was the start and finish of the teething fussiness, I will assure you that this was the case all day long. Poor Tyler was exhausted. His eyes were red, he was yawning frequently, and he was pulling on his ears, which always indicates nap time. It took me three hours to get him down for a nap this afternoon. None of this was normal behavior, but all of it was wearing on my nerves.

Wanna know what finally did the trick?

Belladonna-infused teething tablets.

I no longer have any concern about the "Devil's Weed" because it absolutely settled Ty enough that he could rest. That, combined with an answered prayer from God, and Tyler slept for 3 1/2 hours. We didn't even have bath time tonight. We just changed his diaper, put on p.j.s, and fed him a bottle. After that, he was out again. We are praying that he stays that way all night.

If not, I have plenty more belladonna where that came from!