SWAB YOUR EARS WITH MOUTHWASH!

I survived my first baby-to-mommy cold. I'm pretty sure we picked it up at the swimming pool. As much as I don't want to think about what is in the water that Branson so happily splashed into both our mouths, noses and eyes, I have to think that's where it came from. What would you expect to be in a pool filled with babies, toddlers and young kids? Go ahead, ponder that....

so that's how last week went. Branson got sick 2 Friday's ago, poor little guy. Stuffy nose, sore throat, didn't want to eat, couldn't sleep. Lucky for him, it only lasted 2 full days. Now only a runny nose lingers. While he was crying in my arms one early morning, I said, "I wish I could take the sickness away from you. I would rather have it myself." Well, someone above was listening at that very moment and granted me that very wish. The day we had company come in, I felt it coming on. Monday we went to the rib cook off, and I knew I had it when I could barely stand to walk around with out feeling like I was going to pass out. Then it hit full force. I couldn't swallow for the pain was soooo flipping intense. Runny stuffy nose, sinus headache and green mucus were to follow shortly after. I even went to urgent care. Why did I do that? I spent $50 for the dude to tell me since I'm "breastfeeding" (couldn't he say nursing?) I can't take anything. And that I should call my "OB" because she will know what to do. So I called my OB. Her lovely nurse (we don't like her much) informed me that they are only in charge of me while I'm pregnant. I should go see a Dr. Which at the time translated to, "leave us alone lady, you aren't pregnant any more. And even when you where you were a pain in the ass." (I had a difficult pregnancy, and the nurse wasn't very sympathetic.) Finally I got the OK from Branson's Pediatricain (what???) to take some cough syrup. So, I drank down the cough syrup and took as many Tylenol PM's as I could. Should have knocked my ass out right? WRONG. I was up until 3 am with a screaming ear ache in BOTH ears. I was in tears and desperate, so I did a little online research to find out if there were any home remedies to cure it. A popular one for both positive and negative feedback was to swab your ear with mouthwash. After reading all the people that said "yes! this works" and the ones that also said, "um, my Dr. told me I was an idiot for doing this and now my ear drum has permanent damage." I weight my options. I decided having permanent damage would be worth an hour or 2 of sleep. Not 2 minutes after swabbing my ears, I felt not only minty fresh, but enough relief to finally get some sleep. THANK YOU LORD! Who ever thought of rinsing your ears with mouth wash is my hero. I wouldn't do it on my kids, but for me it's safe enough.