Heredity

So every now and then, your child may do something that causes you to think, Hm, she must have gotten that particular talent/skill/habit/malady from me/her dad/grandpa, etc. Well, I discovered last night that Samantha has gotten my out of control coughing (at night) that I grew up with. To lay a little background, I used to cough so much at night, my mom (sorry for this, Mom) used to give me cough syrup followed by a shot of Everclear followed by a cracker chaser. I always joke that it wasn't till I was in college that I learned a cracker is not a proper chaser for a shot of alcohol. You should use, instead, either a swig of beer or juice or pop, something that goes down quickly, not a saltine that you have to chew up and try and swallow, all the while gagging on the 100 proof Everclear your mother has just given you whilst you bathed. Since I know there's no chance CPS can come and take me away, since I no longer live with my mother, I feel like it's okay to tell this story. It was a different time back then. We always laugh about how my mother smoked and drank while she was pregnant. Live and learn. So a shot of Everclear was not probably all that shocking.

Anyway, Samantha has had an AWFUL cold. It's possible it might even have been the flu, although I grew up believing there had to be vomit for it to be the "flu". But I kept her home from school on Friday because she was a little warm, and Monday was MLK Jr. Day (which, for you people in Montana who don't acknowledge it, is the day the rest of the nation celebrates Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday). So I'm thinking it's all good for school on Tuesday. She went to bed at 8:30 and by 9:30, I knew there might be a coughing issue. Finally, my husband went to sleep in the guest bedroom and I went up to sleep with Samantha. She had actually already had a shot of Nyquil, but I thought, Hey, my mom used to give me cough syrup AND Everclear, so I'm thinking another shot of Nyquil might not hurt. Samantha loves medicine, also, so she popped right up for the Nyquil. I had to run downstairs to finish up some laundry and when I got back, she had coughed herself into puking. If you know her history, I'm actually shocked that she hadn't thrown up WAY earlier. She's got a horrid gag reflex (also from me), and it was not uncommon for her to be nervous about something at daycare and to throw up about it. The lady who watched her, Kimberley, wouldn't even bother calling me to tell me she threw up. She'd just tell me when I picked her up at the end of the day.

Anyway, she finally quit coughing around 2:00 a.m., thus allowing me to sleep as well. This morning I thought to myself, there has to be some new methods for dealing with coughing somewhere. I know from personal experience that cough syrup is a scam. The best thing is to knock yourself OUT. But I thought I'd check out some alternatives. There was one website that suggested rubbing her chest and back with warmed coconut oil or try a necklace of garlic. No lie, a necklace of garlic. And it doesn't even give any solid reasoning, just that garlic is good for so many things, you might try this. I think I'll stick with the Nyquil, but if I end up trying the Everclear, I won't be writing about it till she's 18.

UPDATE: My mother read this entry and called me demanding that I change it to read that it was a SPOONFUL of Everclear, not a SHOT. So much better. I still love you, though, Mom... For those of you outside of Montana who have never heard of Everclear, it's 100 proof alcohol that tastes somewhat like I'd imagine fingernail polish remover might taste. Chase it with a cracker!