Oh what a night

Never take Sudafed before you go to sleep.

Apparently, about half the world knows this and they're thinking Duh. And then there's me and the other half of the world that assumed taking something with antihistamine in it before bed would be a GREAT idea. Especially if it's the kinda something that the pediatrician says is safe to take while breastfeeding. Yeah, I'm not so sure I believe that anymore. And no, it wasn't the "non-drowsy" formula (I'm not that stupid). And yes, it was the special PE formula, which supposedly means it doesn't have those nasty drugs that are used to make meth. Or so I thought...

So I took some Sudafed PE around 9pm thinking it would help me sleep and clear up the gunk that's been draining into my throat for the past 2 weeks. But at 1am I woke up feeling like I was having a really bad trip, and I'm not talking about a trip to Paris. My chest was tight, my toes and fingers tense, and I wasn't quite sure if the guy lying next to me was my husband, boyfriend, or some dude I really liked and had climbed into bed with (can we say College flashback??). After about 20 minutes of trying to "wake myself up" and deciding that yes, he was my husband, and perhaps I should tell him that something was very very wrong with me, I taped Veggie on the shoulder and said, "I don't feel good. Honey? I don't feel good. No really, I don't feel good. Honey, I DON'T FEEL GOOD."

I won't go into any more gory details, but lets just say a cold medicine-induced anxiety attack at 1am is NOT FUN. Neither is fearing sleep and the whacked out dreams you might have - did I mention it was 1 o'clock in the morning? That's late for mommies. The next day I called a triage nurse at the local clinic and explained what had happened. She was totally unimpressed.
Yup, sounds about right. NEVER TAKE SUDAFED BEFORE BEDTIME!
Apparently I was having a really bad trip. She had even experienced the same sort of thing, but her husband had to find her in the bathroom at 4am with her coat on and walking around in circles looking for the car keys because she just had to get out of the house. I dunno, but that sounds better to me than feeling like you're being suffocated by YOUR OWN SKIN.

Hopefully someone else out there will learn from my silly mistakes...