Progress and the Pot Doctor

We are making slight progress in the daytime sleeping department.  Leah is now taking naps for up to one hour in her crib.  I know that doesn't sound very long to some parents out there, but for us, it's progress.  I'm trying to stretch it a little each day, but she usually requires a mid-nap soothing session around 45 minutes.  Unfortunately, when I hear her stirring in her crib and go in to check on her, she pops her eyes open, looks directly at me, and smiles at me like she's thinking, "okay, mommy, it's play time now?"  Game over, kid.  You win.  It's so hard not to pick her up and interact with her at that moment.  I try and just rub her belly and give her a pacifier but she is not so easily fooled.  Right now I still have to pick her up and rock her to sleep again, but I'm hoping that I can start dropping that soon because I don't want that to become a long-term habit.

Nighttime sleeping is still a great challenge for us.  She will go 4 hours between feedings her first stretch (that's really only 3.5 hours of sleep max) and then after that she'll wake up every 2.5 hours overnight to eat.  As you would expect, we are beyond exhausted.  The other thing that is adding to our exhaustion is that I have been sick for over a week.  It started as a slight fever with chills, and has developed into a monster cold with a cough that is so persistent I found myself at urgent care last Thursday evening.  I would cough and cough so much until I couldn't breathe. 

This urgent care clinic was, let's say, unusual.  It was located in a very normal looking strip mall and on the outside it appeared to be a medical clinic located next to a medical marijuana dispensary (ah California, and your wacky laws).  However, once we were inside the building it appeared to be one in the same.  There was one, very old, doctor shuffling around, a couple of nurses, and one slender, young, bald guy in blue jeans and a plaid button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up.  The younger bald guy kept walking up and down the halls, sometimes talking to the older doctor, but he always made his way back to a room at the end of the hall that was painted, ahem, green.  Our theory is that the young bald guy convinced his grandfather, the old legit doctor, that medical pot was profitable and that he would "supervise" the operation.  I don't really have an opinion on whether or not marijuana is an effective medicine for people with chronic pain, but I do know that medical marijuana is extremely easy to get in this state, and that it's likely abused.  Apparently you can walk into any medical marijuana clinic, complain of back pain, and snap, you've got yourself a prescription for some pot.  In any case, I did not ask, nor was I invited, to visit the green room, but I did walk out of there with a prescription for antibiotics and lots of cough syrup. 

I'm still trying to kick this cough, but it does not want to go away easily.  BA has been handling almost all the night feedings for me and he's really ready for me to feel better again.  I am so grateful for his help and hopeful that I feel better soon.