O Elusive Sleep

Allergies have hit me HARD this year. It started around the 15th of March, I guess…. Started taking Allegra then and things were okay for a while. Then, in the middle of April, I lost my voice and started coughing. I have been coughing off and on since. Mostly on.

Since last Thursday, it has been a very deep, painful cough. And the coughing fits go on for *hours*, not just a string of several coughs.

Finally, I went to the doctor (again) today. This is the third time this season I have been to the doctor. I had a coughing fit in the office, which was perfect timing. I couldn’t get a good deep breath for her to really hear my airways, but she got the picture, I think. Today, I was diagnosed with a respiratory infection. I’m on Zithromax and a prescription cough suppressant that isn’t working yet. I’ll take codeine to sleep again tonight (it only worked for half the night last night, and then I had to move to the sofa in the New Room so as not to wake up the rest of the family), and maybe, just maybe, I’ll start to feel human again tomorrow.

Alice went to the pediatrician, too, since she’s been coughing and slime has been coming out of her nose and ears…. In spite of her ear tubes, which are still in place, she has an ear infection on one side and a sinus infection that is likely the culprit. So she’s now on oral antibiotics, too.

Both girls had a Nap Strike today…. Alice decided to decorate herself, her crib, and prize baby doll with the contents of her diaper for the fourth time this week. She looked like she had been mudwrestling, and I seriously considered taking a picture so I can blackmail her with it when she’s a teenager. Didn’t, though…

She was fussing and fussing so I went down to check on her before I tried to sneak a snooze for a little bit this afternoon. No snooze for me… Janitorial duty instead. Ugh. I was all business with her, though… Carried her at arm’s length to the bathtub, which I emptied completely of all Fun Things, and undressed her in there. Had to wash her twice to get it all off of her. Washed Baby Katie in front of her with carpet cleaner, and now Katie is hanging from a towel rack out of reach in the bathroom.

So incredibly frustrating. I’m not quite sure how to handle this little Picasso.

I’d be in bed now, except that the coughing is keeping me up and my pharmacy friend told me that I can take codeine to help me sleep if I wait for another 45 minutes. So I’m waiting.