Sleepless in Queretaro

They say that other people can make you unhappy but only you can make yourself happy. I do believe we all are responsible for our own happiness but sometimes a little help is needed. For a month or so my baby was sleeping really poorly. He went from 5 hour sleeps at night to 1.5 hours. As a 40 something year old woman, waking up every 1.5/2 hours to calm your crying baby can be pure torture. It was to me. I slowly entered a dark tunnel of feeling helpless, hopeless, angry, sad and totally exhausted. When you almost hope you will die to get some rest, you are not doing good. Thankfully the sun was shining so at least I could  look up at a blue sky and feel thankful. I still kept on pushing myself to go to Zumba and I even went running in the evening despite my exhaustion. 

Because yes, looking at a beautiful sunset while running does give momentarily peace of mind and feelings of happiness. Or jumping around to music gives you good vibes for a bit. I was proud to be able to do this much activities despite the constant breastfeeding. And I do get to enjoy results in the mirror. While I look at my baby growing, I see myself shrinking back to how I looked before the pregnancy or a slightly thinner version of it. But no sleep does nasty things to an adult brain and I can only imagine what it does to a baby.

After struggling for over a month we finally took the decision of calling a doctor. We got an appointment the same day and at the hour we were given, the doctor called us in. Just this would never happen in Montreal. You have to wait for weeks to get an appointment and when you're at the clinic for your appointment you wait for hours to get to see the doctor. This applies as well for when you are pregnant or when you come there with a newborn. It's brutal and inhuman. 

But here we were greeted by a friendly nice male doctor. His room was full of cute toys including my favorite friends from Winnie the Pooh. That calmed down both mother and child. My husband was smiling when I pointed up at the stuffed animals. "Look my love, it's Winnie the pooh". This bear is as real to me as Hercule Poirot and seem to have the same calming effect.

During the time the doctor was examining my son he made sure a toy was there to distract and entertain him. After it he listened patiently to all our questions and conserns. Answering every single question and then handing us a solution. Then asking us if we are okay with the solution. If we feel that this is what we want to do as parents. None of "oh that's normal , "babies are like this", "it's just what you have to put up with as a mother". I was amazed by the wonderful treatment we got and the best part, well already after the first nights we are back to sleeping for a nice 5 hours, then a little breastfeeding session and back to sleep. 

So yes, it's for me to make sure I'm a strong and happy person but sometimes I need some help and I do feel so much better knowing I actually have a skilled doctor close by. After eight years in Quebec I have yet to meet a skilled doctor, dentist or massage therapist/osteopath. It's insane how poor health care you have in Quebec. I prefer not to say Canada as I believe it's much better in the other provinces. To them you're just a number and you get the feeling it doesn't matter if you make it alive or dead out of the clinic.

But right now we are lucky to be in Queretaro. Here I had a really wonderful doctor to take care of me because of the miscarriage and then a year later the pregnancy. We went to see him to give him a gift and show him the baby as most of my pregnancy and the actual birth of our baby happened in Montreal. He was the one who recommended this pediatrician. So we are lucky indeed to have great doctors, the sun shining down on us and our dear trio in good health and safe. All great ingredients to be happy.