4 hours of sleep is not enough after 24 hours of wakefulness beforehand and no nap. :( This morning we're supposed to go out in public and run various errands and have grown-up talks with authority figures. I just want to go back to bed and hide under the covers...

In better news, I started a new short story yesterday (the one benefit of not being able to nap during the day), and so far I'm liking it. Hooray! It felt really good to be writing fiction again. I don't know if I'll be up to repeating the feat today, but...

Tell me good things to cheer me up (and help keep me awake)?

ETA (3 hours later): And triple-gaah. We had to drive out to a baby clinic in a nearby town this morning, only to get Mr Darcy weighed (something most UK midwives will come out and do themselves in our own house, but not the one we saw last time, who made us this appointment - so I'd already been frustrated at an unnecessary trip out, especially when feeling so sick with exhaustion and really not up to it). Despite unexpected emergency diaper changes, last-minute spit-up, etc., we managed to get to the clinic only 1 minute late, parked in a marked space just in front of the building, hurried in, made it out back outside within 5 minutes...and found a parking ticket for £70 on our car windshield!!! The spaces just in front of the clinic aren't for clinic visitors, as it turns out. (And since the clinic doesn't allow strollers or buggies, there's really no other way to get there except by driving.)

Obviously, it was our mistake to park in the wrong place. But God, £70!!!! The parking warden was still there when Patrick got back. Patrick asked where we should have parked for the clinic, and the warden said, "There's a big parking lot three blocks away." Ah, right. So that's something new parents should just know by instinct when they come to this clinic (and town) for the first time, without any signs...

Sorry for venting so much, guys. But this has been a really crappy morning. Any cheer-up thoughts would be greatly appreciated.