Cold Communication

When Cub was first born I made a best friend.

Her name is Stacy. In the early days she was just "the nurse practitioner". But after a gazillion phone calls, voice messages, heart to hearts, she became "Stacy". Or better yet, Stace.

Those first few weeks, every little sniff, cough, gulp, blink, long breath, poop, sent me running to the phone.

At one point I actually felt inclined to send "Stacy" a thank you note for being so helpful and patient with me as a new mom.

My conversations went like this (with exaggeration of course):

"Hi, Stacy. It's me. Cub is breathing. Is this normal?"

"Hi, Stacy. It's me again. Cub just sneezed and then a little snot came out of his nose. Does he have pneumonia?"

"What up, Stace. You know who it is. Cub only sipped from one boob today. Is my milk gone?"

"Stacy! Where are you?!! Cub is throwing up. Does he need to go to the ER?"

"Hey, there. It's me... again. Cub is sleeping. He's actually sleeping! Can you believe it?!! Should I be worried?"

Poor Stacy.

Then one day I woke and realized it had been MONTHS since I called Stacy. Wow. I sort of missed her. But I actually felt in a good groove. Sure Cub was doing all of the same things, but I actually was more relaxed about it.

So here we are today. Cub is sniff sniff sneezing. Cough cough, choke cough, nose running coughing. And I know better than to call Stacy. But I wish there was some magic potion I could give him to make him feel better. I've already tried the saline drops and humidifier. He doesn't have a fever to my knowledge and seems otherwise fine. But the poor kid can't even drink a bottle without yanking it away to gasp for air.

In an attempt to fill my Stacy void, I find myself striking up random conversations with strangers to give the latest sick update.

Yesterday I was at Babiesrus. I had to pee so bad because I had been driving Cub around town for an hour to let him get a good nap in sitting upright in his car seat with his stuffy nose. So I run to the bathroom and what a relief!! When I came out of the stall there was an employee washing her hands. Naturally I had to involve her. So there we are washing hands and I'm telling her about how badly I had to pee because my son's sick and I just finished driving him around town for an hour and how hard it is to have a sick baby, etc etc. At first she gave me a warm smile and commented about how great it is to pee after having to pee for so long. But after I continued on with how sick Cub's been and all of his latest symptoms, I could see the "weirdo, weirdo" alert flashing on her forehead and the "vacate the bathroom" alarm ringing in her ears. She sort of started walking backwards out of the bathroom, maintaining her trying-to-be-nice smile. Then bolted!

I didn't even get to describe the various colors of muscous to her!!

Where's Stacy when I need her!