Its hard with your first

The baby has developed a cold and this threw me into a panic attack. I'm not exaggerating either. When I woke up and saw that she had a snotty nose, I started crying. And praying. It just seemed just too soon for her to be sick - she's not even two months old yet. None of my other kids had colds as newborns. So I called the doctor's office and had the pediatrician on call paged. It was Saturday morning at 9am.

"What's up?" the doctor asked. It was the old-timer doc, perfectly nice and all, just not as alarmist a medical professional as I like to work with.

I explained all her symptoms in detail and he told me that she had a cold. That seemed like a waste of two minutes.

"Yes, but what can I DO about it?" I asked.

"There's nothing you can do really." he said, "Except nurse her more frequently."

"What about steam showers and aspirating her nose and putting her to sleep upright and using a humidifier?" I asked.

"All that sounds good," he said.

"I mean, should I be worried? Does this happen? Do tiny, defenseless little newborns like this get colds and are they still OK after?"

"Yes, they do," he assured me, and then he added, kindly: "It is scary when they get sick for the first time but its completely normal. Its hard with your first."

I didn't correct him. After all, I want the guy to keep calling me back when I emergency page him on weekend mornings.

"Yes it is," I agreed, "It really is."