“Maybe she’s starving and I’m neglecting her! Maybe I’m, like, an abusive mother! How do I know?”

Adina Laufenstein worked quickly. It took less than a week for Marissa to get her first call. Luckily, it was a quiet afternoon at home, with Yaakov working in his little study with his headphones on and the door closed, so he couldn’t overhear. At some point, she’d have to tell him about this project, but she needed to find the right moment.

“Hi? Is this the baby nurse from the Giving Circle?”

The Giving Circle? What was that? Oh, wait, it must be Adina’s new support group. Nice name.

“Hi,” Marissa said, trying to inject warmth and reassurance into her voice. “You got it, I’m a nurse who works with babies. How can I help you?”

There was a pause, then a rush of words. “My baby, she just cries all the time. Like, All. The. Time. And I have no idea what I’m doing! How do I know, maybe she’s starving. Or maybe she’s in terrible pain! I thought that once your baby is born you just get this automatic intuition, but I have no idea what’s wrong with her.”

“Wow, that sounds really tough.” Marissa sank into the couch and tried to figure out the best way to approach this. Do I ask for her name? Is this hotline meant to be anonymous? She really needed some more information from Adina… but here she was on the job, sink or swim.

Okay, so first she would affirm. “You want to be a great mom, but it’s hard to know what your baby really needs.”

There was a sniffle. “Yeah. And half the time I feel like crying myself. Because this is SO HARD! Much harder than I ever thought.”

“You’re probably really tired,” Marissa offered. “How old is your baby?”

How old are you, she wondered. You sound so young.

“Three weeks old. Do you think she’s starving? Maybe she’s starving and I’m neglecting her! Maybe I’m, like, an abusive mother! How do I know?”