Having a drippy nose or a fever causes you to lose moisture.  Make sure you drink enough so that you aren't forcing your body to deal with both the cold and the physical stress of dehydration.  When you sleep, keep a cup of water, juice, clear broth, or warm lemon water near your bed. If you sleep restlessly, this will enable you to take a few swallows each time you wake and avoid dehydration throughout the night. Avoid alcohol and coffee. Both will dehydrate you. If you are urinating infrequently or passing dark or cloudy urine, these are signs that you are dehydrated. Most adults require about 8 hours per night when they are healthy. If you are fighting off a cold, you will probably need more.  Give yourself permission to nap. When you are sleepy, that is your body telling you what it needs. Being fully rested will help boost your immune system and enable your body to fight the cold more effectively. If you have a stuffy nose or coughing, it can be very difficult to sleep at night. Try keeping the air in your bedroom moist with a cool-mist humidifier or a vaporizer. The better you sleep, the more energy you will have to fight off the virus. If you don't have a humidifier or vaporizer you can quickly and cheaply make one. Put a pot of warm water on the radiator and let it slowly evaporate overnight. A low fever will make the air temperature around you feel colder. If you are so cold that you start shivering, this will cost your body energy that it could be using to fight the cold virus. If you have to go to work or school, bundle up with an extra warm layer of clothing like a big sweater. If you can stay home, add an extra blanket to your bed. Try using a hot water bottle or sipping a cup of warm tea if you have trouble getting warm. The nutrients and salt will replenish your electrolytes. In addition, the warm steam will help clear your nose. If you have an appetite for something more substantial, you can add chunks of chicken, noodles, peas, carrots, and other nutritious vegetables to the broth. Milk (more precisely any kind of fat) increases the amount of mucus being created by your body. These products can be:  Products containing milk (including almond and soy milk). Yogurt, pudding, cream. Butter, margarine, cream cheese. Most other products that are high in fats.
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One-sentence summary -- Drink extra water. Get extra sleep. Ease breathing difficulties with humidity. Avoid getting chilled. Keep up your energy with chicken broth. Avoid food and drinks that contain milk.


The Maryland Courts provide free forms for divorce, an establishment of custody, and modification of custody. You may download the forms by visiting the Court’s Family Law Forms section at http://www.courts.state.md.us/family/formsindex.html#domesticrelations. The Court provides four different forms, or sets of forms, that can be used for child custody cases or cases which involve child custody. Those are:  A complaint for custody may be used by either parent, or a third party, in order to request a custody order where one has not  yet been issued in a divorce or establishment of paternity.  A parent or third party who wishes to modify the current custody order should use the Petition to Modify Custody form. A parent who has minor children and wishes to divorce the child(ren)’s other parent, may ask for custody in their Complaint for Absolute Divorce A limited divorce, or legal separation, may be sought by parties who are unsure if they want to divorce. It allows the parties to begin living separately and dividing property, while remaining married, in case their differences cannot be resolved. The Court may decide issues such as custody and child support during a limited divorce or the parties can agree on such issues and file their written agreement with the Court. Besides the Petition for custody or divorce, a party filing a lawsuit for custody may also need to file other forms, such as a/an:  Financial Statement. Divorcing parties will likely need to fill out the long form Financial Statement] If you are unsure if you need to file a form, you can ask the Clerk. Domestic Case Information Report. This should be filed with each petition for divorce or to establish or modify custody.  Child Support Guideline Worksheets. If you are asking for sole physical custody, you may need to complete Child Support Guideline Worksheet A, and if you are asking for shared physical custody, Child Support Guideline Worksheet B.  Certificate or Affidavit of Service. This simply states that you served your spouse with the require documents. Request for Hearing or Proceeding. If you are filing your custody action alone and the child’s other parent does not agree with you on all issues, you may need to schedule a hearing by filing a Request for Hearing or Proceeding. When completing your forms, type or print neatly in blue or black ink. You can find instruction for most custody and family law forms on the, under ‘Instructions’. If you need help, the Clerk of Courts in the County where you will file your suit may be able to provide you with a limited amount of assistance. However, some questions may be considered asking for legal advice, and the Clerk will not be able to answer those questions. If you need assistance that the Clerk of Courts cannot provide, check your county Court’s website for free and low-cost legal aid. You can locate your Court’s website at http://www.courts.state.md.us/family/localcontacts.html Once complete, you will need to prepare your forms for filing with the Court. To do this:  Print and sign all appropriate forms. Some forms, like the Certificate or Affidavit of Service, cannot be signed or mailed until after you have filed for custody and served your child’s other parent a copy of the Complaint or Petition. If you are unsure when to file a specific form, read the instructions, and/or ask the Clerk when the Court will need it. Call the Clerk of Courts in the county where you will file, and ask how many copies of each form they need, what your filing fee will be, and what forms of payment are accepted. Make the appropriate number of copies. If you do not have a copy machine, check with your local library and/or post office for copy services. Most libraries will make copies for between $.10 and $.25 a page. Staple together any forms that are more than one page long. Be sure not to staple two different forms together. Each form should have a case caption at the top of the first page. The case caption is the part that lists the state, county, and court, the parties, and states the case or cause number. Take your prepared forms and filing fee to the County Clerk’s Office for filing with the Court. The fee will be at least $300; if you cannot afford that, then ask the judge for a waiver. The Clerk will assist you with stamping your forms and filing them. Be sure that you get a stamped copy of each form that you file, so you have a record of what was filed and when. After filing you forms with the Court, you will need to make sure that your child’s other parent, or his or her attorney, gets a copy of each form that you filed. You can do this by mailing the copies via Certified Mail or by hiring the county Sheriff or a process server to serve the copies personally. If you are having trouble locating the other parent, then check out the information at Serve-Court-Papers for more details.
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One-sentence summary --
Obtain the proper custody form. Obtain other forms, as necessary. Complete your forms. Prepare your forms for filing. File your forms. Serve your children’s other parent.