Its March of 2020. We find ourselves in the midst of a unknown and terrifying time. If you’re pregnant like me this is even more scary in what the unknown means for our pregnant bodies, our pregnancy plans, and our babies sweetly growing inside.
Fear is a natural response. It makes our brains make us “fight or flight”. Right now, “fight” looks like doing all we can do to prevent ourselves and our families from catching COVID-19 – and then resting. (Because pregnancy)
What Precautions Look Like in My House
My 1960s house in sunny Florida is home to Me (currently 28 weeks pregnant), my husband, our two-year old and our two large dogs.
National school closures and shut downs have left our daily life looking pretty different from normal. School closed means I’m home and not teaching my first graders. My two-year old, Dante, is home from daycare being closed. My husband, Earl, is working more than normal in the medical field. So here’s what we are doing:
For News and Advisories:
- We check the CDC website daily for updates on numbers and advisories.
- We check the Florida Department of Health’s county by county live dashboard. Its likely your state has one too.
- My husband watches news from the White House when he comes home. I can’t with this. I only want to hear epidemiologists and other virus related professionals.
- I check the CDC website on pregnancy and COVID-19 every few days for updates. There aren’t many updates as there haven’t been a lot of pregnant women diagnosed.
For Social Distancing:
- My husband is the only person to go to the store. Dante and I stay home.
- We aren’t going out to eat. This is not a change for us. We usually only go out one or two times a month anyway.
- We aren’t traveling. We aren’t seeing family who travels.
- We aren’t going places for fun. Not even to local playgrounds – so hard for us!
- Dante does not accompany me to my OB appointments.
- We aren’t getting together with friends who aren’t taking it seriously. Nor are we seeing groups of friends or friends that work in high risk places or have possibly been exposed recently.
For Extra Cleaning:
Notice this says “extra”. These are extra precautions we are taking because of COVID-19 that do not fall under normal cleaning. I’ve never cleaned so much in my life. If Earl didn’t work in the medical field or if things were normal we probably wouldn’t do most of these.
- We have a bottle of cleaner to spray the bottom of shoes before entering our house. (See – Earl works in the medical field)
- I make a baggie of about 2 sanitizing wipes for Earl to carry in his pocket to the store in case they are out. Those carts are getting wiped!
- We wipe down our phones daily with sanitizing wipes. Especially after Earl comes home from work.
- Hand washing/sanitizing after touching mail.
- Sanitizing all door knobs, faucets, and handles including appliances daily.
For Planning on Illness:
- Our guest room is ready to go as a quarantine room if one of us get sick.
- We have enough medicine, cleaning supplies, and food for any of us to need for two weeks without another going out to buy more/spread the virus. (Part of the yearly Florida hurricane preparedness we always have anyway. )
For Continuing Health:
- I continue to take my prenatal vitamins daily. We try to eat as healthy as we can with vitamin rich fruits and veggies. I’m allowing Dante to drink more juice than I normally would so he gets extra vitamin C.
- Earl works out daily and I am starting to.
- I am intentionally working on my mental health every day. For me this looks like checking in and staying connected with my husband, family, and friends with how I am feeling. Its being mindful of what is helping and what is not. Its intentionally doing activities I enjoy. When I find myself slipping into panic mode or bored-stuck-at-home mode I change things up real fast and repeat mantras that help me. Having a two-year-old at this time is great because he is so full of joy and silliness and I’m soaking it all in.
What Do I Recommend?
Whatever works for you and your family. Everything I listed is not always possible for everyone’s varying lifestyles / finances / health needs. I would say that our cleaning routine is pretty extreme and I recognize that. On the other hand if you have a high risk pregnancy you might do even more. Do what you can and what works for your family.
Stay informed, stay prepared, clean how you can, social distance as much as you can, work on your mental health, and find joy in your kids.
Wishing you all health, love, and happy momming,
Leah
