Those plans came crashing down last night with 2 words "Swine Flu". Thankfully not in my house, but in the local school district. With swine flu comes the closing of the school district and with the closing of the school district comes the closing of local daycares and with the closing of daycares comes the closing of Garrett's Mother's Day Out program. The one I so look forward to each week. So now we're at the beginning of 2 full weeks of Garrett and Momma time. Yes, I know that the end of this month will mean the beginning of a full summer of togetherness, but I had hoped for some alone time between now and then. Thankfully I will get a week or two after this break and before school is out, so I'm trying to look on the positive side.
The downside to this is that with the swine flu entrenched in the DFW metroplex, it really cuts down on the places I would willingly go and allow Garrett to contaminate himself. Indoor play areas are out, the zoo would be ok if it didn't require lots of walking on my part (though I may talk Keith into taking a day off and going with us and we would take lots of breaks), parks are ok though we really don't have all that many in our area that are worth going to, and the library is out, unless we just run in and out without stopping in the play areas and with wiping down kids' books with Clorox or Lysol.
Now, I'm really not a big germophobe, but the last thing we need in our house is any sort of flu virus right now. Not swine flu, bird flu, regular ole' human flu, whatever the bug might be. I don't want it being 8 months pregnant and I certainly don't want to deal with a 3 and a half year old who might catch it (nor do I want to deal with a 32 year old who might catch it). So I'm doing what I can to avoid it, short of locking ourselves in the house.
This morning we did get groceries (though I did not do any early birthday shopping. I bought one of Garrett's Christmas presents when he was with me this past Christmas and he NEVER forgot about it. He asked about that stupid train every day until Christmas. So he is definitely too old to think I can hide a gift in the cart and he won't notice it.) When we walked into Walmart, I immediately pulled a ziplock baggie full of Clorox wipes out of my purse and proceeded to wipe down the entire cart before Garrett touched it. Garrett insisted that he needed to ride in the front of the cart instead of sitting in the basket, so I wiped down the seat belt and handle extra carefully. Then I would periodically pull out my Purell while we were in the store and wipe down our hands to be extra safe. I felt a little OCD, but oh well. Maybe we'll manage to avoid this flu.
I do think that the government and health departments have taken this a little out of hand, but I'm going to assume they know what they're doing and attempt to do my part to keep us flu-free and healthy. I wonder about being in the hospital next month when Cooper's born. I really hope this flu scare is over with by then because I don't relish the thought of being in the hospital during a "pandemic". Even though the maternity ward is in its own building at our hospital, I still wonder about the visitors or workers that might be there. As well as what kind of protocol we would have to endure just by being there. Will we have to wear masks at any point? Will they monitor our visitors and the number of people allowed to come and see us? I'm perfectly ok with anything they might impose, mostly because I do not want to contaminate my newborn in any way, but it does bring up a lot of questions. Questions that I will be asking my doctor, and he will love every one of them I'm sure.
The next 2 weeks will be loads of fun. I hope to get Garrett's room straightened up so I can take pictures of it now that everything is done in there! I'll be posting those as soon as I'm able. Cooper's room still has a ways to go, but we did manage to get the crib set up over the weekend. Garrett wanted to take a nap in it on Sunday. Let's hope the newness of all the baby equipment will run its course quickly.
2 comments:
I agree that the media are going a little over the top with this "Swine flu" thing, but I also agree that you have to be careful with Garrett and yourself right now! You don't want any kind of flu at this point. I want to see pictures of the baby's room when you get it altogether and of yourself too!
I'm really tired of hearing my students talk about the swine flu. It doesn't help that the two closest school districts have closed but we are still open and they are bitter about it. All I hear all day is about why aren't we closing when "everyone else is" and that they wished someone would go ahead and get the swine flu so we would shut down. ugh. Not that I wouldn't mind having several days off but I don't want to be the one who gets it so I'm not going to wish it on anyone else.
Sounds like you guys are making some progress with the boys' rooms. That's awesome. I'm a little disappointed that I can't start on the nursery since we won't be living in this apartment much longer. I would love to be able to come home and have something like that to do and keep me busy on the nights Waylon works till 11:30...like tonight.
It will be here before you know it! You're due next month! I can't believe it! Maybe you'll get lucky and Cooper will come a week early or something. That's what I'm hoping for Brooklyn. :)
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