A bit of misfortune

Emma is due this week! Thursday, Feb 18 is our official day.

On sunday evening Thao returned home from work and felt extra tired, and retired to bed while I watched the end of the superbowl. I slept in our guest bed to give her some rest, and the next morning she had the day off but seemed a little sick. She had a small cough, her voice didn’t sound great, and we figured she might need some more rest. By Tuesday she had a fever and was clearly sick. She wondered if it might be covid but I said it was still early. On wednesday she decided to go back into work despite still feeling a bit under the weather, but not before calling her OB office about her symptoms. They called her back at work and told her to go to the hospital triage and get tested. I picked her up around 2 and we went.

They didn’t let me in because i’d been exposed to her, and she spent several hours waiting there before getting a covid diagnosis. I was feeling not quite myself and was worried I might have it as well. I scheduled a test for the next day, and didn’t sleep well that night. I had a fever for a couple days before getting the test results back confirming I had contracted covid as well.

The thing that immediately struck me was that they might not let me into the hospital for her delivery. I got my confirmation one week before emma’s due date. I was so sad to miss this, and sad for thao that she may have to go through this alone. I’m still sad about it. We made it so close to our delivery date before coming down with this.

It’s been 5 days since our diagnoses and my heart goes out to thao, who is still struggling with recovery. it’s hard enough being this pregnant, and to add covid on top of it. She has been so tough. Last night she said if she delivers in isolation it’s probably not going to be very fun. I said i don’t think childbirth is ever considered fun.

On the bright side, babies seem to do well w/covid, they don’t tend to get it from the parents, as far as i’ve read. I should be non-contagious within 10 days after thursday, which will probably be right after Emma is released, provided things go smoothly. The health of mom and baby are all that matter right now, and hopefully both can be protected through this process, even if emotionally we are sad to be apart. We’ve got phones, we can facetime, stay on the line with each other. Maybe wife can just sleep and get better, have doctors attend to her. There’s always things to be hopeful for.