Perspective

What a difference a week makes.  This time last week I was enjoying a family outing to the seaside.  We had a long walk along the clifftops and down through the lovely gardens to the pier, stopping for a picnic on a park bench.

I was very much looking forward to the weather picking up so that I could start enjoying more outings, after observing the 'fourth trimester' of mainly staying home snuggling up to baby.  I recently started back to my spin class, went to some baby groups, and was planning the rest of the year.  I envisaged spending my maternity leave having leisurely coffees and lunches with the new mum friends I was going to make, going on holidays, taking the baby to classes for swimming, baby massage and more. I was intending on spending as much time with my parents as possible for them to enjoy seeing their grandchild grow.  I had bought my leisure centre membership for the year in advance, and was making a list of places to visit with my National Trust membership.  We were looking forward to introducing the baby to his first music festival, and to hear his daddy play a gig for the first time.

 

Well, things are looking very different today aren't they?!  We've made the decision to isolate our household for 14 days.  This is because we have at-risk parents, who we don't want to miss out on seeing the baby if they are really to isolate for 12 weeks for their own safety.  Fingers crossed, if at the end of the 14 days we're all symptomless, we will be able to meet up.  We're lucky that we're able to do this, with myself being on maternity leave, and Chris working from home.  If we can help the wider situation by not being out there, potentially spreading the virus, then we feel we should.  We are also lucky to live in a semi-rural location, which means that it's easy for us to get out for some fresh air now and again whilst keeping a large distance between us and other people.

We're on day 4 of isolation now, and apart from a foolish oversight that means there's only half a bar of chocolate, we've enough provisions to see us through.  It's a good time to use up everything in the freezer and then give it a defrost and clean!  We'll have to order a couple of things like milk to be delivered, but luckily there are some local businesses responding to the situation by offering this service by telephone order, that I will use instead of an online delivery from the local massive supermarket.  It wasn't easy getting hold of some of the baby items we needed before we went into isolation, thanks to some really thoughtless stockpilers who stripped the shelves of essentials like nappies.  I'm so glad that I'm able to breastfeed my baby, because there have also been problems locally with people stockpiling baby formula, which must be incredibly distressing for mums.  But while situations like this bring out the worst in some people, they bring out the best in others, and there's certainly a lot of community spirit.

Tomorrow is my first mother's day as a mother myself, and unfortunately the planned celebration afternoon tea with my own mother won't go ahead.  Disappointing, but I'm trying to remain positive about it all.  I think it helps that I'm trying to limit my consumption of the news and social media, and increase my contact (by phone/online) with friends and family for a bit of solidarity and humour!  This is an opportunity to pause, reflect, and put it all in perspective, while I take a back seat and let all of those amazing key workers do their jobs and get us through this situation as best they can.

How are you all doing?