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Having a baby in the midst of a global pandemic can be challenging
Sports Editor Adler Ingalsbe and his wife, Kelli, found out first hand.
Back in August, when my wife, Kelli, and I began telling family and friends that we were expecting our first child in the first week of April, the thought of having all of our loved ones in one place when he made his grand entry into the world was the conversation we continually had on our nightly walks through the neighborhood.
I was envisioning myself playing the role of the soon-to-be father who ran out into the waiting room and informed everyone each time she progressed in her dilation.
But little did we know six months later all of our worlds would be turned upside down.
As the days went by and February turned into March, the coronavirus had picked up steam and was headed towards becoming a full-fledged global pandemic – which we all know it did.
And because of it, the birth of our baby that we had in our minds was altered significantly.
Hospitals and doctor’s offices were changing their policies left and right.
So, when my wife got a call one month away from her due date, it didn’t come as much of a surprise.
“Due to COVID-19,” the voice on the other end of the phone began, “you will only be allowed to have your spouse plus an additional two people in your delivery room.”
No problem.
A week later, it rang again.
“Due to COVID-19, you will only be allowed to have your spouse plus one additional person in your delivery room,” the voice stated.
Again, not that big of an issue.
At least I, along with her mom, could be there for her.
A few days after that, the final call from the doctor’s office came.
It was one that we had expected after seeing other hospitals make changes and with news coming out hourly regarding the severity of the coronavirus.
“Due to COVID-19, you will only be allowed to have your spouse in the delivery room,” the voice explained.
Even though we knew it was only a matter of time before this ruling would be put into place, it still hit us hard.
No family. No friends. No one at the hospital or at our home with us for the foreseeable future.
Still, we were able to find peace with it as the final days ticked away towards the scheduled induction.
Upon arriving at IU Health North Hospital in Carmel, both of us were screened at the door by a pair of nurses. We were then handed a mask and asked to thoroughly sanitize our hands before being escorted to our room.
We unpacked and spoke with the nurses on staff for the evening as my wife got her first dose of medication.
That’s when it set in – we were in this by ourselves.
All went well with the delivery and I still had my moments of updating family and friends with every trip made by the nurses and doctors – albeit via text messaging – into our room.
To go from the labor and delivery floor to the postpartum floor, my wife and I, again, were asked to put on masks and cover our baby with blankets as a precaution.
Upon being released from the hospital two days later, the masks and blankets came back out for the final trip through the hospital where it had the look of a ghost town.
No visitors to be found. Gift shops and coffee shops were closed. No trips to the cafeteria were allowed by patients (they dropped it off at the rooms instead).
And yet, none of that was the worst part of the entire experience.
Sure, it was terrifying to see the world we were bringing a baby into. But it didn’t truly hit home until we pulled into our driveway and realized that although family and friends could drop by and stand in our yard as we showed them our baby on the porch did some of the sadness begin to come over us.
Did we want them to have the opportunity to hold him and shower him with the love they were displaying from much closer than six feet away? Absolutely.
But in an abundance of caution and by the direction of the doctors, nurses, and pediatricians, that’s how we’re going to have to live for the foreseeable future.
As it was said in the hospital and in person leading up to the delivery date, this will be a time for us, as new parents, to look back on many, many years from now and remember how crazy and scary of a time it was when our son was born.
For now, though, us five – including our two dogs – are quarantining and enjoying every moment of getting to be together. And hopefully, by mid-summer, the start of fall or by Christmas, we’ll be back to a somewhat normal lifestyle where our family and friends will get to meet Lincoln properly after all.
Until then, we will continue to be thankful for the support system we have around us and for Zoom, FaceTime and other technology that has made a world of a difference to help us to get through this pandemic.