We are in the risk area for this new virus, me as pregnant in the last week (week 40), Jonatan with his asthma and my mother that is here visiting has both a heart condition, respiratory issues and hyper tension at her 64 years old. 

We went into self-isolation a bit over 2 weeks ago because we realised that although many people are civilised and practice good manners, many others are a serious danger to the society with their ignorance of this virus or any other virus. People don’t respect the basic hygiene rules of not coughing in the air, or in their hands and touch products in shops after, or touch their running noses, or clean their hands, sneeze in your face, etc. We see what’s happening in the rest of Europe, mostly Italy, but seems like every country is following because Europe is so not ready for an outbreak. And since our baby girl is coming any time, the last thing I need is to get sick of an unknown virus with no treatment to date. Sweden is not taking any measures in containing this virus, however they did change a few things in the birth routines ( 1. the dad can’t be with his baby anymore in maternity – no matter if healthy or not and 2. if he shows any simptom of cold, he can’t be there to support the mom through birth). Not sure what the role of these rules are, but surely it would depress me to not have J by my side at birth because of a simple cold (would be nice to just test dads and find out if it’s corona, but well, Sweden stopped testing…)

Oh the most important of all, if I would be suspected of Corona, I’d give birth with a midwife dressed in protection equipment – how unsettling that is? – very well motivated however. We don’t want our medical staff to get sick. 

So that’s why we isolated, even tho Sweden is far away from enforcing that on its people. I wish I trusted people more and say hey we don’t need this as long as we stay away, but the last few weeks I sadly lost a bit of hope in humanity. Thank goodness this is not such a transformative virus. If a zombie apocalypse would come, we’d all be the walking dead. 

We are now isolated for 2 weeks and it works just perfect! I worked from home before also so no loss there, I defended my bachelor thesis online on Zoom, I talk to my friends through video all the time. I don’t miss anything from outside cause I get everything home! We order food home, shop online from both smaller local stores and all over Sweden, have been stocking up on some foods from before, but a little of everything not huge quantities. J shops fresh milk and other things once a week when the shop is almost empty, wearing gloves and carefully distancing himself of other shoppers.

It’s disturbing however that there are people still not taking the situation serious, he always comes home dissappointed that people still: cough in the air, cough in their hands and then touch products, not walk minimum one meter away from eachother, elderly esspecially. 

It’s not so hard to practice social distancing when you have so many shops moving to digital! 

I will continue to support our local shops and restaurants from distance, I am however sorry for all the other types of businesses that can’t survive without people in place, events and hotels for ex. This is a hard time for everyone tho, and we need to play our cards right if we’re gonna beat this. 

To be honest, the only thing I missed out on is to give a goodbye hug to my uni friends who all left the town now since school ended for us and properly celebrate that we’re finally done after 3 years. 

Anyways, 3 days left until due date. Next time I’ll write here, I’ll be a mom! 😀

XoXo

L