12 Days of Reflection - #1: Keeping Lucy Home

Decision #1 - Keeping Lucy home until March.

One of the most wonderful things about having a baby is getting to show her off.  People oohing and ahhing over the biggest and best accomplishment you will ever have in your entire life is a pretty great experience.  But when you have a baby six weeks early at the start of flu season, you don't get to enjoy that particular part of the experience.  You have to keep your baby home to help protect against sickness and infection.

At the hospital, they presented this to us not as something we had to do, but as something they highly recommend.  I remember a conversation my husband had with a nurse that went something like:

Nurse: We recommend you keep your baby home until March.
Rick: Alright.
Nurse: (taken aback) Really?
Rick: Yes. It's what's best for Lucy, right?
Nurse: Yes.
Rick: Okay. Decision made.
Nurse: That's not the reaction we usually get.
Rick: Um...what? Why not?
Nurse: Because it's inconvenient.  People take their little premies out and show them off, or to Walmart or wherever.  One of ours took her baby to a rock concert.  She contracted RSV and died two days later.
Rick: You don't have to worry about that with us.  She will be home until March.

And she was.  It was extremely disappointing - she really was the sweetest, tiniest and cuddliest little thing - and it was very inconvenient, but it was clearly what was best for our girl.  I think her first day in the nursery at church was technically whatever the last Sunday in February was, but we pretty much made it through four months of keeping her home.

And now, she is the smiliest, happiest, chunkiest, healthiest little baby you can imagine!