What It’s Like Being 8.5 Months Pregnant During Coronavirus

I started my maternity leave last Friday. As I packed my desk, celebrated with cupcakes and cute baby onesies, and said goodbye (for now) to my coworkers, it felt reminiscent of quitting. Now, exactly one week later, it feels like everyone is on maternity leave with me.

The first few days were slow yet productive. I kept busy with personal projects, house to-dos like prepping for air conditioning installation and gathering quotes for landscaping, and generally nesting. Meanwhile, many of my coworkers began working from home when my company encouraged a WFH policy for the rest of the month.

Then by Wednesday, Alex was also encouraged to work from home… and by the next day, it was mandated indefinitely. Now, it’s Friday and we’ve just returned from Costco. The lines were better than we expected, but it was still difficult to find a shopping cart and I was extra protective of my belly as people barrelled down the aisles. We snagged a box of diapers, but the baby wipes were out of stock. They were also out of chicken, but we picked up some salmon, pork, and brisket to vacuum seal in our freezer. Before this whole situation, we imagined I would be spending my leave to meal prep for the month ahead when the baby comes. Now, on top of that, we need to make sure we have the essentials too.

It’s quite bizarre to know that our baby will be born into a state of national emergency. We’re not scared, but the chain of events are escalating so quickly every day that we really don’t know what to expect or what our lives will look like in a month. For now, we’re just enjoying the extra time together as Alex is working from home by our side.