Coming out of isolation

We were on vacation abroad in March 2020, when the news began to filter in. By the time we boarded the flight home on March 11, it felt like we were putting our lives at risk. Less than one week later, the world stopped.

After arriving home, we presented with symptoms, namely fatigue and body aches. It could have been jet lag. We’ll never know. In the early stages, it was extremely difficult to be booked for testing. It took us over two weeks to get tested, and the results came back negative.

We were about two months pregnant at the time, and had another toddler who was just shy of three years old. Taking no chances of getting sick while pregnant, we entered full isolation until the baby was born in September. Even though the restrictions eased somewhat in the summer, we were rigorous with our exile. No restaurants, no public events, social gatherings only with our “bubble” family. It was a long six months cooped up indoors with a three-year-old who could not understand why he no longer went to gymnastics, play places, the library, or saw his friends.

Luckily, the baby was born happy and healthy in September 2020 and has just turned one year old. His entire life thus far has been in the post-COVID world. It’s my sincere hope he’ll never remember it first-hand and will just roll his eyes at our stories.

We recently made the difficult decision to enroll our toddler in preschool for the first time, right at the height of the fourth wave. Throughout COVID, it has been difficult balancing between providing adequate socialization to our children while keeping them safe while they cannot be vaccinated. In Alberta, children the same age as our child have been hospitalized with COVID, and at times it felt like we were simply rolling the dice on a significant and potentially life-altering condition.