One year ago, the pandemic changed all of our lives but for some of the tiniest humans, they were coming into the world in the middle of a global health crisis.
Newborns.
“This whole Covid thing kind of took over and everything got extremely stressful. You didn’t know what would happen from one day to the next,” said Alicia Paysee, mom of two.
What was clear in March 2020, Covid-19 had arrived to South Florida and at Alicia Paysee’s home in Key Biscayne, she was preparing to give birth to her second child on March 26th.
“It was just nothing, no one was there. It was just like everyone was like send photos when you can, please?” Paysee recalled.
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By that point, South Florida had shut down. Hospitals began restricting visitors, but it was when Alicia arrived from the hospital that she really saw how the pandemic would challenge her family.
“My mother didn’t even get to carry her granddaughter until she was like 3 months old, cause it was just like, we were in a bubble. We were so afraid we didn’t know what the virus would, its effects on a baby,” she remembered.
At that time, Covid testing was hard to find and there were so many unknowns from the risks for babies and the effectiveness of masks.
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“I’ll never forget, I put up a barricade of furniture, some chairs so that there was a barrier even I was having groceries delivered, I was disinfecting everything,” Paysee told Muñiz.
Yet, in July her husband came down with a cough. The virus would arrive to Alicia’s home and hit every single person including their 3-month old baby girl.
Thankfully, they would all recover, but Alicia says she has seen differences between her 2-and-a-half year old son and her daughter.
Other moms with 2020 newborns noticed differences too, including NBC 6 reporters and sisters, Julia and Marissa Bagg.
“The biggest difference for me is we have fewer options for childcare, because of safety it’s been a lot of just us,” said Julia who is currently on maternity leave after giving birth in December.
“It was difficult not showing him around to all of the family after a while it’s like, ‘oh my gosh, it’s been 6 months,” Marissa told us. Both of them gave birth to their 2nd child last year all while teaching their first born children the importance of a mask.
“I am surprised about his willingness to wear a mask, he’s very good when we go to places about wearing a mask,” said Julia.
Marissa said Ellie, who is 6 months older, is not into the mask.
Despite so much isolation that this pandemic may have brought, there is also so much connection as people related to each other’s experiences.
“So really try to be calm, your kids are going to mimic whatever you do and they sense how you’re feeling so that’s really important,” encouraged Marissa.
“All the worry in the world, you know, doesn’t really help that much. We were so cautious and we ended up getting Covid,” said Paysee.
There are a number of resources now online. There are even parenting classes online which is a great way to continue connecting with others in the same situation, no matter what that is.
