My name is Susannah Steele and I have two kids, Logan who is six and three quarters. And my daughter, Lucy, who is two months old today.
It was a lot. My daughter has some heart problems, so we had sort of another level of care and medical attention leading up to her birth. So I was having to go to the doctors more often, which in the pandemic I was not... I wanted to go because I wanted to make sure that everything was okay and we were fine. But on the other hand, going into the hospital with masks and my husband wasn't able to come, he normally his scheduled would allow him to come with us. He missed a bunch of ultrasounds that he would have otherwise been able to come to, echocardiograms, and things like that. And we weren't sure going in, when I went into labor... Well, it was just after all of the protests and sort of riot stuff that happened downtown that we were supporting. But also we were afraid of being able to get to the hospital just because we knew it was all happening right around there.
And so we were torn between, let's go support everything. Let's go be part of the... We actually got stuck in a march on the way back from one of our last appointments. We were just turning onto a road and suddenly our car was surrounded by people and we just kind of waved, yay thumbs up. It was crazy. But when I did go into labor, we were able to go to the hospital. I had a COVID test immediately. And they told us that as long as I tested negative, my husband was allowed to stay. And that was there was no reason why I would have tested positive, I hadn't been anywhere in forever. But it was still scary at the idea of two things: giving birth in a mask was scary to me, and then also giving birth without my husband present was... And with Lucy, with her medical condition it was a lot of unknowns. There's always unknowns with any birth, of course, but there was so much that we didn't know, and so much that was changing on a daily basis.
And once she was born, they whisked her off to the NICU and then cardiac unit for what ended up being only a few days, we were anticipating surgery right away, but I wasn't allowed to be with her, at first. My husband was able to go with her and then only one of us was able to be with her at a time. One person per day. Then we have a son at home. So I don't know that, that really would have changed anything, but just the fact that they were telling us we couldn't be there. And of course my son, wasn't able to come meet his sister in the hospital. There was just a lot of anxiety. I think they always say, bringing home newborns is so hard. My son is adopted, so this is our first newborn. He was adopted when he was three. But they always say, bringing a newborn home, the first couple of weeks are so hard and yes, of course, but we had so much anxiety leading up to the labor and the birth and just how things were going to go. It was a relief once she was home. We haven't slept much, but that's no big deal. I can do that. And she's a pretty easy going baby I will say that, we're lucky. But there was so much anxiety leading up to it. It was just a relief when she was born.
I have been a small town person forever, just because that's where I came from. But I'm also a musician, a classical musician and the city culture makes much more sense to me. And going to the Opera all the time or symphony, culturally, it makes more sense living here. And then the pandemic hit and we only live in our apartment. So it's been interesting, but there was never a question about, should we move here? It was just, this is an opportunity and this is something that we take. This is an opportunity that we take. And for the most part, it's been very good and very much easier to go from a small town to a big city than I really expected. I was definitely nervous. You use the train.
I think getting around and feeling comfortable getting around with my son, particularly has been easier than I thought. Partly I have no sense of direction, so I was pretty sure I was going to get on a train and ended up somewhere else. But that's been okay and feeling comfortable with him staying with me and not being nervous being in the big crowds. Obviously we're careful, but I don't feel unsafe as a parent with him just going around downtown. Obviously in some places I would, but just in terms of walking down the street and being in crowded places and just walking and taking the train, it seems silly, but there's been sort of a more natural, easy transition than I expected. I love to not drive. I've never liked driving. I love to not drive. But my son thinks that the train is awesome and there's so much to see and we still feel at home, it's not like a constant tourist situation or whatever.
I think some of the more difficult things have been... I think one of the harder ones has been figuring out the school and sort of bigger bureaucracy type things, like figuring out how to get my son registered for kindergarten was a much bigger deal than I thought it was going to be. Registration was happening at the same time that our other son was stillborn. So, that was definitely part of it. I missed information. It just went in one ear and out the other. But there was a lot of "Call this place. Oh, and then you have to call this place, and then you have to call this place. And then you have to go to this office but you can't go to the office, you have to email it." And just lots of running around and not feeling like I was getting anything done to get him into kindergarten. And also taking him to the doctor, feeling like I can get in touch with his doctor and he hasn't had any big medical issues, but just like, he's not feeling well and I'll call and I have to be ready to on hold for an hour or two, just to be like "he's sneezing." Or "he has a stomach ache." It's allowing more time for some things that I wouldn't have planned. Coming from a small place where you just call there's one guy in the office and it's this tiny, there's not as many resources, but it's very direct in a smaller place. We've had lots of issues with figuring out insurance, that's a national thing, it's just been very stressful, particularly with her birth. Trying to figure out who to call, what processes are needed for official business-y stuff.
