The Pacific Northwest was dealing with COVID-19 before it was cool, so it would be worthwhile to listen to their experience.

Big thanks to my friend Shelby, whom I met while doing radio in Seattle, for allowing me to share this. It's so important.

Hi all! I just wanted to pop in and say Social Distancing and staying home works. As a mom of a little one who was a premature infant two years ago, I can tell you this from experience, as can other preemie parents. STAY HOME AND SOCIAL DISTANCE. For others' sake if not your own. As a preemie mom I learned to do this.

You learn to go out when you can keep your bubble to shop without your baby. And you strategize your trips. You get comfortable telling people to not touch your baby. Going into the NICU you scrub in at the scrub sink as soon as you enter. Wash up to elbows and use a the business end of a wooden cuticle pusher to get under your nails. We then sanitized going IN to our daughter's room and OUT. Every time. Multiple times inside before you touch that baby for cares. Clean surfaces. UV sanitize your phones. It was our routine. When we took her home the staff talked about "cocooning" her when we took her home, and create a cocoon we did. I got sick after I took her home and had to clean everything with alcohol all the time, wear gloves and a mask.

Create your own cocoon for you and your family. Stay home y'all, if you can, as much as you can. Plan your trips and outings. Make sure anyone that may be sick (with anything really) stays put. People that visited us had to be symptom free and vaccinated during this time two years ago. Ryan and I made that choice before we had a preemie, and it made it more powerful after we did, to have good protocols in place. Because she was a healthy little bug, who rarely ever had symptoms of a cold her first year of life. Social Distancing works! At this point try to think of it like a civic duty to help prevent spread and save the lives of folks this is a big deal to.

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