Decisions, Decisions

Aaron and I have officially had to make our first tough decision as parents. About two months ago, Fran and Randy offered to take us to Chicago for a long weekend. Of course, we jumped at the idea! We went to Chicago on our honeymoon and had an absolute blast, and with a baby on the way, there was no way we could afford to do something like that ourselves. It was going to be a great trip - spending time with Fran and Randy and Jeannie and "Uncle" Hanzhi, seeing the new Modern wing at the Art Institute, taking the river cruise, eating a TON of good food, visiting Vosges, enjoying the beautiful weather...

About two weeks ago, Aaron and I discussed the whole swine flu issue in regards to our trip (pregnant women are one of the high risk swine flu groups), but decided that things would be fine. I'm on a huge college campus every day, so we felt like the swine flu risk at an airport wasn't that much worse, especially when you consider that they are taking a lot of precautions and preventing sick people from traveling.

So, our trip was on for the 24th (Thursday) throught the 27th (Sunday.) We were excited and ready to go! Then Saturday night, I got a sore throat. All day Sunday, I was in bed with a major head cold and the sore throat continued, plus I had a low grade fever. Yesterday, I went to the doctor, who ruled out strep or a sinus infection or H1N1. But when I mentioned Chicago, she was extremely concerned. Traveling while I was well was one thing, but traveling when I'm getting over a cold with a fever - she felt that was just asking for trouble. (Swine flu complications for pregnant women are intense - they're more likely to be hospitalized, more likely to die, and can have complications like premature delivery and stillbirth.) She felt so strongly about it that she offered to write a letter to the airline saying it was unsafe for me to fly.

I was really upset about it because I was really looking forward to the trip, but I was also really, really concerned about getting sick. When Aaron got home, we discussed it again and decided that staying home was the right thing to do. He called Fran and Randy for me (because I was crying so hard at that point, they wouldn't have been able to understand a word I said. I've been crying over even little things lately, so the disappointment of having to cancel a trip like this when it was affecting so many other people was definitely cause for a major cry-fest. Pregnancy hormones are a BITCH!) And of course they were totally understanding and wonderful about it. Aaron could still have gone on the trip with them, but he didn't want to leave me alone when I'm sick, plus the trip wouldn't be the same if he had to go without me. (His words, not mine!)

So, we will be staying at home this weekend, not reliving our honeymoon in Chicago. But it's the right decision, it's the safe decision, and I feel a lot better knowing that we're not putting the baby in danger. And this morning, when I was sitting straight up in bed after waking myself and Aaron up at 4:30 because I couldn't breathe through my extremely stuffed up nose, I felt the baby move about 1o times in a row - that's way cooler than anything we would have done in Chicago!