CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly been challenging for lots of families out there with social distancing measures keeping loved ones outside the household further apart.
That's been especially true for first time moms raising their newborn babies. The first precious moments of a wide eyed and curious baby girl captured in a video.
Amelia Elyse DeForest was born on April 13 at seven pounds and 12 ounces. Amelia's mom, Myranda and her dad Jack, welcomed their bundle of joy with lots of love, but also a newfound feeling of vulnerability as they set out to raise their first baby in a world dealing with a pandemic.
"My doctor told me I needed to stop working because of the risk. I didn't know if it would spread to the baby while pregnant or after delivery," said DeForest.
Myranda is a registered nurse and Jack is a firefighter and paramedic for the City of Corpus Christi. Their jobs putting them at a higher risk of contracting the virus.
To set the stage, it was late March when County Judge Barbara Canales issued a stay at home order as coronavirus cases began to impact the Coastal Bend. This, as Myranda approached the end of her pregnancy all while working in the emergency room.
She didn't know if she would even be able to have her husband with her during Amelia's birth because of hospital restrictions ramping up around the country. The two chose to induce early.
In the days that followed, these first-time parents would have quite the challenge. They wouldn't be able to turn to family for help and asked them to respectively keep their distance.
"And they all respected that we weren't going to have anyone home right away, which we are very grateful for, definitely when we first brought her home first time parents, it was hard not having anyone here, especially when I had questions, to get advice or just have someone hold her and take a break," said DeForest.
Even though Amelia's great grandparents were just five minutes away, a visit from great grandma required social distancing. Relatives were unable to hold or kiss Amelia for the first time.
"It's kind of like they are so close yet so far away. They are older, and my husband and I being around COVID patients didn't want to be a risk factor," DeForest Said.
Amelia is now four months old. Myranda has since made the decision to become a full-time mom for now, still mostly staying inside the house.
"Sometimes they call her bubble baby because she hasn't experienced much at all. I had pictured us taking her to the beach, going shopping, we haven't' been anywhere. It's really hard because she can't even get to know her own family because she doesn't know who they are," DeForest said.
Myranda said her husband has been her rock.
"Thank God he was able to be here for me. He took off 10 weeks. If he couldn't be here with me, I can't imagine how much worse it would have been with the anxiety, loneliness, and the stress," said DeForest.
It's that loneliness that is overall the toughest part she said all while doing everything they can to keep their little one safe.
"It's a great deal lonely, try to FaceTime with family to get some sort of interaction. Especially being the wife of a first responder who is gone for 24-48 hours at a time, it can get overwhelming just me and the baby. When he is gone, I can't go anywhere. I can't even go to the store, can't take her with me, at home all day, definitely been hard," said DeForest.
The couple is not alone. A simple post on Facebook asked new moms about the most challenging part of their day to day routine during the pandemic. It prompted many more responses than we were expecting.
"I have an almost 4-month-old baby girl, so we have experienced the entire spectrum of COVID unfortunately. To me, the isolation and worry of exposing myself (while pregnant) and my daughter now have been the most challenging," said Kara Kolbe.
"It's the struggles not being able to just run to HEB or Walmart for essential items whenever you want because we can't take the baby without risking their health," said Alyssa Naranjo.
"The hardest part about having her during the pandemic is that she isn't able to see new things, all she really knows is our house," said Christina Castillo, who is a new mother to her now 6 month old daughter.
"It's hard on the kids because they can't see their grandparents when they want to or go outside due to this Coronavirus being so scary to me," said Iesha Morgan. She said she and her husband do what they can to make the kids smile.