Yes, I know it’s supposed to be called H1N1, but that just does not have the same ring to it, does it?

I’ve tried to stay relatively calm, though it’s a little hard when there are headlines screaming at you that “PREGNANT WOMEN AMONG HIGHEST MORTALITY RATES DUE TO SWINE FLU” and the like.

At first, I didn’t know exactly why we were at so much more risk than everyone else, and then I finally read that it was because the baby decreases your lung capacity, which makes a secondary infection of pneumonia more likely.

Great.

And then there is just the seeming randomness of whom the flu strikes. Some people have to stay in bed for a few days, yet others, similarly healthy, find themselves in the hospital. I think that’s what bothers me the most.

Even though they told me that I would be getting the vaccine in mid-September, I’ve yet to receive it. And as a person in one of the highest-risk groups, you would have thought I would have gotten it by now. Which really sort of annoys me, because it’s going to be too late by the time it does arrive, and I would have liked for my baby to develop the antibodies from it as well. The antibodies for her would be limited, but at least it would be something. I’m not a vaccine-avoider, which I think too many people are.

So far, only the Munchkin has gotten vaccinated, and that is only of a certain value because he has to be vaccinated twice, and won’t be able to get the second one until late November.

All I’m reading in the newspapers is how widespread the flu is in pretty much every state, and it’s only a matter of time. Makes me sort of want to not go anywhere in public, you know?  There’s got to be some sort of bubble I can rent and travel around in.

In the meantime, my husband and I are still waiting, as it is still important that we get vaccinated even after our daughter arrives, since as an infant, her immune system will be underdeveloped.

Way to go CDC! Way to completely drop the ball!