WF
MY TURN
It Takes a Village
BY KATIE SCHUBERT
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38 Washington FAMILY JULY 2021
O ver the past seven years, my
husband Allan and I have moved
six times. We’ve gotten used to
moving so frequently because
Allan is in the Navy, but nothing could have
prepared us for our move to Japan in the
middle of a worldwide pandemic — only
two days after learning we were pregnant
with our daughter.

We arrived on Okinawa, a small island
some 400 miles south of the Japanese
mainland, in early September 2020. After
a strict two-week quarantine, Allan and I
began our new life here in Okinawa, and the
next few months progressed uneventfully.

Then, in March, our daughter Alice
arrived. She was six weeks early. At 4 pounds,
5 ounces, Alice was the definition of a “little
girl.” Delivered by cesarean section, she was
whisked away to the NICU shortly after Dad
cut the cord, where she spent the next three
weeks growing and learning to eat properly.

The hospital staff was incredible, and even if
I had space for 10,000 words, I still couldn’t
sing their praises enough.

Becoming a mother under any circum-
stances is a rollercoaster of emotions, and
I was counting on having the full 40 weeks
to prepare for my new role. Not only did
Allan and I not have many of the things we
needed to welcome Alice, but I lost six weeks
to prepare myself emotionally for her arrival.

Being away from home, from my friends and
family, made the transition to motherhood
more difficult. Okinawa is 13 hours ahead of
Washington, D.C., so when it is 3 p.m. here,
it’s 2 a.m. at my parents’ house. Not being
able to call whenever I needed to talk to them
made this time even more difficult.

Luckily, the military community in
Okinawa came to our aid almost without
my asking. A friend set up a meal train for
the three weeks after Alice got out of the
NICU, so we wouldn’t have to worry about
dinner while figuring out how to have her
home with us — especially since we were
running on only a little bit of sleep. People
I had never met gave us preemie clothes, so
Alice would have little onesies and sleepers
that fit her properly. A neighbor offered to
go grocery shopping for us.

Throughout the entire NICU ordeal, Allan
was just phenomenal. While recovering
from my c-section, he happily bounced back
and forth between my hospital room and
Alice’s little bassinet in the NICU, never
once complaining about being tired or
overextended. He brought me sandwiches
from Subway to give me a break from
hospital food and enthusiastically fed our
tiny daughter. He laughed when changing
her diapers — and still does. I couldn’t ask
for a better partner to have by my side during
such a stressful (though joyous) time.

Throughout Allan’s Navy career, I have
made lifelong friends within the military
community, and it was members of that
community who provided us with the
resources and the time to make it through
Alice’s NICU stay. I could never have
imagined giving birth prematurely to a tiny
baby halfway around the world during a
global pandemic, but when it happened, I’m
glad I had my village to support us. n



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