Expecting A Baby During Coronavirus: Gender Reveal Just Isn't The Same

Will Thompson and his wife Annie are expecting their first child this fall.

But because of restrictions at local hospitals, Thompson has not been able to accompany Annie to her prenatal doctor's visits, including one where they expect to learn their baby's gender.

Thompson chokes up talking about this: "My wife is an incredibly strong woman, and she's amazing. I just — I wish I could."

The Denver couple plan to ask their doctor to write "boy" or "girl" inside an envelope, so they can open it later, together.

Before losing his job a few weeks ago, Thompson was running audiovisual services for big tech industry conferences. Even when in-person meetings stopped because of the coronavirus, Thompson thought there would be plenty of work.

"The day I got let go, I talked to a new client who said they had a conference that they wanted to go full virtual on. And they had a starting budget of $200,000," Thompson said. "I got a phone call probably about an hour later saying I'd been terminated, which was a bit of a shock, obviously."

Still, with millions of other Americans also getting pink slips, he couldn't take it personally.

"I've had family ask me if it was hard, you know, emotionally applying for unemployment, and my answer is no," Thompson said. "I think if this weren't such a devastating thing to everybody, it would be different."

He's enjoyed spending quality time with Annie, an educator who's working from home. [Copyright 2020 NPR]