The things about germ.....

....there are a lot of them and they are everywhere up in everything! Most germs are good, we cannot live without them. Others....not so good. I am not a germaphobic (I swear!).

I don't recall giving much thought to bacteria and proper sanitizing until Ayla & Zoey were born. I knew the usual; wash your hands often and don't rub your face. HA! That is just the very tippy-top basic to fighting germs- but it works and it's better than nothing.
In the hospital we were given a crash-course on bacteria and how even the most benign of bacteria can be deadly to Ayla and Zoey. Really? That is scary! The NICU is as germ-free as possible; to the point that everyone has to participate in a 2-minute hand/arm scrub-down before entering the NICU. The doctors and RN's wash their hands before and after handling the babies and were constantly applying hand sanitizer and using disinfecting wipes on everything they touched. It became a habit for us to do the same. Wash and sanitize, wash and sanitize.....

We sanitized EVERYTHING; our cell phones, cameras, books, bags, laptops, anything that came into the NICU was wiped down with disinfecting wipes. When it was time to bring Ayla home, were informed to keep the same procedures; scrub our hands when we came home from work, change our clothes and disinfect everything. Our house has never (literally) been so clean and 'germ-free'! We should seriously own stock in Clorox....

Germs are not for sharing!

Now it's a habit and people think we're crazy with our signs posted on the doors and our nazi-way of marching them into the kitchen sink for a scrub before they can even look at Ayla. We have hand sanitizers in our cars, at work and in every room of the house and we use them- constantly. Since Ayla has been home- we haven't been sick, nope, not once. Weird, huh?

So here are some interesting facts we learned about our hands;

~Right Handed people tend to wash their left hand more thoroughly than their right, and visa versa.
~We have between 2 and 10 million bacteria between our fingertip and elbow.
~Damp hands spread 1,000 times more germs than dry hands.
~The number of germs on your fingertips doubles after you use the toilet.
~Germs can stay alive on hands for up to three hours.
~Millions of germs hide under watches and bracelets, and there could be as many germs under your ring as there are people in Europe!

~One of the most germiest things in your house is the keyboard to your computer.

Now doesn't that just want to make you go and wash?