Pete Buttigieg Recalls Son Being Intubated Amid Newborn Twins' RSV Battle: 'Sometimes Parenting Is Terror'

etonline.com:

Pete Buttigieg is looking back on his first year as a parent and the sometimes «terrifying» moments he and his husband, Chasten, encountered with their now 1-year-old twins, Penelope Rose and Joseph «Gus» August.

In a personal essay published on Medium, the 40-year-old U.S. Transportation Secretary opened up about the health issues his children have faced as premature newborns, including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which he says they developed about a month after they were adopted in September 2021.«Penelope developed severe reflux, terrifying us when she would stop breathing and turn purple in a matter of seconds,» Buttigieg writes. «More than once, it happened in the car, prompting Chasten to hurriedly pull over so we could unbuckle her from her seat and help get her breathing back into rhythm while standing on the side of the road.»While terrifying, it hasn't all been bad, with Buttigieg noting that both he and Chasten have relished in the «joyful» moments as well.«It was joyful, too, of course,» he maintains. «Some of the sweetest moments happened during those bleary feedings around one or four in the morning, as Penelope's dark round eyes blinked up at me from behind the bottle, or when Joseph, whom we quickly nicknamed Gus, produced a resounding and adorable burp that echoed like a little joke just between us.»But sadly, the twins' health issues did not end there.

Their trouble breathing was soon diagnosed as RSV, something the entire family had contracted.Per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, RSV is a common respiratory virus that usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms.