Where do I start……
I got pregnant at 17… yes another teenage pregnancy, but my stories a little different. I was with the father of my daughter for 4 years when I got pregnant the first time and had a miscarriage at 14 weeks. After that I started being a little more cautious, but not that cautious, you see I was one of the teens who was rebelling against everyone because I couldn’t get out of my own way long enough to see that I was being an idiot. Well when I got pregnant again I was scared and told I was not getting an abortion, which at that time I didn’t approve of abortions anyway. So here I am 17 pregnant, living with my boyfriend and his parents (since my mom had thrown me out 2 months earlier ) I was working full-time for a call centre and I hated it. Every day became the same, I would wake up get sick get dressed get sick, brush my teeth, do my make up , get sick, redo my teeth, walk to bus stop (10 minutes away) get on the bus and 9 times out of 10 have to get off early to yet again get sick. I would then continue to work start my shift feeling horrible, go the whole day on the phone feeling horrible just to catch the shuttle home at 2 a.m. get sick, and have to clean a disgusting kitchen (my chore).
Well doesn’t that sound like fun. I hardly communicated with my boyfriend anymore and I was becoming more miserable with everyday, when I tried to approach my boyfriend about my depression, well I felt Ignored. I conducted a little experiment, I left for a week, During that week I got laryngitis and well I was newly pregnant with a past miscarriage so I wouldn’t take anything. I had doctors notes daily and called in hoping they would understand that I couldn’t talk on the phone with no voice… Well sadly, I was mistaken. I was fired…
40 hours… doesn’t seem like much, less than 2 straight days. 1 work week.. that’s how many hours short I was of qualifying for maternity leave in march. That’s how many hours I was from being out of my probation period at work… 40 hours….
I went back to the home I was so miserable in with promises of change, and support. I didn’t get any, only a lecture from a man who wasn’t even my father or my guardian.. I lasted 4 days before I packed what I could and left. I begged for my mom to take me back.. I crashed on numerous friends couches, I slept on my step dads cat smelly couch for 3 weeks before she said yes, on the condition I was out when they baby is born. Yup. So I tried everything to figure out and my only option was assistance from the government…welfare… Guess what, I was 18 and too young to qualify…Until my mom had her heart attack..
Lets go back to the heart attack. 2 a.m. I’m finally able to go to bed. I go upstairs 7 1/2 monthspregnant, my mom is there clammy and white as a ghost, and I grab her phone and call 911. I answer every question, I get every card, not even a tremor in my voice. I get off the phone and I immediately call my older sister, by the time I get a hold of her I’m having my blood pressure taken by paramedics and my mom is being put onto a chair like stretcher. I inform my older sister what’s going on and that she needs to come get my little sister (who is still asleep) because I am going to be in the ambulance. I inform her that I am not waking my little sister so that she does not panic, and I hang up the phone and get in the front seat of the ambulance. I answer every question I get through the doors and when they start to roll my mother away from me, I hear nothing, I know the nurse is talking but I break in that moment. I have never been more terrified in my entire life.
For the next month, my sisters did their thing, my now ex-boyfriend came to a few appointments, I took care of my mom, I cleaned, I cooked, I reached things for her. Then welfare finally decided I needed help and I had one week to find an apartment… A small 1 bedroom apartment… and then it was time. Midnight my water breaks, having already experienced contractions for a week I knew this was it. Well I got to the hospital and I am only 2cm, they made me walk. I had my mom, my 2 sisters, my dad, my ex and his mom and sister, and some friends who drove them down. I come back I’m 4cm, I can have a room. Now to say that having my ex and his family there only made things worse is well an understatement . He was just there terrified, with his mother controlling his every move, they leave, and slowly other people go home for quick shower. When everyone is finally back 21 hours of labour had passed; at 8:25 p.m on April 6, 2010 Riley Clara-Lynn is born 6 lb 14 oz 23 inches long. I beg for my newborns father to stay the night with me and he refuses (his mom refuses) so my older sister and her best friend stay with me. I try calling him again the following day to see if he will come, he didn’t, my little sister stayed that night, everyone came to see my little princess… except him…
My world is forever changed.
After Birth to be continued.
Single Parent Talk 