Missed Chapter 1? Read it here.
MAY 2008
After my high school graduation, I had to re-think everything I had planned for my future. Would I still go to college? Would I continue working or try to find a better job? Would I be living with my parents forever? One thing I knew for certain is that I was going to be a teen mom of twins.
During my pregnancy I worked at a tiny ice cream shop. I had many jobs during high school, Chuck E. Cheese, Qdoba, Old Navy + more! The ice cream shop just happened to be where I was at that current moment. Obviously they are only open for the summer so I knew it wasn’t going to last long. My mom and I talked and agreed that instead of trying to find another job, I would enroll at the local community college.
SEPTEMBER 2008
I wasn’t sure what I wanted to go to school for exactly, so I signed up for prerequisites. I found that I loved going to my classes even if EVERYONE stared at me in the halls. I was six months pregnant with twins, so as you can imagine, I was large. 16 and Pregnant wasn’t airing on T.V. yet and teen pregnancy wasn’t as ‘accepted’ as it is today. FUN FACT: one of my friends sent me an application to be on 16 and Pregnant and I was like what the hell, no way. I COULD HAVE BEEN ON THE SHOW – MAKING MILLIONS. 😉
Anyways, I was loving going to school and not working. I would spend my days on the couch with my very swollen feet up, watching T.V. My friends would come over and hang out with this big ole pregnant girl and my parents catered to my every need. Life was as good as it could get for a pregnant teen. 🙂
During the beginning of my pregnancy, I pictured having twin boys. That is what I thought they were going to be. Well, during my ultrasound we found it was two girls! I was so excited! I called their dad (we had only talked a handful of times since breaking up) and I’m not sure he was as excited, haha! Oh, and we found out my due date was December 29th!
NOVEMBER 2008
Around my last two months of pregnancy I developed the WORST thing in the entire world. PUPPS rash. Oh. Em. Gee. You can google the exact terms but in my own words – its a pregnancy rash that can spread all over your body but mostly stays on your stomach. There is no cure besides giving birth. It’s very rare, so naturally I got it. I’m not joking when I say it is the worst kind of itchy pain EVER. I had zero stretch marks until I got this rash and because I couldn’t help but itch my skin raw, the stretch marks came by the dozen. Know what are chronic pelvic pain treatment options. I carried around a nylon sock full of oatmeal and rubbed it on my skin. I would itch my stomach until it bled. There was nothing that helped. I think the pictures can speak for themselves. I had that for two straight months.
I should also mention that around this time we scheduled a c-section because one of the babies was breech. I don’t remember the exact date we scheduled it for but it was going to happen right before Christmas.
DECEMBER 2008
I completed my first semester of college with good grades. I was happy school was over because I was nine months pregnant. I was HUGE. My feet were so swollen that I could only wear slip-on clogs and it was the middle of winter (my feet grew a whole size and never went back down!). A lot of my classes only had those single person desks, where you slip in from the side so the table wasn’t adjustable. My belly was so big that I would have to sit sideways. It was embarrassing and awful BUT I finished. I was proud of myself.
One day, my mom had asked me to bring my little sister to the orthodontist since she had to work. I sat in the car while my sister went in for her appointment. As I sat there, I suddenly felt like it was hard for me to breathe. I called my mom crying because… well what else would a pregnant 18 year old do? I don’t really remember what I thought was wrong because I knew I wasn’t in labor, something was just off. My mom left work and we went to my OBGYN office. They ran some tests and he came back to tell me I had preeclampsia (high blood pressure, swelling and protein in urine). After explaining that it can be dangerous for the babies, he said they needed to come out soon. At my OB office you see many different doctors and whoever happens to be on call is the one who will deliver. Well I really wanted this specific doctor to deliver my babies. I told him I wanted him to be the one to do my scheduled c-section. He paused and said, “well I have dinner plans tonight so lets head over to the hospital now.” NOW?! I had thought he meant I would have a couple more days but nope… NOW.
My mom and I drove home to grab my hospital bags. I called a million people to let them know and then I started to get really nervous.
It was December 16th, 2008 and on this day I was going to become a mom.
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