My Baby Gaige

Erin Conley
12/1/10
essay #2

My Baby Gaige

A few years ago if you would have talked to me about teen pregnancy I had a very strong opinion. I come from very traditional family: you don’t date till you’re of age, you get married before you live together, and you experience your life before bringing new life into the world.
In June of 2009 I had just got off work third shift at a pet hotel. I was on my way to my day time job at a convenient store, but was feeling very ill. I was very upset to my stomach, and had thrown up a few times that night. So I decided to call off and schedule a doctor’s appointment. The doctor got me in at 9a.m. that day. It was the normal doctor routine: sign in, get weighed, measure your height, pee in a cup and go to the room to wait for the doctor. It felt like I was waiting forever. The doctor walked in. she asked, “how are feeling and tell me your symptoms.” She did the usually doctor hmmm… that leaves you wondering, and then walked out of the room. When she came back she said, “Ms. Conley are you aware that you’re pregnant?” Me, totally shocked by what I had just heard, told the doctor that she better check the room number because I had always been told since I was a child that I would never bear children because of other medical problems. She said, “Ms. Conley I’m positive that I have the right room and that it is in fact you that is pregnant. This is why you have felt so sick.” She also asked what I planned to do. I just remember being stunned and all I could say was “you’re so wrong.”
About 10 more pregnancy tests later, I finally came to the conclusion that the doctor was right and I was in fact pregnant at 18. I had no idea what to do, or how I was going to break the news to my parents.
A week or two later I decided to finally tell my parents that I was pregnant. I invited my mom to come over to my house. I just told her straight forward. I said, “You can be supportive or not, but I’m pregnant.” My mom was shocked and cried, although at that time I don’t think that they were happy tears. As the months went by though both my parents became very supportive of my decisions and greatly helped me through my pregnancy.
I had always been the person that looked down on others who got pregnant at a young age. I can actually recall saying quite mean things to previous friends that had found out that they were pregnant. I guess I had always just assumed that if you where a teen mother you where some type of a whore who slept around. I guess I had just fallen in to stereotyping others and not knowing the true story.
I now know that the fact that you have a child at a young age has nothing to do with the person that you are. I feel horrible about all the mean and degrading thing that I have said in the past. When I found out that I was pregnant, I was eighteen years old, working two full time jobs, I had my own apartment and nice car, and paid all my own bills, I thought I was doing everything right. It was like a huge smack in the face to find out that I was going to have a baby.
After a few weeks of letting the idea settle, I started reading books about pregnancy. I even joined a parenting group for young mothers and fathers that got together once a week to discuss the issues they have in their lives and how much their life was going to change once they had their children. I think that it helped a lot to talk to other teens that were going to be parents. It helped me realize that not every one that has a child at such a young age is a loser and that you can still amount to something in life.
I had my son Gaige on March 1st of this year. Parenting is a whole new world for me. Every day is different. I now have a lot of respect for all of those who I’ve judged in the past. I never realized how hard it is to be in school, work a job, and take care of a child. Luckily my parents have helped me a lot. It was the best thing that’s happened to me in my life thus far. It has made a huge difference in my everyday life. I now take my responsibilities more seriously. I try every day to take make life great for my son. I always said I would never attend college, and you see where I’m at now. Now when I see a young girl who’s pregnant or has a small child I no longer jump to conclusions of how they live their life.