A First Time Mom

I thought I was living my life to the fullest, I had the world in my hands, I never thought the real joy and happiness in life is having such a beautiful baby girl. That's what they called her; nurses and doctors, not having picked out a name for her yet. But, before I start I have to go the beginning, how my life was changed from just this beautiful experience I never thought would happen, especially not at 20 years of age. My life wasn't great, my childhood wasn't perfect, and the many horrible things my siblings and I endured are beyond belief. Although life wasn't great it did take time and it was on the right track, at the age of 18 I grew up and put all my nonsense behind me.

I finished school in 2018 at the age of 19; walking on stage and being handed my diploma was my biggest accomplishment and I couldn't be more proud of myself, especially when I did it all by myself and proved to those who doubted me wrong. After high school, I was living on my own and I soon had a recruiter for the marines. So close to finishing all steps to be deployed, I had then changed my mine; last minute, and instead took a year off before heading to college. I was excepted to Pittsburgh Technical College, and on my own and working in a nursing home in Columbiana, it was very difficult for me to pay for my dorm and soon my orientation. Since I did not attend orientation in Pittsburgh because I was working in Columbiana and had no ride I then missed my chance to be in the ROTC program and having a criminal degree. After I took a year off I then enrolled myself in CTU (Colorado Technical University) in October; I had started classes on October 1, 2019. Ever since I have been attending school online for Bachelor of Science In Criminal Justice. I will be graduating in 2022.

During the year of 2018, I was in a relationship with my best friend from high school. We soon then fell in love, during our time together, we have lived together and then soon after in May of 2019 I had found out I was pregnant. As young as I was; 20, I was not only scared and nervous but also happy, for I knew that this would change our lives forever. Only being together not a full a year we were engaged and now I was pregnant, soon decided to live with a roommate had to change and we decided we need a place of our own. Moving from Sharon, Pa to Campbell, Ohio was our very first own apartment. We had my sister move in and soon after she left, and so did my fiancé and I, being only 5 months pregnant at the time we moved into my father's home for a month and moved down the street from my father's home into our very own home.

November of 2019 was when we moved into our home, and there we set up our first home and set up our beautiful daughter's bedroom. Our first baby and we couldn't believe that, as happy as we were, also scared because we didn't know if we were going to be good, even great parents if we were ready to have a baby. Not knowing what the gender was, and just fully guessing what the baby would be; by setting her room with natural colors, in August of 2019 my family had thrown my fiancé and me a surprise gender reveal in front of my job at 9 pm. I did not know what was going on until I had popped the balloon and realized that it was a gender reveal and that our beautiful baby was a beautiful baby girl.

The months afterward were very hard for me, I was having complications. I thought being pregnant would be fun but I was certainly wrong; morning sickness was all-day sickness for me, I had it morning, noon, and night. There were days when I couldn't eat, drink and I couldn't even sleep; I was constantly in pain and my feet were swelling. During my pregnancy, I made sure I was working, and so I was; working at my aunt's daycare, full-time. My mornings were the hardest because I would take my prenatal and by the time I arrived at work I had puked them up, my puking was so bad I was transferred to the hospital because I then started puking blood. From what I could understand the doctors had told me from the stomach acid I was puking, it was burning mine through causing it to bleed. Things then got worse when I found out instead of gaining weight I was losing weight, not only in the beginning but also in the middle of my pregnancy, it wasn't until I was 7 months that I gained 12 pounds, many more after.

Continuing working at the daycare, I was then 8 months in and was now going to a week to weekly appointments for dilations. During my first appointment, I was 1 cm and by my next, I was then only 1 1/2 to 2 cm, she would not drop. As the weeks went by I continued working, it wasn't until a few days before my pregnancy that I had then decided to take leave; last week of January. My due date was February 07, 2020, the day before I have had one last appointment for dilation, and no surprise I was only dilated 2 cm. I was then told to go to Boardman hospital; Mercy Health- St. Elizabeth on the 7th at 9 pm for I would be spending the night.

February 7th, 2020 at 8:15-8:45 my fiancé and I went out to subway to eat before arriving at Mercy Health. By 9 pm we arrived at the hospital and had parked the car, we were then waiting in the waiting room to have a clean room to sleep. While being in the room I have checked AGAIN for dilation, and still only 2 cm, it was then determined she would not be delivered that night and my water would be broken the next day. On February 8th, 2020 at 5 am I woke up to sharp pains in my stomach and back, I then ran to the bathroom, while using the bathroom I had then discovered my mucus plug came out.

"Babe! Baby! " I yelled to my fiancé, having him be aware that I was wide awake and my mucus plug has come out. We stood up the rest of the time and by morning I was seen by different people for different reasons, but one for another dilation, to be told again I have not dropped. It was then to my knowledge I would need to have my water broken, by 9 am the doctors broke my water, and soon after I started having contractions. My contractions were very painful and later on, I was given the epidural, while having my contractions on the epidural it then became a concern while having a contraction her heart rate would go down. My fiance and I were very concerned and scared, we did not know what was wrong. We were told the umbilical cord might be around the baby's neck and it could be the reason for the low heart rate.

C-Section was decided. I could not stop shaking, and while my fiancé was getting prepared to go into the delivery room I was laying down being ready to have surgery. He then arrived, automatically made sure I was comfortable and since I was sleepy he told me to sleep, but, I was too scared to close my eyes because I thought if I do so I would not wake up. During the surgery we laughed and talked, I did not feel a thing and by 1:52 pm our beautiful daughter was born. She came out crying and kicking, no problem with her at all; just stubborn to come out. Our beautiful baby girl weighed 7lbs and 4 oz.

Liliana Renay Norwood