I remember the moment clearly, I was sitting on my parents floral couch; the one I had been sleeping 16 hours a day on for the past two weeks. It was April and it was raining. I was counting the days since my last cycle on my phone.. 43. My mom was sitting at her computer and I remember almost blacking out as I walked over to her and sat down wrapped in a blanket.

    “Mom, I need to tell you something”

The next hour and a half was a rollercoaster of Disappointment and fear. She rushed to the pharmacy to buy a box of tests before my Step-Dad came home. I opened the box and took the test. We agreed that it would be more accurate if we didn’t look until the three minute mark like the box said. So she sat on the edge of the bathtub and I curled up with my knees to my chest against the wall.

3 Minutes later and my heart is somewhere on the floor, I’m seeing black spots and I can’t breathe as she shows me two pink little lines. At 15 years old, I’m pregnant.

My pregnancy was easy from what I’ve heard, hardly any morning sickness and my only issue was with gestational anemia. The day my daughter was born was long. My boyfriend and I had been at college all day. I sat there waiting for him as he finished his classes. I felt sick on and off all day but there was no pain. I went home that night and fell asleep.

 When I woke up in the middle of the night from a nightmare I didn’t think anything of it. I went to the restroom (like pregnant women typically do) and came back feeling achy and incredibly hot.  I thought it was odd for it to be so hot in November,  but I opened a window and laid back down.

That’s when it hit me, that first contraction. I thought to myself that it must be Braxton hicks or my belly growing, what else could it be? I was far too early to be in labor. What seemed like an eternity of discomfort later another one hit, much stronger this time. I laid there for almost an hour experiencing one contraction after the other before I finally realized what was happening to me was real.

We arrived at the hospital at 3 in the morning, my contractions were 5 minutes apart but I was too far dilated to stop them. The baby is coming! Except everything stopped shortly after, no dilation, no baby. The OB came in and broke my water and shortly after a nurse hung pitocin.

She came at 11:26 PM on November 26th (11/26)

Everything has changed. Sleep was no longer a choice but a privilege.  Everything was about her before me. Help was NOT on it’s way! My friends were suddenly ghosts and everyone kept reminding me that I had no future. I “HAD” to drop out of school. I wasn’t allowed alone with my boyfriend, which meant he was never allowed to see me and our daughter. I was tired, depressed and felt like there was nothing left for me. This happens to a lot of young mother’s. They are expected to give up everything like their entire life is over and some days I wish that I had had more help and support, I wish that I had been given more options because the last 5 years might not have been such a struggle to keep a roof over my daughter’s head and food in her belly.

Another thing I was forced to deal with was the constant assumption and stereotypes. Other than not going to school, I wasn’t able to drive and living outside of town made it difficult for me to work. My daughter survived off of WIC, I did not make my boyfriend pay child support. My Boyfriend was there for us, got us anything that we needed. Worked hundreds of hours of Overtime and sometimes two jobs at a time. I was constantly told that he didn’t love me and everytime I saw an old face the question of “Are you guy’s even still together?” would somehow be the first thing to come up.

This was my reality as a Teen Mom but I would not change it for the World. My daughter is an Amazing Human being, Her and her brother were and are my world. Their father brings Joy to my life and we have been together for 7 and a half years now, 5 of which we have been married. I am a successful social media Influencer and my husband has a great job. We recently welcomed Identical twins into our world and we could not be happier with our lives.

This post was just to show you a small glimpse into my little world and my history and more importantly to help you understand that being a teen mother is not a bad thing. A life is a blessing, no matter the hardship and WE ARE NOT OUR STEREOTYPES.