Single Mother at 17!

By Sarah

In May of 1997 is when I started seeing Jason (the father). He was a great man until January of 1998 anyway. That's when I found out I was seven weeks along. And that's when he left. That was the worst thing anyone could go through.

Anyway, I was due August of 1998. I had a healthy pregnancy. I was sick through the whole thing though. The sickness didn't stop until I was six months!! At around eight months is when I lost my mucous plug. I thought that I was going to have a problem when that happened.

My doctor told me that I wasn't supposed to lose it until a week or two before delivery. He did an ultrasound to see if there were any signs of preterm labour. I was relieved when he said that there weren't any. All I could do at that point was sit back and wait.

On August 27, 1998 I was sitting at home with my mother when I started feeling my pants getting wetter than normal. It wasn't a steady flow but I was worried anyway. I called the doctor and I was instructed to go in for a test. I got there at about 3 p.m. The test was to see if my amniotic sac was leaking. After about a half-hour the nurse came in and told me that I was leaking. At that point I got scared. I knew that I wasn't ready to have a child but couldn't believe that it was really happening!!

Anyway, at about 4 p.m. I was told that I was having contractions that were about 10 minutes apart. I could not feel them yet, everyone says those are mild ones though. At around 7 p.m. my contractions had stopped. I was dilated to only 2 centimeters at that time so there weren't any risks. The doctor gave me some medicine to help me sleep.

I slept solidly until about 1:30 a.m. on the 28th. That time I woke up with strong contractions. I could barely stand it. I was given Nubain to help the pain. It did help until I got dilated to about 6 centimeters. At around 7 centimeters is when my water broke. Talk about an icky feeling!!!

At 9.5 centimeters I was in soooo much pain. The nurse wouldn't let me push until I was fully dilated. I couldn't take it anymore!! I decided to have an epidural. The instant that needle went in, I had total relief. (I'm glad I had it too because it took two and a half hours to get to 10 centimeters!!)

So, finally at about 12 p.m., the nurse came in and checked me. She said, It's time to push now. Those words were music to my ears!! That was the easiest part of it all. I couldn't feel anything because of the epidural. In two pushes the head crowned. The nurse let me feel it. A head full of hair!! I thought as I touched it. After the head came out the doctor told me that he didn't want me to stop, I was a little confused because they always tell you to stop at that point. So, I pushed like he told me to and as I was watching the baby come out (mirror), I could see that the cord was wrapped around the neck. I didn't want anything to go wrong so I pushed as hard as I could. In the fourth push the baby was out.

The doctor removed the cord and saw nothing wrong. I was soooo relieved!! So, at 12:35 p.m. on August 28, 1998 (my due date too by the way), I had a beautiful girl named Stephanie Susanne. She was 21 inches long and weighed in at 7 pounds 8.7 ounces. That was a day I'll never forget.

My daughter is almost 2 now and I have been blessed with another bundle of joy due to arrive on March 9, 2001. I will share that story with you all also. Good luck to all new mothers out there and hope you have a very healthy baby!!! See you soon! :-)