Consequences of being 16 and Pregnant

Chapter 9

When he came he was sleeping . I was so scared to see the outcome of the shunt that they placed in his head. ( a shunt is something that's placed on the brain that drains fluid. It drains down a tube that is in his chest and leads down to his stomach. The fluid comes out his brain down the tube and turns into pee.)

When I finally laid eyes on him, I was so amazed at how much his swollen head had went down, and he was trying to open up his eyes and he kept circling up his mouth like he wanted a bottle. He couldn't suck the bottle though, which is why they had this orange tube going into his mouth and down his throat to his stomach. It was disgusting. I hated it. 

Few hours later...  

Me and Anthony had drifted into a nap, I was woken up from a loud cry, at first I was annoyed because I thought it had been the kid across the hall because he cried all the time. But then when I focused in on the cry It was the exact same cry I heard in my dream for the last month of my pregnancy. I lifted up slowly from the couch and look up and seen my babies mouth open and arms in swimming motion and feet kicking. I looked over at a sleeping Anthony and went to wake him up. Because I couldn't walk. I also pressed the nurse button.

Since we couldn't hold him just yet due to all the monitors hooked up to him, I just stared down at him and smiled. 

I guess the nurse read my mind because she began eliminating the machines he no longer needed and the ones remaining were a little more flexible. She told me to sit in the chair and she would place him in my arms.

After a whole month of having mixed emotions on how I should feel about this whole situation, when she placed him in my arms and I was able to hold my baby for the first time, my heart melted, at how small he was, at how much he favored his dad and how he even cracked a smile when he laid eyes on me. I was no doubt in love and I didn't care what anybody thought of me being a teen parent. 

The next day  

A teacher came in and talked to me about what I wanted to do about school and I told her I wanted to finish. She took me up to the classroom they had and got my last two classes registered for online and I began going hard. Spending all of my time at the hospital between going downstairs to see my son and coming back up to finish my classes. I was done with my two classes before we were released from the hospital. 

The day we were finally released I was so excited. I couldn't wait to put him in his bassinet I had looked at for the past 9 months waiting to be filled. 

Life was good I was preparing for graduation, Jeremiah met with his physical and occupational therapists, and weekly nurse. His feeding supplies were delivered on the first of every month, because we still fed him through the tube. He was getting older and more active and even crawling on time, the doctors told me to expect a delay in that but Jeremiah proved them wrong. I was at a happy place in my life but that didn't stop me from thinking about what I was going to do to get justice for my Jeremiah...