Being a young mom means we met a little early, but I get to love them longer.


Here are some links to helpful posts I have done in the past :)

Learn about car seat safety HERE!

Need breastfeeding advice? Click HERE for lots of helpful tips!

Lilypie Fourth Birthday tickers

Lilypie Second Birthday tickers

Lilypie Breastfeeding tickers

Monday, March 29, 2010

Before I was a mom...

Before I was a mom:
  • I was never concerned with how much money I spent or what I spent it for.
  • I never worried about where the closest hospital was or which hospital was the absolute best.
  • I was never certain about how I wanted to spend my day.
  • I never cared about what was on television or what kind of music was being listened to.
  • I spent my morning making sure I looked the way I wanted.
  • I went to school partially to socialize.
  • I had never known what it was like to share a room with someone, much less a bed.
  • I never drove the speed limit. .
  • I did not care how long I was out or where I went.
  • I had no idea what it was like to be friends with someone else who had a child.
  • I never thought about rather or not a person would be a good influence on a child.
  • I never wanted to get home quick. 
  • I never asked for help.
Before I was a mom:
  • I never worried about a simple cold.
  • I had never wanted to change a diaper before.
  • I had never had to soothe cries.
  • I never had to kiss a boo-boo.
  • I never cried when someone got a shot.
  • I was never concern with the temperature of water or food.
  • I never had to give someone two baths in a row because they peed in the water.
  • I never had to give someone a bath period.
  • I had never been thrown up on and did not mind.
  • I never wondered what kind of formula was best for a baby.
  • I never cried because I did not know why someone else was crying.
  • I was never concerned about making someone else look presentable.
  • I only had to make sure I was buckled in the car.
  • I never had to carry so many things with me just to go to the grocery store.
  • I never worried about whether food was nutritious enough or not.
  • I never had to go back home because we left the bottle.
  • I had never wiped a runny nose and did not mind.
  • I was never peed on.
  • I was never pooped on.
  • I never tried to get a boggie out.
  • I never stayed up all night because someone else did.
  • I had never held something until my arms fell asleep.
  • I was never woke up at night to make sure someone was breathing.
  • I never had to be quiet for nap time.
  • I never had to make sure all the supplies were stocked.
  • I never wondered where a simple scratch came from.
  • I was never concerned as to whether or not I was doing everything correct.
Before I was a mom:
  • I never looked into someone's eyes and instantly fell in love.
  • I simple grin never made me so happy.
  • I had never had a laughing contest.
  • I had never held someone in my arm so I could feel them breathing.
  • I never watched someone sleep so peacefully.
  • I had never known something could be so innocent.
  • I never thought toys could be so fun again.
  • I never knew that watching a milestone be reached would be so amazing.
  • I have never had so much pride in something I helped to create.
  • I never knew the coos would be so adorable.
  • I had no idea that I would love spending my days filled with nothing more than being a mom.
  • I did not know that she would be so beautiful.
  • I was amazed at how strong she is.
  • I never knew saying "she's not sick anymore" could bring me so much happiness.
  • I did not know that she could make her father go from a charming boy to a wonderful man.
  • I never knew I could take so many pictures and videos.
  • I did not know I could brag about something so much.
  • I had no clue my heart could feel so complete.
  • I never wanted time to freeze to keep her the way she is, but go on to see her grow at the same time.
  • I had never hugged someone as much as I hug her.
  • I did not know how wonderful it felt to come home, and see her face light up when she saw me.
  • I had no clue I could say someone's name so many times in one day.
  • I did not know how awesome it would feel to see her respond to her name.
  • I was unaware of how much I could long to hear her say "mama."
  • I did not know how much fun just going on a walk could be.
  • I had no idea what a perfect family felt like.
  • I never knew what my purpose in life was.
  • I did not know how blessed I truly was.
  • I could not imagine my life without her.
  • I never knew I would LOVE being a mommy.
  • I did not know I could love someone as much as I love my daughter Amberlee Grace Evans :)

Thursday, March 25, 2010

My baby girl is growing up so fast!

          When she was born she was so tiny only 7 pounds and 14 ounces, and 21 and a half inches long. Now at 4 months she weighs 17 pounds and 1 ounce, and she is 26 and a half inches long! She is in the 95th percentile for both weight and height. She has been able to hold her head up since she was born, but she has completely mastered it now. She can even sit up on her own now, she is still a little wobbly when she does, but she can do it. She sat in a high chair for the first time last week, and has been doing it ever since. She also sits up in her bath tub now. She has mastered rolling over as well. She started rolling from her back to her tummy, but she can roll from her tummy to her back now too, and hold herself up while she is on her tummy. And just yesterday so was trying to crawl. She has been scooting herself for a while now, but yesterday she got a new toy and she wanted to play with it so bad that she got up on her hands and knees. She kept falling over, but she eventually did get to the toy through a mixture of falling forward and scooting. Speaking of new toy.. she even plays with her toys now. She reaches for them and grabs them, and even holds onto them. She is also learning cause and effect.. she has a piano that has a book attached to it and when you turn the pages the piano does different things. She turns the pages to where she wants it and it is so cute to watch her do that. She has learned so much since she was born.
          Just last week she began eating baby food. She loves it, but that is a major milestone for me. She has tried applesauce, which is her favorite, peaches, and bananas. She has also had rice cereal in her bottles which she loves as well, but she really like the baby food. She is so cute when she eats. When I first gave it to her she wasn't sure about the spoon, but now she'll open her mouth for more, and if I don't give her a bite fast enough she gets mad. She still doesn't eat a whole jar at one and she is only in stage 1 baby food, but she is still eating it. She doesn't just use bottles anymore.
          The last thing is that she is so noisy now. That is not a bad thing by any means.. she has found her voice. She babbles all the time about anything and everything. I just wish I knew what she was trying to tell us so we could talk back. She also is laughing at things now. She laughs at her toys, or when we make funny faces or noises at her, or when we tickle her, or when her daddy acts like he's going to drop her (I am too scared to do that lol). And she has learned to scream for attention. I am not to fond of that, but I know she only wants attention because if you start talking to her she'll smile, and if you pick her up she doesn't scream again. She also says "ma." She hasn't quite said "mama" yet, but I know it is coming soon. I cannot wait!
           I miss her being a tiny baby is some ways, but I love seeing her learn new things. I love hearing her try to talk to me. And I love seeing her smile at me. She is growing up fast.. the days are flying by. I never believed my parents when they said that the years go by faster when you have kids, but now I know exactly what they are talking about. I feel like I'll miss something if I just blink, and I don't want to miss a single thing. She needs to slow down so I can take it all in lol.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

My fiance and me.

I know I created this blog to show my experiences as a teen mother, but this blog would not be here if it were not for my fiance. We have had our fights, but he really is a wonderful person. In the summer of 2007 my friend and I wanted to go swimming, but we didn't have any money to get into a public pool. She said that her cousin had a pool, so she called him and he said we could come over. When we got there I saw him, and I thought he was really cute, but I knew he was 18 and I was 15, so I thought he would never even look twice at me, but a few minutes after I saw him he came and jumped in the pool. He was flirting with me, but I thought he was just being nice. About a week later I got a phone call from him, and after that we started talking on the phone a lot.I had just come out of one of those "dramatic" teenage relationships, and I felt that I wasn't ready for another relationship. I thought I just wanted to be friends with him. We became close friends quickly, and began hanging out all the time. He would take me places, or we would just hang out at my house. The more I hung out with him the more I realized I was falling for him, and the more I realized that the more scared I got. He had asked me out once already, and I had turned him down. Then one night we were laying on my trampoline looking at the stars and talking (I could tell him anything), and he kissed me. It was the best kiss I had ever have. I had never really felt anything with any of my other kisses, but this one was different, and again that scared me even more. I didn't want to get hurt again. He asked me out again that night, but again I said no. We kept hanging out, and I really began considering going out with him. I was going to spend the night at my friend's (his cousin), and he offered to come take me to her house. While we were outside he asked me out again. I told him I liked him, but I didn't know, so he told me to think about it and call him later that night. I decided I wanted to be with him, so I called him, but it was late and he was already asleep. The next day I called him and we talked for awhile and then he asked me out. That was one July 24th, 2007. Saying yes felt good, and we have been together ever since. We were and always have been great together. After we started going out we talked everyday, and saw each other all the time. He took my to Coolidge Park for our first official date. It's a huge park on the Tennessee River with all kinds of different things to do. There is a giant bridge that goes across the river just for walking. We walked on the bridge, and sat on a bench and looked at the water. At the end of the bridge he bought me a slushy. Then we walked back across and went down into the park. It was getting dark, but we sat at the edge of the water and talked. We now claim that spot where we sat as our spot. It was the best date I had ever been on.
We continued to talk everyday and grew closer and closer. He treated me like I was a princess, and I thought I was falling in love with him. But again that scared me. The first time he said he loved me I pretended that I didn't hear him because I didn't know what to say back. The second time he said it he was fixing to leave my house, we were sitting out front on the hood of his car and he pulled me to him and told me that he loved me. There was no way I couldn't have heard it, so I told him that I thought I did, but I didn't want to tell him something that wasn't true. About a week passed and then he told me that his mom was sending him to live two hours away to work with his uncle. It was a well paying job, but I was devastated that he was moving away. We agreed to try a long distance relationship, and the night before he left we were sitting in his car and I leaned over and whispered in his ear "I love you." When I said it I knew it was true, and I wished I would have said it back the first time he said it to me. We talked every night and he drove to see me every weekend. I loved the weekends because we spent all our time together, but it was awful having to say goodbye on Sunday night. Eventually he said he didn't want to leave me anymore. He told his mom he was moving back home. She did not take that well. She had cosigned on his car, so she took it from him, and there was nothing he could do about it. Then she hid his phone from him. She did everything she could to get us to break up. She never liked me for no reason other than my age. When we had only been dating for two week, and I had never even dreamed of having sex with him, she was giving him pamphlets on statutory rape. Aside from that, Chris worked really hard to save up the money for a car of his own, but little did I know he was saving up for a ring as well. On my birthday (February 3rd) in 2008 he came to my house, got down on one knee and handed me a rose, and asked me to marry him. Inside the rose was a beautiful white gold, diamond ring. I said yes, and we have been engaged ever since. We hardly ever fought. We were so close people told us we made them jealous. Around April of 2008 we lost our virginity to each other. I do not regret that at all. I know we are meant to be married and he is the only one I ever want to be with. We were just a normal happy couple for almost a year. We had both talked about how we definitely wanted children, but we decided we didn't want any at the time. We were going to wait until I got out of high school and I got married. However, in March of 2009 I realized that I was late and I just kept getting later and later until I was two weeks late. That is when I took a pregnancy test and it came back instantly positive. We both agreed that we would never abort our baby, and that we wanted to keep it. After the initial shock set in we were both even excited, but then when I was about 5 months pregnant things turned sour. I really am still not sure what happened. We went from a couple that never fought and were getting ready to start a family to him never calling me, never coming over, and not talking when he did answer the phone. Then that is when I finally got him to confess to me that he had cheated on me. I never in my wildest dreams thought he would do that to me. My perfect world was shattered, and I was pregnant. I was extremely hurt and even more confused. I was determined to figure out what had happened, and if our relationship could be saved I was going to save it. I found out that it was with a girl I had met who knew we were engaged and that I was pregnant. Eventually we talked about it and he explained what happened. Basically it boiled down to him being afraid that he wasn't going to be a good father. We decided that we were going to give it another try for our baby, and amazingly our relationship was better than ever. He treated me amazing. He says he did because he realized he almost lost the best thing that ever happened to him, and that he almost threw away his family. From then on he came to every doctors appointment he could, bought things for Grace, took me baby shopping, took me on dates, gave me roses randomly, and told me he loved me all the time. Life was great again, and then it was time. He was right there by my side through the whole delivery. He was a great helper, and wonderful to me through the whole thing. Whatever I needed he was there for me. He is a great father. Recently his Grandpa died. He was like a dad to him, so he took it really hard. I am trying to understand what he is going through, but no one close to me has ever died, so I can only be there for him. His emotions have caused some fights, but he is coping a lot better now. I know he just needs time to heal and I am trying to work with him on that. We are now going strong and have been together for over two and a half years now. Despite our struggles I love him with all my heart and I would die inside if I ever lost him. The only thing that would keep me going was our baby girl. He is wonderful to both of us. There could not be a more involved father, and loving fiance. I love my fiance :)

The little things in life really do matter.

I am in National Honor Society at my school. I was inducted into that club in 11th grade. It is a club that you have to have a 95 GPA or higher to be in. For graduation you get to wear two things signifying that you were in the club. One is a medal that the club furnishes, and the other is a stole that cost about $20.
The other day I was in class and my teacher told me that the teacher over National Honor Society needed to see me. I wasn't sure what it was about and when I got down there she asked me to step out into the hall. I had no idea what was going on. I was afraid that I was getting kicked out maybe for the fact that I had been pregnant. When we got out there she proceeded to explain to me that someone had anonymously paid for my stole. She said she couldn't tell me who it was, but that whoever it was said they admired me for having a baby, returning to school, and maintaining my 4.0 GPA, and that they wanted to show that they cared. I really wish I knew who it was so I could thank them personally. I am extremely grateful. That really meant a lot to me that someone cared enough to think about me and my baby like that. I told the teacher to tell them I said thank you. I just hope that she can express how truly grateful I am for their kindness. I don't think that I will ever forget that for as long as I live.