Thursday, November 24, 2011

Personal Childhood Wb

I grew up in a family of women. My grandmother raised me in a home with four aunts. We had no males living in my home and my mother nor father was around.
My grandmother raised me to always act like a little girl, and to always have manners. She along with my aunt Mixie made sure that I had the best of everything!
My oldest Aunt Mixie helped my grandmother to raise me. She worked to provide for me and her younger sisters. Paid for one of her sisters to go to college, then turned around and paid for me to attend college as well. Today, she is known by children as granny. My mother is not around. Therefore, she is their grandmother.
My aunt Bev was my motivation. The first person of our family to attend college. She received her BS, MS, Ed Sp., and now earning her Doctorate. She started out as a teacher and is now a principal at a local elementary school. She is one of the five highest paid persons in our school district.
My aunt Terri was my hairdresser. She made sure that my hair was fix and always took me on fun outings like on Easter every year we would go to the Pavilion, an amusement park in Myrtle Beach. She was also the one who took me trick or treating every year.
My aunt Dedra, was the baby of the family. She was my babysitter. She would play games with me at home and always take me places with her. She was the first one to have children. Her children grew up with me as my younger brothers and sisters.
In my home growing up I had many rules to abide by. My grandmother was very old school and therefore had many rules to live in her house and in order to “turn out a decent young lady”. Many of my grandmother’s rules has followed me into my own family. Although my grandmother was strict, I think it helped to shape me into the motivated, strong, smart, sophisticated, and independent young woman that I am today. This is why many of the same rules and boundaries that my grandmother instilled in me as young girl, I use with my own children and family.


 My aunt Terri with Jordan, my nephew and my daughter
 My grandmother playing a clothespin game at a baby shower
 My Aunt Bev
 My Aunt Dedra with her children and grandchild, Jordan.
My Aunt Mixie, just getting home from work.
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1 comment:

  1. Tara I. WallsNovember 29, 2011 at 8:12 PM

    Hi Shavonne, Your Childhood Web really touched my heart. I was also raised by my grandmother as well. She is the only mother I know. Her sisters pitched in to help her with the five of us as much as they could as well. My grandmother was my rock. She raised me to be the very mature, caring, and giving young woman I am today. Without her I wouldn’t be who I am today. Therefore we take our “Hats” off to grandmas.

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The Birth of my first son!

Lilypie Angel and Memorial tickers
I chose to write about the birth of my first son, who was born preterm at 19 wks and passed away. I chose this birth to write about because it was the most tramautic and most memorable. I also chose this birth because after reading the chapters and sections I think it is important to be knowledgable about your body and to keep up with appointments and take proper test and procedures to ensure that your baby is born full term and healthy. Five days before going into labor, I felt really bad and had an inkling that something was wrong. The physician that I was using at the time had an office in my town but was only there on Thursdays for appt. This was a Friday afternoon and if I wanted to see her I would have to drive over sixty miles to her next office. So, i gnored the signs and went on thinking that I was ok. On Wednesday morning, I woke up with slight stomach cramps. Took a shower, got dressed for work, and daughter off to daycare. Stopped by my Mother in laws house and when I got inside I had to sit down, the pain had gotten progressively worse. Still I continued on to work and and worked through the morning with the pain getting getting worse. Then I went to the restroom and noticed a bloody show. I had a coworker take me to the local er where I had to got through an hour long ultrasound of the baby and my cervix. My baby looked great and I found out I was having a boy!!!! How exciting, that is just what me and hubby wanted since we already had a daughter togther and he has an older daughter from a previous relationship. This was perfect. Now, all they had to do was stop these cramps so I could get home to inform my husband of the picture perfect family we were going to have! Well after waiting hours for a dr, to come in and see my I was delivered the horrible news!! His words exactly was "you are going to lose this baby". He said it with no sympathy at all. I immediately started crying and askign why. He stated that I had developed an infection. My cervix had already dialted to 5 cm, the blood I saw earlier was my mucus plug and when he checked me, the water bag was coming through my cervix. I pleaded with him to do anything to help save my baby. He stated that if the bag would go up some, he could stitch my cervix closed but he couldn't do that with the bag protruding out of the cervix. So I waited nervously overnight, laying basically upside down in the hospital bed hoping that this would help the bag to go back up and at least give him a little room to stitch me up. The next day he came to check me again and told me that there was nothing else he could do. I had developed an infection from having my cervix opened for so long and that if I didnt deliver the baby I would die. I felt like dying right there. This just couldnt be. I was 19 wks pregnant, certainly I could hang in there three more wks. But he said no. I called my normal dr's office and they called a major medical university located near their office who has one of the best neonatal hospitals in the world. However, they wouldnt even accept me since I wasnt at least 21 wks and due to the fact that I had the infection. So I had to accept that I was going to lose my baby boy. The nurse came into to give me something to break my water and everything just seemed like a blur. I was told that I didnt need an epidural since the baby was less than a pound. However, after hollering and screaming in pain from the emotional and physical stress, they gave me an epidural. Even with the epidural, this was the most painful and emotional births of my three births. Even with the epidural I could feel every single thing, I was in a lot of pain but dont know if it was really physical pain or the emotional and mental pain that was causing me to be in pain. Jackson Reed Hemingway was born on July 23, 2008 at 12:18pm. I decided that I didnt want to see him but having to be sedated after the birth, when I calmed down, I wanted to see my baby. I was able to see him and hold him. The hospital provided me with pics and foot prints. Me and my husband decided not to have a memorial for him. Instead, we mourned privately. Although Jackson did not live, I know that if he had, he would have had tremendous health issues to battle. Pre-term babies literally have to fight for their lifes. I would have wanted him to live. However, when I think of all the pain and issues that would have plagued him the first couple of months of his life, I would never want to see my child suffer. His development would have been slowed but learning from this weeks resources on growth and development it is not to say that he wouldnt have grown up to be a healthy baby boy.