KS | LOUISIANALASS

Photo Credit: Brass and Twine

Sixteen and pregnant is a successful title, and since my feelings were mutual, I felt it was necessary to title this post 26 & Pregnant. 

See I was 26 – graduated college, started a career, own house, own car, two jobs work hard – a bad broad. 💁🏻 I come from a large family and although I had been appointed babysitter in my years growing up, I hadn’t been around a baby since my best friend amazingly birthed twins five years ago. (Serious props to her!) Five years without seeing a baby much less caring for one. I was out of practice and scared sh**less when I saw a positive sign on the pregnancy test. I didn’t know it yet, but I had much more to accept and overcome than just taking care of my future handsome boy.

“First comes love, second comes marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage.” Not sure if any of you grew up in a town where if you stepped on a cracker it was the next headline in the Sunday paper, but I did. And this was much bigger than stepping on a cracker. I had conceived before marriage and I had to accept myself before I could even face anyone or the idea of raising a little bébé. Pride, I would say was my biggest battle.

Maternity leave is serious in the UK. Women do not think twice about taking 3 months off. Some will even take leave up to a year! This was very shocking to me as my partner laughed at my plan to return to work in 4-6 weeks post birth. I had career goals and gym goals and all the goals besides focusing on the main goal – doing what’s best for your family. Thankfully, I have a good man who set me straight. After a couple of statistics through Google search, he helped me see the importance of being there for your little one as much as possible especially in their first year. (Yes, google solves many of our disagreements. Cheapest therapy on the net.) Now, he’ll have to find the statistics that prove why I should go BACK to work. 😎

Usually pregnancy in itself is a big enough battle for most couples. Ryan and I had many things to work out in a very short time. Do we settle in the states? Do we settle in the UK? Should we set up his baby room? Where do we send the gifts from the baby shower? Do we even accept gifts or ask everyone for gift cards? It seemed as if every time we came to a conclusion another obstacle or opportunity would come up with work and we would have to re-figure out the best option and how to achieve it. So we did what we thought was best, as would any other parent, and we did what we enjoyed. I mean, even though we knew we would be off to the UK for the start, we still set up our boy’s room in the states. We still held a baby shower and accepted all gifts that we could or could not bring over to the UK. We wanted to enjoy the process like any normal expecting parents would. It helped ease tension and focus on our family instead of all the what ifs and different directions that kept clouding our mind.

Sixteen or twenty-six, peer pressure, and all the obstacles in the world wouldn’t stop the arrival of our little one. He is our blessing. He is every reason we wake up choo-chooing like a train and go to bed singing lullabies. Regardless if your pregnancy is accepted or judged, your little one knows no difference and it is up to you to brighten the world your babe is entering!