Motherhood for me started when I was 23 years old a year away from graduating college. With my first daughter, I had a great pregnancy, I worked up until a few days before she was born. My parents, friends from Knoxville, and a ton of co-workers were at the hospital to meet “their baby”. My daughter, Sauntee was the first granddaughter on her daddy’s side and the first grandchild for my parents. I worked at a restaurant right down from the hospital where I delivered. My manager brought food from the restaurant for everyone that was there that day awaiting Sauntee’s arrival… except for me, Mom couldn’t eat. However, it was a blessing for the Sauntee fan club, and I was grateful! 

Sauntee Charice was born January 4^th, 2003; at 9:36 p.m. She was 7 pounds and 10 ounces and 21 inches. For the next two weeks, I went home to Knoxville and stayed with my mom. She didn’t let me change a diaper, give her a bath all I did was rest/heal from the c-sec and breastfed. Also, with Sauntee, I was still in college. I had two semesters left. As I stated, I had her on a Saturday. School was going to start on Monday. I missed the first Monday and I went to school that next Monday night. I was determined to finish school, so I didn’t want to take the semester off. Being pregnant with Sauntee gave me a new motivation to succeed no matter the roadblocks. 

I breast feed her exclusively for 2 months. When I had to go back to work (and I was taking a class on Monday nights) I started pumping more and I had to supplement with formula. The moment I could, I started taking birth control pills. I took them every day, same time as directed. On Friday August 31, 2003, I was shopping at Wal-Mart with my best friend preparing for her bridal shower. I realized I needed to get my birth control refill to begin that Sunday. I thought to myself, my menstrual cycle didn’t come on this week. My friend encouraged me to take a pregnancy test, even though I was looking at my eight-month-old and considering I was taking the birth control faithfully and just knew I wasn’t pregnant.

Well, ladies, I was pregnant! I go to see my doc and he says to me, “Well after you have a baby you are more likely to get pregnant with pills.” Thanks a lot, Doc! My surprise blessing, Aubree Gievauni was born on April 19^th, 2004 at 5:06 p.m.; she weighed 7 pounds and 11 ounces and 20 inches long. . After giving birth to her, I was advised to get an Mirena IUD, which has proved to be a lot more effective than pills. Also, this birth was a lot different from the first. Whereas, I had an emergency c-section the first time. This one was scheduled. I walked in the operating room myself and sat on the operating table. My doc told me that there is a 2-3% chance of losing the mother and child when you try to have a VBAC. And said if I was his wife he wouldn’t take a 1% chance, plus I could go through the hours of labor and still end up having a c-section. The scheduled c-section was a lot less traumatic for me.

Motherhood made me less selfish, gave me a reason to keep going when I feel like giving up. You know your babies are watching so you try to do things right. But parenting doesn’t come with a guidebook. Leaning on other mothers and asking them advice about certain things is how I made it through. 

My girls are now 19 and 18! They are going to the same college, East Tennessee State University. Sauntee is a sophomore and Aubree will be a freshman. I’m one proud momma 😊