Penelope Harris Diary

At a moment in your life, your birth was the most important that that happened. Did you ever wonder how you were born or what happened when you were born? Well I always wondered about my birth. On Tuesday, October 7, 1997, at 3:04 in the afternoon, I was born at University Hospital. My mom had me in the rainbow and babies section where she was induced because she was having complications so the doctors broke her water. The doctors gave her the epidural to help with the contractions during labor. Once the doctors gave her the epidural, they asked if there was anybody she wanted to be there. My mom insisted she didn’t want anybody there while she was going through labor. After she started pushing, I came into the world; I was 6 pounds and 3

On March 9, 2010 I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. She weighed six pounds, eleven ounces and was 21 inches long. Her beauty took my breath away. Once the doctor spanked her bottom and I heard her cry it was like music to my ears. As they placed her in my arms all of the pain I felt from my 14 hour delivery vanished. I felt as if I had just won an Olympic race and I came in 1st place. My trophy was this beautiful bundle of joy. My husband and I decided to name her Adrianna Renee. The emotional bond or attachment that I felt for my daughter had me speechless. Then the nurse told me they had to take her briefly to do some type of test on her called Apgar score. She explained to me that the

After talking to Angela Figi, i felt finally we were going to have the family i never had and prayed for. The day he was born was amazing and a bit scary. Like most woman

I just found out about a month ago that I am expecting a little boy due in December who I decided to name Eli. The father to my son is my boyfriend Branden, who I have been with for almost two years now; life couldn’t be better. I am having my baby shower in a few days and couldn’t be more excited to have this moment. I thought I would never have kids due to me not liking them but now I just can’t wait to have my little man.

It was late February in 1998 when I found out I was expecting another child. I was 16 years old. It should have been a happy day it was my daughter’s 1st birthday party and everyone was there. The house was full of family and friends and smelled of chill and cake. Please don’t get me wrong, it was a happy day for the most part until I found out I was pregnant. Scared and not knowing what to do, I kept this what most would call exciting news to myself. You see I was dating a man and he was not a very nice person he was mentally and physically abusive to me most of our relationship and he was the soon to be father. A month or so went by after I told him and we were both somewhat excited him more than I. I was more scared then anything. He managed to get himself into some legal trouble and was sent away for a long time. Where did that leave me? I was scared to death

Last October, an ordinary day became very special. On that day I found out that my Youth Pastor, Rev. Becca Bateman, was pregnant! Becca has been an important part of my life and someone I admire. To me, Becca is an example of a good person and someone I aspire to be like when I grow up. Rev. Bateman is very caring, welcoming, loving and makes me feel safe. When I found out that she was pregnant, I imagined that there would now be a mini Becca and twice the fun! After the big announcement, the next few months seemed to take forever. Every day I would ask my mom “Is it a boy or a girl?” My mom would always respond, “They still do not know. I will tell you when I find out.” So I waited until the day came and my mom finally said, “Becca is having a girl!” As I heard those words come spilling out of her mouth, I swore my

Honestly, when I first found out I was pregnant, I was terrified but now I am ecstatic. I am still terrified but not for the same reason. When I first found out I was pregnant, I was scared because I didn’t know what to expect but now I am terrified because I am actually bringing a little human into the world and I am responsible for them and their wellbeing and that is scary. A bigger part of me is ecstatic though because I get to witness the life of someone I birthed. Son, I want you to know that you are coming into a family that is financially off well. You will be coming into a middle-class family so you will not have to worry about anything. I do not want you to take these things for granted though because everything you have was worked hard for. Although your father and I are not together and have not

Father: There were some tough moments during the pregnancy. Most parents worry themselves crazy or sick during pregnancy and we were no different. We were both on the older side to be first time natural parents, so that was a concern.

Early in November of 2013, I was sick. I missed a week of school, finally my mom had scheduled me a doctor’s appointment. We thought I had the flu or some variation of it. I was sitting in the doctor’s office, having all these tests done and that’s when I had received the news. Dr. Pictin came in the room and asked if I can come with him for a second. We went outside in the hall and he didn’t sugar coat it. “Ms. Terrell, you are pregnant.”

I could remember my heart racing and pounding the day I found out I was pregnant. I had chills all over my body and how scared I was of what my family was going to say. I wasn’t ready for the judgmental comments I was going to hear not only from my family, but also from the people who I had mistakenly called my friends.

I woke up to the sound of pots and pans banging around, then I got an overwhelming smell of bacon. I threw the covers off, jumped out of bed, walked to the kitchen where my boyfriend Omar was making breakfast. When I looked in the kitchen, he was dancing while he was cooking. I could not help but watch him for a minute, enjoying the moment. I asked Omar why he was in such a good mood. He said, “Today is the day we find out if we are going to have a girl, and I can’t wait.” We enjoyed our breakfast together then headed to our appointment. Before we got out of the car to go into the doctor’s office, Omar grabbed my hand and said, “You are absolutely beautiful, I hope our daughter is as beautiful as you are.”

My heart sank I felt like I was going to be sick and that’s when he told me your pregnancy test is positive. I said no take it again its wrong I can’t be! After 5 pregnancy tests I looked at the nurse and was about to tell her to do it again and she looked at me and said “Sweetheart you are pregnant”.

The best day of my life was the day that I became a dad. Becoming a dad taught me so much. Most importantly it taught me how to be committed to someone and an idea that you don’t even know. I remember when my girlfriend told me that she was pregnant. Although we had been seeing each other for a while and not practicing safe sex, the idea of her carrying my child shocked me. She called me up on a Thursday and asked me to come over her place because she wanted to show me something. I had no idea what this “something” was. My girlfriend Natalie was always up to something and my best guess was that she was going to show me these new pair of shoes that she got on sale. When I arrived at her apartment, she had a different look on her face. For some reason I thought that the apartment even

It is delivery day, even though having a child was not originally in the cards for us. Our family was relegated to my wife and me, and our families who raised us. For me, however, my family had all spread out across the country, and I have some, including a brother, in Europe so to me, family was just the two of us. After trying to get pregnant for more than a year, with the aid of a fertility specialist and fertility medication, we had all but given up, thinking, “This is it, this is what a family is for us: just us two.” Then on day we saw it, it was actually there – a plus sign! We tried not to get too excited about it, which is impossible, because we know false positives can happen. We scheduled the appointment, and it was confirmed by

Telling my family about the pregnancy was going to be one of the most petrifying things I’d ever had to do. I honestly know how to know to tell them or who I was going to tell first, I was nervous about what the outcome would be. Telling my child’s father was first though. Moreover, me and my family finding out the news, he had been in a juvenile detention center. When we would be on the phone I would