Writing One Autobiography

My name is Laurel Easton and I was born on September 5, 1991 in Atlanta, GA. I am 16 and will be 17 in less than a month. In late September of last year(When I was 15) I was walking with my friends in the hall at school, when a girl gave me a note and told me her friend wanted me to have it. Inside the piece of paper was a name that read Dustin with a cell phone number under it. Later that day I decided to try and call, but nobody answered. I then tried to text it and asked who it was. He replied back and said he thought I was really pretty and wanted to get to know me.

Hearing this made me think this was kind of strange, but I decided to keep on talking to him. I figured it couldn’t be that bad since he goes to my school he would have to be close to my age. Then on September 29, 2006, after talking to him for about a week he said he wanted to ask me something, but he wanted to talk about it in person. So later that day we met outside of the school and he asked me if I wanted to go out with him and go to the fair with him later that night.

Having feelings for him, I said yes and couldn’t wait until later to see him. We had a wonderful time and kept on talking. We were already falling for each other pretty hard. We continued to go out until that spring, after that we were on and off. Then on May 18, 2007 we had broken up for the last time and had mostly stopped talking.

That August his lung collapsed and he called me so immediately I rushed over to the hospital to see him. Staying with him and taking care of him until he left really brought us a lot closer together. Then in October his lung collapsed again, but this time he had to have surgery. After he got out of the hospital I helped take care of him.

We became more and closer after that and then in late February I got pregnant. I was so scared, I thought, “I’m so young, how will I be able to take care of a baby and still finish school?” I knew I was going to have the baby and not put it up for adoption and there was no way I was ever going to have an abortion. So I started getting the check-ups and prenatal vitamins that I needed in order to have a healthy baby. I was taking such good care of myself, I was eating everything I was supposed to and nothing I wasn’t supposed to. I was growing so close to this baby and loved it so much even though I didn’t even know it. I had always thought having a boy first would be nice but I knew I would be happy with a healthy baby no matter what the sex was, I was so excited and couldn't wait.

On July 7, 2008 I had my second ultrasound to find out the sex of the baby and to make sure I was having a healthy baby with all of its lungs, heart, organs that it was supposed to. When I got to the doctors office, I went in to have the ultrasound and found out that I was going to be having a beautiful baby girl. I hadn’t really given to much thought about names before, but I thought that the name Jayden Grace was so sweet. My family and friends we so excited to be having a new baby around. My due date was November 30, 2008, just a couple more months. I was 23 weeks exactly, 5 moths which was a little over half way there, when things stared going wrong.

I got up on Saturday, August 2, 2008 and wasn’t feeling very well at all. I was cramping, I had a head ache. The cramping wasn’t’ bad at all it just felt like some cramps did that I had before in the pregnancy ones that my doctor said was normal. I had to drive my sister to my aunt’s house so that she could babysit for her. On the way back home the cramps got so bad I could hardly drive, I didn’t know what to do. I tried to call my mom, but she didn’t answer the phone, I was almost home so I just tried to make it home and see if I would be okay.

Once I got home I went to use the bathroom. When I came out I went to get my mom to tell her what was going on but, I had to run back to the bathroom thinking I still had to go. Instead my water broke, then quickly after that I started bleeding, I was so scared I knew the worst that could happen was already in process. Once I got out of the bathroom my mom called the ambulance and I was rushed to the hospital. In the ambulance they asked me all of my information so that I wouldn’t have to wait once I got there I would go straight to a room. When I got there a bunch of doctors came in to talk to me about what was happening. Not long later Dustin came to stay with me and help me through this. The doctors told me they were going to check to see how I was doing and then probably give me an ultrasound to see how much fluid I’ve lost.

The doctor checked me, but she said she didn’t need the ultrasound anymore. It was too late, I was already 3 cm dilated and the worst was happening, I was in the process of having a miscarriage. I decided to moving things along faster and get medicine to just make it go quicker so that I wouldn’t get an infection in the process, since the outcome would be the same for the baby.

At 3:08 on August 3, 2008 I delivered her, she was born stillborn in the breach position. The doctors asked me if I would like to hold her so I did. This experience left me extremely heartbroken; I named her Jayden Grace Easton. She was perfect in every way, I couldn't’ love her more than I do, I know she will always be remembered and loved.

That experience has formed who I am today most and has made me feel so different about everything in life that I didn’t before, and made me think of things in an extremely different view now because, now I look and treat things more carefully than I did before. An example would be if I’m babysitting or looking after my cousins, I keep a closer eye on them to make sure they stay safe and keep them as healthy as I can. This has been the biggest thing that has ever happened to me.