Confessions of Ashlee: Part One FINISHED

[SenkoTwiik]

I forgot to get the removing the pause frame thing, and I only remembered after my pictures were taken...next chapter won't have red frame.

Chapter 9:


She was now 6 months along and it seemed like she got heavier and bigger by the day. She decided around this time that she was going to name the baby Carrie. It was that or Calypso, and Aubrey thought that Carrie sounded more elegant. It means “free person” according to the book Aubrey rented from the library.


“That’s exactly what I want her to be, a free spirit.” Aubrey said after picking out the name. She said she finally felt relieved that she could call her daughter a name instead of ‘her’ or ‘the baby’. Frankly, it took her a pretty long time of doing just that, what was 3 more months? But then again, what do I know? I’m not a mom and she is.

The trial was finally set, and we appeared in court only once before the verdict was found. He tried to say that he and Aubrey only had a one-night stand, and he didn’t know how old she was, but that she said she was 18. That lie was thrown out the window when Aubrey brought forth this picture:


And on the back of that picture it said. “I love you, babe. I can’t wait to spend my life with you when you become of age. I hope you’ll say yes when that day comes.”

 With the witnesses, pictures that the doctor took of Aubrey after the beating, and the DNA test proving that Carrie was his daughter, Richard Meyers was found guilty of physically assaulting a minor, statutory rape and lewd conduct with a minor. After the guilty verdict was carried out, he was served with 5 years in a state prison with possibility of parole, and he has to sign the registry for sex offenders for the rest of his life. Some people would say that it seems like a harsh punishment for a now 19 year old kid. I say, “boohoo, he should have thought about that.” It’s not like Richard was too stupid to know the law.


Mom and Aubrey had to re-file another restraining order against the Meyers’ so that they couldn’t call or come over to our new house with any renewing of their same cowardly threats. That part of our lives was finally over, and it couldn’t have come sooner. These legal battles always took forever to work through. But the judicial system did its job and we were safe from anymore suffering due to those people.

School was even easier. Nobody sided with Megan in making fun of Aubrey anymore. Ever since word of the trial slipped out, the verdict was all that people needed to hear in order to do a complete flip in their siding. Megan became ostracized by a lot of the other students, who saw her as a liar just like her brother. She now had no bearing on what other people thought, and her ill-gotten popularity slipped away.


Aubrey even got a few apologies from other kids for the way they had treated her before, without teachers forcing them to do so.


Since she knew she was going to keep Carrie, Aubrey got herself signed up for the WIC program, which is a state-to-state funded program that provides pregnant women, breastfeeding moms, and children under five years old with nutritional vouchers. Every month you receive checks for certain food (eggs, cheese, milk, cereal, juice, formula, etc) for moms and their children. It’s actually a really beneficial program. They also do donations, where they receive baby items and will give them to mom’s that don’t have enough money to afford them alone. WIC already gave her a nice car seat and a pink diaper bag.

Since Mom already had a sturdy metal changing table that has lasted for 6 years, all Aubrey needed was a crib and dresser for the baby. She and mom got that taken care of by going to the library and searching on Craigslist.com. They found a cute little wooden 2 in 1 dresser and crib put together.


It was perfect since Aubrey’s bedroom was short on space and we didn’t have an extra room in the house to use as a nursery. That is, unless someone decided to sleep in the basement. Adam liked the idea, but every time he mentioned it, Mom would freak out.

Her weirdness about the basement was a little disturbing to say the least. She wouldn’t go down there even to get laundry. Adam, Aubrey or I had to wash, dry and bring loads upstairs and Mom offered to fold and put them away, but she would not even open the basement door. I tried not to laugh, but this was so incredibly stupid that it was hard not to. I thought at first that she just wasn’t used to the house…now I was starting to think she’d suffered brain damage.

That aside, Aubrey signed up for a parenting class at the hospital, which had a special section designed for care of differently-abled infants. The class also dealt with birthing, as well as techniques on less painful labor. Mom commented, “I took those classes before. It really didn’t help. When you’re in that much pain, you barely remember to breathe, much less breathe in a pattern.”


Aubrey was unconvinced, and still continued her 3 week class until it was over.

It was March, and at now 7 months into her pregnancy, Aubrey was having to go to the bathroom at least once every 20 minutes, and she was suffering from massive water retention in her feet and ankles. The doctor even had to write a note to her school, giving Aubrey permission to wear bedroom slippers to class, because her feet were so swollen that she couldn’t get her shoes on. Her back hurt and she was now having trouble sleeping, due to Carrie kicking the crap out of her insides. She used cocoa butter lotion as often as possible to prevent the stretch marks from looking terrible, but the doctor said that at her age, she was probably going to have them anyway.

[Zorom]

Wow, pretty good! I hope the basement thing isn't something serious. <<

[SenkoTwiik]

Nah, Nadya is just cookoo about the idea that there is an angry ghost down there, since that's where the previous owner was murdered.

[Bookfreak]

Brilliant cant wait for the next chapter

[Katie]

wow I can't believe it took this long for me to see the new chapter~!  but of course it is brilliant and has me reading until it is all done~! I am so glad that she is keeping little Carrie, she seems like she knows what she is doing. 

[SenkoTwiik]

I have a *feeling* Aubrey will do just fine. 

[Katie]

haha, oh do ya now?  ugh, I really shouldn't be here I should be taking pics for chapter 3 ugh, thats all I have left for it.

[Zorom]

Phew...a lot can happen in ten days... xD Now you've nearly made me scared of our basement...wait. We don't have a basement.
Haha. Update? Pweez?

[Katie]

haha, I agreecompleetly with Zorom, down to every word! ha!

[SenkoTwiik]

Chapter 10:




The day of the baby-shower came, a little later than a lot of people do them, but it came just the same. Aubrey invited my two best friends, Tiffanie and Monique, as well as Ayah and a few of her friends from school. She invited more, but only a few were allowed by their parents to show up. Some of the girls at school still bought something small for the baby, and just sent the present with one of the other girls that were allowed to attend the shower.


Aubrey received a lot of clothes for Carrie, some bibs, burp rags, a few binkies, three bottles, a grooming kit, an assorted box of baby soaps, powders and lotions, six blankets, portable changing pad, a diaper cake, a package of newborn socks, and two pairs of shoes. Mom also got Aubrey her first huge box of diapers, and a couple stuffed animals. We all had a lot of fun at the shower and Aubrey was happy as could be with the generous gifts that her friends got her. She told me she really liked the baby blanket that I made for her in Home Ec. during school, because she said she could tell that it really came from the heart.



The 8th month approached and she said it was almost impossible to sleep on account of her back hurting. Every night, she had to have a mug of Chamomile tea so that she would be able to fall asleep and stay that way for at least the majority of the night. When she wasn’t at school, she spent her time with her feet propped up on a mound of pillows to keep the swelling as low as possible. Se said the discomfort was becoming more and more unbearable until one day…


She had been feeling awful, to the point where she stayed home from school because her she said her back was cramping and her lower abdomen was sore and contracting. Aubrey said it was called Braxton Hicks’ false labor pains, and it was normal in most pregnancies during the last two months. But what wasn’t normal was when she came out of the bathroom (I skipped school that day, too) saying that she needed to go to the hospital.


“Why, what’s wrong?” I asked, standing up to go over to her, because she looked a little shook up.
“I lost my mucous plug.” Aubrey said, trying to remain calm, but I could tell she was scared and excited.
“Your what-what?” I asked, having no idea what she was talking about at all.
“Are you sure?” Mom asked, surprised.
“Uh huh.” Aubrey replied.


“Ash, it means she’s going to have the baby soon. We have to go. Did you pack your hospital bag?” Mom directed her attention to Aubrey who shook her head.
“No, I’m a month early! I was going to pack it in two weeks.” She said honestly.

Mom asked me to help her pack Aubrey’s bag while she took care of the baby’s bag and Aubrey sat down on the couch so as not to excite herself further. Mom and I ran around the house trying to make sure that we remembered everything. Luckily for us, Aubrey had already prepared a checklist, and all we really had to do was go down the list and pick things up as we went. To add a little bit of ease to the situation, we had an entire drawer in the bathroom full of little bottles of soap, shampoo, conditioner, mouthwash and toothpaste that we got from Tiffanie’s mom, who worked as a motel maid. It was better than having Aubrey lug around a huge bag of toiletries, and it was way better than having to pay for things at the hospital.


When everything was ready, I loaded the bags into the van while mom hooked up the baby seat in the back. Aubrey got into the passenger seat and mom started the car up and took off for the hospital. I had to stay behind and take care of Abbey and Andrew, and I needed to be there when Adam came home from school.


I was actually worried and excited for my sister right now, so I couldn’t hold still. I decided to get up and clean the house really well before the baby arrived home with her mom. I did laundry, dishes, swept the kitchen, vaccumed the living room until I was too bored to do anything else. It was 3:00 in the afternoon before I decided to call Ayah and ask if she wanted to come over because I was lonely.

She came over around the same time that Adam came home, so we helped him with his homework and I started dinner.

The two younger kids had their baths and were in bed by 8:30, Adam was in bed by 9:00 because that was Mom’s rule.


Afterward, Ayah and I had a little time to ourselves to enjoy each other’s company and we were in bed, asleep by 10:30, since her parents agreed that she could spend the night (It was a Friday).


Mom came home around 4 that morning to tell me that there were some complications with the labor. The baby was too big and Aubrey exhausted herself with pushing. Carrie went into a state of distress and the doctor had to perform an emergency c-section. Mom said she couldn’t stand to stay in the room because she didn’t want to see the doctors “chopping her baby up” so she said bye to Aubrey for the night and came home. I asked her if Aubrey and Carrie were going to be okay, and she said that the doctor would call her as soon as Aubrey was out of surgery and let her know any further news.

[Zorom]

My wish was granted! :O I'm magic. She finally had the baby! I hope its cute.

[Katie]

aww~! yay~! I hope they are okay~! 

[SenkoTwiik]

Chapter 11:

The c-section was hard on Aubrey. She had to stay in the hospital for a week. At first they said she had to be in bed for three days and if she could stand up and function then she could check out and go home. But as the few days went on, she wasn’t getting out of bed well and she was still in a good deal of pain. So they kept her for a few more days. Carrie was only one month premature, so she didn’t need to be kept in the ICU. After a few tests were run, she was confirmed healthy and was allowed to go home as soon as Aubrey was released.



The doctor spoke with Mom before releasing Aubrey and Carrie. She said that since Aubrey had the c-section, there were going to be a couple of things that she couldn’t do for a while. She could hold Carrie, but the doctor didn’t want Aubrey picking her up out of her crib or off of the floor, for two weeks until they were sure that she was fully healed enough to do so. She wasn’t allowed to do anything strenuous, and she was supposed to remain off her feet if she felt discomfort. No heavy lifting or pulling. So needless to say, Mom and I were going to have to help her out the first two weeks of being home.

The doctor had her on a strong pain medicine, so she slept as often as Carrie did. The first week went by quickly and Aubrey seemed to be coming out of her tiredness. She was healing well, but still seemed to get around very stiffly. She stopped taking her pain medication because she said it impaired her, and she wanted to be awake with Carrie as often as possible. She didn’t ask for help, except when it came to lifting Carrie out of her crib in the mornings, and having one of us keep an eye on the baby while she slept so that Aubrey could take a shower.



Carrie was a quiet baby, very rarely cried for any reason other than hunger. As soon as she was fed, she would go right back to being quiet again. If she happened to wake up in the morning before Aubrey did, she would just lay still and stare at the mobile above her head, waiting patiently for her mom to come and get her changed and ready for the day.



The fact that Carrie was such an easy infant to care for made it to where Aubrey could finish the year’s schoolwork at home during her maternity leave. She had a couple of hours each day to work on school while Carrie slept. Babies are supposed to sleep at least 16 hours out of the day when you put it all together, but it seemed like a lot less than that when there was an actual baby living in your house. She always seemed to be awake, and Aubrey had to break her schooling down into 1-2 hour increments.



She got into her own schedule though, and adapted really well into being a mother. I have to say I was surprised at how good she seemed to be doing. She had no social life though, which wasn’t a huge difference from before but now she never saw friends or anything ever, because she was always busy…determined is more like it, being the one to take care of her daughter. Since the school year was almost over, she was invited to attend a couple of parties for the 8th grade class, saying goodbye to them because they were going into high school the following school year, but Aubrey turned them down and said she didn’t have time.

She did agree, however to attend the 8th grade graduation with the rest of her class. She managed to finish the rest of her schoolwork two weeks before she had to have her final grades in, and she still managed to pass with an A on her final report card. She was supposed to have gotten the award for valedictorian, but the school ripped her off and gave it to the boy right under her. They tried to say that he had more extra curricular activities than Aubrey, but we all knew why he got the award.



The boy, whose name was Daniel (the student council President), understood too, and during his speech at the graduation, he said that he appreciated the award but: “We all know who really deserves this. Aubrey Dawson clearly did better than I did, and those that think otherwise are deluding themselves. She’s been through her own struggles and she still came out #1 so I wouldn’t feel like any kind of an honorable student unless I shared this award with her. Come up, Aubrey. You deserve to have someone clap for you.” Everyone was quiet until Daniel’s mom jumped up and clapped for both of them, telling her son, “Right on, baby!” Since she clapped, everyone else decided to clap as well. My mom was so proud. I don’t think she ever realized how smart kids could be, and that one of those intelligent kids was hers.



After graduation, my mom took a bunch of pictures of Aubrey and her friends. She went to the after party just for an hour because her class said it was okay for her to bring Carrie with, since most of them wanted to meet her.

[Zorom]

Meh, bit short but I loved the bit where the boy called Aubrey up, that was sweet.

[Dmcclure1]

I agree it was shorter than the others
I feel like i missed so much. I hadnt read chapter ten or eleven.