Eventually Mom realized that I did not want to do any of the things that everyone had suggested. This was my baby, and I wanted to keep it. No I didn't know how that was all going to work out, but I had to try.
I got back to school and a girl came running up to me and whispered, 'I heard you are pregnant, is it true?' I said yeah not whispering at all, and she shushed me. I said 'Why? It isn't like I am gonna be able to hide. And I am not ashamed.' For the most part it really suprised most people, they all thought I was a 'goodie two shoes'.
Being a Senior and only needing two credits to graduate, I only had to go for 4 hours. My first hour was a study hall, so I was the Choir Directors teachers aide. Mr Z, had retired and we got a new guy. The second hour was now Swing Choir, and I was the student director, my third class was English and my 4th was History.
The Swing choir was dancing while singing like in a musical. I had an Assistant Student Drirector, because everyone had to have a partner, and he had some really good choreography ideas as we worked well together.
Our first concert was around Christmas. We had rehearsed really hard and everyone had their moves down great. It looked really good. The assistants mother had come to our dress rehearsal, and that was when she realized I was pregnant. VERY pregnant! since we were going to be dancing together, she refused to let him dance with me. I told her it isn't like I was contagious, but she forbade him to dance with me.
I had to go out on stage by myself. It was not easy doing some of the steps since they required a partner, but I managed to muddle through and the show didn't suffer at all. Everyone else did a great job. Of course I was the laughing stalk of the school for the next few days.
I decided to go on home schooling until after the baby was born. Not because I had to but because I could. I was working for a podiatrist 1 day a week filling out insurance forms. He was so into my pregnancy you would have thought he was the Dad. His wife told me that they would baby sit any time I needed them to and I did the same for them. We were more like family than employer/employee.
My best friend at the time, Sherri and her boy friend, Roger were not going to let me get out of doing cool stuff my senior year. I turned 18 on my birthday, and they all came over for a 'party'. I baked my own Cake and, I kid you not, it was so bad that the roaches would not even eat it.
In November, Karen had twin girls, and Mom went up to help out. While she was gone, she wanted me to go stay with Debbie. I told her, 'I am 18, about to have a bady, I don't think I need a baby sitter.' She made them promise to keep and eye on me, and I had a friend come stay with me while she was gone. I felt she was just really being over bearing. It made me angry that she would not allow me to live my life.
In December, I woke up at about 3am, sat straight up in bed and hollered, 'Oh My God, this baby is going to have red hair.' Franks Mother was a red head. I didn't think of it again.
It was really cold outside that winter. The ground was actually frozen. Debbie and Buster lived in a little concrete block 'cottage' and the heat was broken, so they came and stayed with us. We didn't have very good heat either. Florida house builders didn't think we needed heaters in the winter.
We had been up late playing cards, and I was very restless all night. I kept waking up with a back ache every hour. I told Mom in the morning that my back really hurt, and she asked me how it hurt. I said I didn't know, it just hurts. They decided after it kept spasming that I must be in labor, so she called the Doctor. Then the nurse she had on standby to be my delivery nurse. The phone rang, and it was the Doctor I worked for. He had some paper work, he could really use me to come in, and Debbie told him she didn't think I could make it. He said, 'She's in labor isn't she.' Debbie said 'Yep we think so.' And he said 'She said she would have that baby today, she kept telling us all.' I had not even realized it was January 18th.I didn't know what to expect. My baby doctor had not told me anything about giving birth. I guess since my sister had 7 kids, she would tell me all I needed to know. I was having a contraction, the nurse (NOT the one I wanted), came in and said I was flushed, what was wrong. 'She said oh, you are having a contraction, let's just take care of that'.
Before I knew what she was doing she gave me a shot of demoral. I was so out of it, I couldn't tell you anything. I slept through the birth. When I woke up in the room I asked what I had (we didn't know before hand then, we didn't have ultra sound pictures), and they told me a girl. Skip was smiling from ear to ear and said, 'She has BRIGHT red hair.' OF COURSE SHE DID.
I din't have a girl named picked out. The Doctor was almost sure I was having a boy. Looking at her the only name that came to me right off was Kimberly. The girl who stole my Thumbalina doll was Kimberly, so NO WAY I was naming her that. Then I remembered Danielle. I really liked that name, BUT It had to have 2 sets of double letters, so I made it Dannielle, and I thought that Suzzanne as her middle name flowed really well.
My Mom always tried to be proper, and she was so afraid people would call her Dani Sue that she forbade me calling her anything but Dannielle. I really like the name, and I never wanted to shorten it. But a neighbor did, right straight to Dani. Rarely do I call her Dani and most people call her 'Red'
I returned to school around February. I continued to work for the Doctor after noon on Wednesday when my classes ended. The rest of the week I rushed home to be with Dannielle and Mom.
Sherri and Roger introduced me to Rogers Brother Kenny. He was a nice guy, and we sort of hung out together, mostly to be with Sherri and Roger. It was a relationship that was just friends and was not ever going to be more.
Before Prom, Sherri broke up with Roger, who was a sophmore, and he really wanted to go to prom. He asked me if I would take him. amd I told him I had no intentions of going to prom.
I didn't go to grad night or any of the other things that one might do during their senior year. I had a baby to take care of, and that was always more important.
As we came up to graduation as a class we had to pick a class song. For the late 70's you can imagine some of the choices. The song 'Memories' or 'Those were the Days'. I was a fan of The Carpenters and they did 'We've only just begun.' We voted on which song to sing, and that song was voted in. We decided on the traditional Purple Gowns with Gold sashes for the honor students.
The class gathered in the Choir room to rehearse the song. The Choir teacher called me up to the front and told the class I would be directing the music. Some of the students had an issue with that, however, he put an end to it by saying that for 2 years I had been the student director over the Choir, as a graduating Senior, it should be me, not him that directed the music. I had not expected that. The girl that had played the piano for the past 3 years was also graduating, so she had the honor of playing for graduation. It all seemed so rational, and grown up. I didn't feel rational, or grown up, and yet I was a MOM!
School years behind me and my whole life in front of me. What was I going to do. All I could do. I had to face life life after school!