Many students and teachers were affected by the miniature baby boom that took place here at AHS last year. A whopping total of five teachers were pregnant at the same time, which called for five long term substitutes, and several unprepared and uneasy students.
Out of the five pregnant teachers, all returned to teach at AHS for the 2010-2011 school year, except for English teacher Meghan Jones, who gave birth to her first child, John, during last year’s spring break.
Trying to teach over a hundred students a day is already a mentally and physically exhausting task, but taking care of a newborn child while running on very few hours of sleep at the same time seems virtually impossible.
“Life has changed drastically — you pretty much run on little to no sleep. It’s hard to function, but if I’m going to lose sleep over something I’m glad it’s her,” said history teacher Meghan Adair, who gave birth to her first child, Madison Jane, on April 6, 2010.
On the other hand, biology teacher Claudia Lemus and history teacher Meghan Saladino are both second-time mothers. Lemus welcomed her son Diego Fabian into the world on March 5, 2010.
“Life was already chaotic,” said Lemus. “But it [has] just got[ten] more chaotic” since the birth of her second child.
Shortly after Lemus, Saladino gave birth to her second child, a boy named Anthony Joseph, on April 23, 2010. Both of Saladino’s children were forced to be cesarean sections after she went through a painstaking 46 hour labor with her first child just two years ago.
Photography teacher Meredith Stevens is a new mother and her first child, Connor Gabriel, was born on December 7, 2009, by natural birth. “He was in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) for a week. We are still not one hundred percent sure why, but we believe it was caused by Meconium Aspiration,” said Stevens.
Meconium Aspiration is a condition that occurs when the infant inhales meconium, which is a mixture of what the baby digests while it is still in the uterus. This mixture gets stuck inside of the baby’s lungs and causes breathing problems that can ultimately lead to lifelong illnesses. Most cases of Meconium Aspiration are treated by using antibiotics or a ventilator to maintain normal breathing.
Although taking a two-month break from school and spending every day of it with your newborn child may seem like heaven, that vacation has to end at some point. “I love my job, and I love being a mother, so I had to be able to do both,” said Stevens. When asked if she would like to have any more children, Stevens said that she wants to have another child later on, preferably a girl. Lemus feels differently and she responded laughing, “No, not for the next six years, at least.”
These five teachers had anything but an easy year last year between juggling their jobs and caring for their newborn baby. Whether it was having to put up with unprepared substitutes, or dealing with moody teachers, almost everyone felt the shock of the historic AHS baby boom in one way or another.
