An 18-year-old thought her intense stomach pains were a severe illness — but turned out to be a surprise miracle baby.
BriAnna Blanton spent most of her summer frolicking with her friends and enjoying time on the lake in South Carolina.
When she started experiencing excruciating pain in her ribs, she assumed she had kidney stones and went to the ER.
However, completely unbeknownst to her, the teen found out she was actually already in labor.
“My mouth fell to the floor. I couldn’t even cry. I was in a total state of shock,” the bewildered teen told Caters.
“I went through the whole of last summer not knowing I was pregnant.”
Blanton didn’t experience any of the typical pregnancy symptoms and said she took multiple pregnancy tests, which all came back negative.
“I was in bikinis and crop tops, but I never gained any weight or had any other symptoms,” she recalled.
Plus, Blanton said nothing was different in her menstrual cycle.
“I was even still getting my period and was never late,” she added.
Blanton recalled waking up at 4 a.m. on Sept. 8 with a wet bed and sharp pains in her ribs and lower stomach.
“It felt like I’d had an accident which I thought was so weird,” she continued. “This had never happened to me before.”
She knew something wasn’t right, so she woke up her mom, who immediately took her to the emergency room, suspecting it was kidney stones.
The teen arrived at the hospital and explained that she was experiencing pain in her lower stomach every three to four minutes.
That’s when doctors discovered the soon-to-be mom was not only pregnant but almost two inches dilated in labor.
“The nurse then checked me and then looked up at me. I’ll never forget the look on her face when she told me that she thought I was 8 cm [3 inches] dilated,” she recalled. “It turns out that this was my water breaking.”
Even more shocking, Blanton said she took a pregnancy test about a month prior at her mother’s request when she became ill from food.
“My mom was even there when I had done it because I got sick after eating something and she wanted me to do the test,” she explained.
While in a “total state of shock,” Blanton was immediately taken to the labor and delivery department where they confirmed she was about to become a mother.
Blanton gave birth to her healthy, surprise daughter, Oakleigh Allyn, at 7:36 a.m on Sept. 9.
Little Oakleigh, who weighed 7 pounds, 4 ounces, arrived so fast, the epidural didn’t even have time to work.
“I have no idea how I had a 7 pound baby inside of me, I had always been so skinny,” she recalled.
Blanton was so shell-shocked by her newborn’s arrival, her mother compared her to a deer in headlights.
“When I eventually calmed down after giving birth, my mom asked me what I was going to name her,” she continued. “I spent 45 minutes thinking about it before coming up with the name Oakleigh.”
Although she wasn’t prepared for the challenge life had thrown her way, Blanton said her friends, family and church rallied around her and helped her acquire necessities for her baby girl.
“It took me a while to process and get used to the situation. I was also terrified to tell my friends because I didn’t know how they’d react,” she admitted. “I didn’t tell them for about a week, but when I eventually did, they were so amazing about it.”
Admitting it was “hard to pull herself out of the shock at first,” the new mom now loves her new life.
“Luckily, I had worked in childcare previously so I wasn’t totally unaware of how to look after a baby,” she explained. “It all started to come to me naturally, along with the help and support from my mom.”
“Although Oakleigh was a massive surprise, she is a really big blessing in disguise,” she gushed. “I wouldn’t change being her mom for anything in the world.”