Waking up every hour to feed, burp and change a robotic baby, only to wake up 10 minutes later to do the whole process all over again wasn’t what I expected from a school assignment.

In Room 242, 6th hour students learn about what the process is for a fetus all the way up to the first year of life. During the semester students learn about STDs and how they affect the unborn child, SIDS and the ways children develop.

Also, part of the class is taking home a RealCare baby simulator. This robotic baby cries when it needs to be fed, burped, changed and even just because it’s fussy. For the assignment you take home the baby for the weekend. The baby turns on at 4p.m.  Friday and turns off at 7a.m. Monday morning. This project is aimed to be a social experiment, to see what it would be like to be a teen mother or father.

For it to be a social experiment each student spending the weekend with the baby must go out and do something with their baby twice. Most people’s reactions when they see a teenager with a baby carrier is confused because of how young each of us look. A lot of the questions include “Is that a real baby” or they might say things like “You look awfully young to have a child,” but some of the hardest parts to get through were the constant stares from people that didn’t have the confidence to ask you about the baby.

Throughout my experience as a teen mother there were times when I wanted the project to be over because I was running on no sleep, but then there were points like when I dressed my baby up in my old baby clothes that I really enjoyed being a parent. Friday night my baby, Aurora, woke up every hour to feed, burp and want to be changed so that I wouldn’t be done taking care of her until it would be 40 to 50 minutes later. Even though I didn’t get enough sleep Friday night I went to swim practice Saturday morning from 9 to 11 a.m. and she cried a lot there also.

Saturday night I actually got five hours of sleep, which feels like 24 when you didn’t get any the night before. Sunday night, however, I thought she would sleep through most of the night and wake up once, but she wouldn’t go to sleep until 1:30a.m. and then woke up at 3a.m. and again at 5a.m. When it came to Monday morning I started to feel how tired I actually was and how much I really needed my sleep.

Overall I liked the idea of being a parent, but I would never want to be a teen parent. I am involved in many activities I love and wouldn’t want to give up.