So, normally I wouldn’t ever ask anyone to help me because I’ve always been very independent and I’ve always had a job since I was literally 9 years old, but circumstances can change everything.

I am 32 weeks & 2 days pregnant & I’ve been in the hospital for almost 2 weeks now. I will remain in the hospital until the baby is born because I have severe preeclampsia; therefore, the doctors haven’t been able to get my blood pressure under control, nor the swelling throughout my body. We are praying to keep my baby girl, Layden Zayne Luna, in her comfortable womb until at least 34-35 weeks or even longer if possible. Of course, the longer she stays, the healthier she’ll be. Right now, she is weighing about 4 lbs. 12 oz., which is actually very healthy for 32 weeks and actually measures a week ahead of where she should be.

All this happened so fast. I haven’t worked full-time since I was about 4 1/2 months because I work in the restaurant business and with my age being 45, I am high-risk and since I had a miscarriage two years ago and other factors. Before now, if Mauricio, my fiancé, needed help, I could go on my favorite app and pick up a job here and there with no problem and help him, but now that is impossible being that I am in the hospital. Mauricio is doing all he can to pay all of our bills alone, but he just can’t. I mean, it’s not that he’s not trying. He’s doing all that he possibly can and more, but alone he just doesn’t make enough to pay my bills, his bills, and eat and gas, etc. The man is pushed to his wit's end, and as a man, he doesn’t want to ask for help. He doesn’t want to admit that he’s struggling, but he’s about at his breaking point.

I feel so helpless because I can’t help him right now, so this is my solution. Being that all this happened so fast, I didn’t have a baby shower, and so I decided that in lieu of a baby shower, I would start a GoFundMe page. The only way that I could feel OK about it and for my pride to deal with it was to do it instead of the baby shower. I have almost all I need for Layden, and what I don’t get, I can get later, but right now I need to have a place to go home to when I get out of the hospital and a car to get back and forth to the doctor’s appointments, so I need to pay my car payment. Lol.

In saying all of this, I am putting my pride aside and asking each of my Facebook friends and family members, along with anyone else that feels it in their heart, to help me and my finally growing family in its time of need. It took a lot of nerve for me to ask this, and I appreciate every single penny donated more than you will ever know. We just need to get through the next two or three months and then maybe I can go back to work when she is healthy and home and hopefully everything’s back to normal. So once again, I will appreciate anything that any one of you can donate. And thank you ahead of time for helping me, Mauricio, and finally my first child, Layden Zayne.